This is an update of the XDMediaBlue skin which upon my tally on my http://www.dnnskins.com website was the most downloaded skin in the last 6 months, and so, while I'm recreating new skins, I thought it was a good time to start looking at what people are interested in, and seeing how I can improve the free skins I've already made available.

Some of the features of this skin include -

• 1024 wide screen layout
• Web 2.0 soft rounded corners
• Drop Shadows around complete skin
• Simple page structure
• Less Tables (no not completely tableless)
• Nav Menu as per the upcoming menu structure promoted by DotNetNuke
• Updated Containers
• Simplified Flash -
  • just change the montage on he background to embed your logo
• For Snapsis Users, a snapsis version
• Update without losing integrity of existing layouts (Eg XDMediaBlue format)
• Language Token embedded
• Improved and enhanced Search look and feel
• Extensive Cross browser checking -
  • Safari, Firefox, Opera, Netscape, IE 6 & 7

Over the last 6 - 8 months I've been significantly quieter due to business reorganisation and structuring, and now this is almost complete, along with new support staff employed, new datacentre infrastructure, changes in how things are done, I am really looking forward to moving foward on some of my plans that had to be put on hold due to not enough resources to carry them out.

I've worked really hard on this skin in particular, in taking up the changes that we are seeing in the future with design elements and working with the DNN framework. I purposely have designed this layout to be easier to manage for people wanting to learn about skinning. It is ASCX mode - sorry - I don't do html skinning techniques as I simply feel it's duplication of time I don't have - because we tend to go in and tweak the ascx file anyway.

The flash logo is transparent - so you all you need to do is modify the montage and reupload - and you have your logo embedded.

Nicely displayed Language code which actually look good in Safari too. Natually what you see is dependent upon what version of DNN you're using.

I sincerely hope that you get as much enjoyment out of using this skin on your DotNetNuke website, as I have had in creating it. I don't profess to be an XHTML guru, because out of the hundreds and hundreds of skins we've done, no one wants to lose their design options or wants to modify the core or spend the money you need to spend in tweaking - so this could be regarded as a fair compromise.

Thank you and enjoy!

Nina Meiers
http://www.xd.com.au (new site coming very soon)
http://www.dnnskins.com (over 50 free skins to preview and download)
http://www.skincovered.com (updates in progress)
http://www.catalooksupport.com (documentation being updated)
http://www.modulereviews.com (new site coming very soon)