I am pretty new to DNN (just order Professional about 20 mins ago :-)) and trying to get my head around skinning. I have a copy of the Wrox DNN Skinning book and have been working through this. The examples I have read in that book - at least so far - are table-based. The examples I see on DNNCreative.com are the same. However, when I look at the default skin with 5.0 I see a CSS-based approach.

The book is not too current so I am wondering if there is a change of paradigm between the time that book was released and now. What's the best way to immerse myself in learning skinning.

Also, are there any WYSIWYG skin designers to speed up my progress short term? My needs are pretty simple, in terms of the layout/structure of my page but I want to do this the "right way" (as prescibed by DNN 5.0 best practices).

Thanks.

Mark

Thank you, Timo. Yes, I understand that the tables vs. CS decision is independant of DNN itself but I was curious that the default skin in 5.0 seems to be CSS-based.

I'm a little more comfortable with tables (which is a shame since I understand the power of CSS but never got around to learning CSS in detail). So, I was hoping to copy the default 5.0 skin and then iterate accordingly (but since it's CSS-based I'm a bit slower).

Thanks for clarifying. I'll take a look at the skins on your link.

Mark

I don't recommend YAML. Maybe because I only used it on one project, but it was disastrous and I won't use it again. It was so inflexible in regards to content placement, and was anything but cross-browser friendly. Of course it was the various versions of IE that always bugger things up, so perhaps YAML would be more apt to blame IE for the layout problems I had. However, I'm able to design cross-browser friendly with about 5% of the code YAML needed.... so... not using YAML. YAML is based on the Grid 960. Haven't tried YUI. I'm sure I employ some of the same techniques.

Skinning has a very long learning curve. You might be better suited to purchasing a ready made skin for your site until you are up to speed with DNN skinning.

There is a DNN skin generator out there, too, that looks promising. But, I'm finding the div/css just way too easy now after switching over last year.

One thing to remember is that the DNN ContentPanes are not so forgiving with Div/CSS layouts and in multi-column layouts a table is necessary for loading content panes to allow for the "disappearing" trick to work on empty content panes. Not a problem if the content pane is the only one in the "row", then a div works fine instead of a table. That's why you'll see most all the Div/CSS skins out there actually use tables to place the content panes, including the Minimal Extropy. If anyone knows a way around it, let me know please.

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