Hi

I'm new to this forum , and new to skinning.  I've downloaded, read and digested the dnn skinning guide, and have produced my first set of basic skins.  The second set will be slicker, for sure.

In producing these skins, I have asked myself a lot of questions, which I'm not sure of the answers.  I'm sure they've been asked before, if they have been answered already, please direct me to the appropriate resources.

These questions apply to dotnetnuke 4.4.1

1. What do I do with default dnn styles?
   DNN generated pages refer to 4 specific css files.
   
   /SEHR_DNN/Portals/_default/default.css
   /SEHR_DNN/Portals/0/Skins/skin_hcnt/skin.css
   /SEHR_DNN/Portals/0/Containers/container_hcnt/container.css
   /SEHR_DNN/Portals/0/portal.css
   
   I know my skin is contained in skin.css and container.css
   My concern is with default.css.  This has a lot of styles already pre-defined.
   Some of these are playing havoc with my layouts - others are using conventions inconsistent with accessibility conventions (eg font-size:11px).
   
   In my skins, I've found it necessary to completely override all of the styles found in default.css. 
   Is there a better way to do it?  Can I delete all skins in default.css and start again?  (I assume no, because default projects will be broken if this is the case).  What is a sensible approach?
   I would really prefer to start with a blank ascx(or html) file, and build the skins up from scratch with no predefined css formats to override.
    
2. Is there an accepted approach for collaboration between developers and skinners?
   For instance, it seems necessary for developers to remove layout attributes (especially height and width) - and to assign a css class name. 
   Is there a set of guidelines, or even better, a methodology for developers?
   
   - Another troublesome attribute is the border size for gridviews, which always defaults to 1 - and must be manually overridden by developers.
    
3. Gridview mouse hover effect
   For gridviews, I want a :hover effect to highlight the row if a mouse is moved over it.
   This should be a simple css definition:
   
   .cssGridView tr:hover {
    background-color:#FFFFCC;
   }
   
   The problem is, it does not work in dnn generated pages displayed in IE7.
   It works in Firefox.   IE7 is documented to support it, and simple (non dnn) proof of concept pages work in IE7.
   
   I assume something in dnn styles (some of which are dynamically generated by javascript) are overriding this setting, but after much searching, cannot find it.

This is a long post, and I'm sure these issues have already been discussed. 
Many thanks for any help, either direct, or by pointing me in the correct direction.

Ian