How to Create Yahoo! Messenger Skins?



I have released a few Yahoo! Messenger skins which you can find in "Yahoo! Messenger Skins" section. Many ppl ask me how did I create those skins? So now I'm going to tell you the complete method to create Yahoo! Messenger skins:

1. Goto "%Programfiles%\Yahoo!\Shared\Graphics" folder and you'll see following folders:

Indigo
Maverick

These folders contain skins which you see in Yahoo! Messenger Skin List. So if you want to create your own skin, then copy any folder and paste it again, it'll create another folder and then rename the folder to any name which you want to give your skin.

2. Now open this new folder and you'll see lots of images there. You can change those images to make your own skin.

3. To change the text color, text size, button locations, etc use the XML file present in the folder. Its name will be skin_name.xml (e.g. indigo.xml, maverick.xml). First few lines in this file will be like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<skin version="2007.11.07.1"
compatible="2"
AuthorName="Mr. Vista // Vishal Gupta"
AuthorURL="http://vishal-gupta.deviantart.com"
Signature="Microsoft MVP"
SkinName="Y! Vista by Vishal Gupta"
PreviewImage="preview_Y!_Vista.jpg">

So you can change them according to your requirements.

4. Thats it. You are ready with your new skin.



This article was posted in Yahoo! Messenger.

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13 Comments

  • hey, guy, thank you very very much!!!

  • :razz: ,.......greeet

  • This doesn't really help

  • the only way to make a 9.0 skin is to start from another theme
    only experts can start from scratch and make ther own colors.xml
    i started my live theme from silver skin
    i took the colors.xml from icy blue

  • thank u very much...
    it's great

  • i was interested in doing this but i think it takes a bit too long. is there a quicker way of creating skins?

  • for yahoo messenger i mean*

  • is that work in yahoo 9.0?

  • VG

    ^^ No.

  • Thanks for the tips, Vishal. I've gone through your website and picked up a few tricks here and there. And this is the result: http://i44.tinypic.com/evcdig.jpg

    There's alot of demand out there for a minimalist style yahoo messenger and that's what I've tried to create. As you can see, I've altered some menus and removed some buttons. I need help moving some buttons around though. Mainly the buttons in "my information" area. I would like to move The custom status area down to where the email icon is, and move the emial icon elsewhere. How would I go about achieving this?

    Regards,
    Andrew

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