Sorry, I'm a complete newbie on this.

What's the difference between the two? Can I get a skin from some place and a style from somewhere else? Are the 2 independent from eachother?

I just downloaded Smartblue-3.6. Is it a skin, a style or both? I still have vBulletin 3.5.1. Will it still work? Or should I upgrade first?

Also, could someone give me a brief description about the vBulletin skin/style structure? I unzipped Smartblue-3.6 and it's mostly image files. I'm more used to Wordpress themes where there are clearly named PHP and CSS files which I can modify to my liking.

-Aylwin-

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My devsite

Well a skin is a style, its the same thing. its like i say tomato you say tomato (doesnt work typing). Umm, normally how the skins come, you just upload them to ur ftp. if you want it differnt, then you can arrange it how you want it, and then you can edit the skin settings to find the correct location for everything. And i dont suggest using a 3.6 skin on a 3.5 board because more features were implemented into 3.6, so the skin would probably be messy.

Hope this helps you out

-whitemike

Thanks, this is a good start. I've been busy with work the past 2 weeks but I have this week reserved primarily for 'playing' with vBulletin. I guess I should to upgrade to 3.6 first before I start messing with new skins/styles.

What I'm trying to understand though is the structure of styles and which files affect the layout. The problem is, I'm more familiar with Wordpress themes where the files are very clear. Example, there's a header.php file so I know if I want to change the header I need to modify that file. There are other self-explanatory files like footer.php, sidebar.php, home.php, etc. I can't see anything similar with the vB styles. :confused:

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My devsite

,

once you uploaded your image files and add the XML file you can look in your ACP and find the styles section..
once you click the style you want to edit you can see the templates like the "header" or the "footer".
These are all edited by html, I suggest making your board have two styles. One that is the main one ppl will see, and one to play with. Then if you edit the one your playing with, and it's how you like, you can just copy the template to the live style..
The best way to figure things out is to just play with it.
I'm heading to class now, or I'd add some screen shots to help explain things.. If needed, I can add those later.
-Brandon

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All the settings and templates are in the xml file. That is why you only see images. Once you import the xml when adding a new style, it all gets inserted automatically and you can edit it in you style manager.

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Thanks for the advice, Brandon & Code Monkey. I think I'm beginning to understand but it's very different from what I'm used to.

One thing I want to clarify though. After I've made all my changes, I can download it as a new style (XML file)?

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My devsite

yup, you can dl the new xml if u want to make a backup of your settings. ;)

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Not a problem