n.murray wrote
Okay I downloaded a starter kit, do I just edit the style sheets? Seems easier than I expected...
1- As far as I know, the 'starter kit' is for developing in Visual Developer IDE.
2- If you're interested in skinning using CSS for compliance, you should probably get familiar with XHTML and the various Doctypes and their nuances. I would probably suggest sticking with XHTML 1.0 Transitional, as many 3rd party modules may still have issues passing a strict doctype validation.
3 - skinning DNN is much more simple than it would appear. Bascially, either reverse-engineer the default skins or you can just make a set of skin documents (skin.html and skin.css should suffice for a start) then just make your design and place tokens where you need your elements to be:
skin.html
<div id="ControlPanel" runat="Server" class="contentpane"></div>
<div class="LogoDIV">[LOGO]</div>
<div class="NavDIV">[NAV]</div>
<div id="ContentPane" runat="Server" class="contentpane"></div>
<div class="LoginDIV">[LOGIN]</div>
That should create the world's most basic DNN skin with all the crucial elements (Control Panel, Content Pane, Navigation and Login). From there it's just a bunch of formatting and usability testing. Also, please note that the above method is what I used for 4.9 and earlier. I have not had any chance to create a 5.0 skin so I don't know how well this method will carry over.
Also, pick up the books "DotNetNuke Skinning and Design" along with "DotNetNuke for Dummies" and there's a new WROX book out for DNN 5 as well. Also, you may want to checkout DNNCreative for tutorials or check out Nina's work at http://www.xd.com.au/ .
However, if you're not familiar with HTML, I would strongly suggest you start there before jumping into skinning a CMS system. There are alot of basics there that you will find yourself building upon, not only for simple tag structure but for things like DocTypes and CSS Classes/IDs/ etc. The good news is that DNN is one of the more simple skinning engines, it just seems a bit overwhelming at first but just keep at it and hone your Googling skills.