Read the top post of this forum on the additions for DNN 5.

What do you need?

To develop skins you need a DNN installation and an editor to edit your HTML / ASCX and CSS and optionally some tools to make debugging your skin easier.

Dnn installation

The easiest option here is an installation on your local computer.

For a reference on how to install DNN check the installation documentation.

Contrary to what some Skinning documents state, you can use a regular DNN installation (using the install package), there is no reason to use the Starter Kit or the source version, unless you are going to develop modules too.

Editor

You can use any editor you like, for the HTML and CSS, for an ASCX skin Visual Studio seems the right choice because it will show you a skin objects attributes with intellisense, but you can also edit ASCX skins using notepad++ if you like.

Validate your HTML

Use a validator to make sure you don’t have any (X)HTML errors in your skin (unclosed HTML tags etc.). (X)HTML errors are the most common cause for browser related differences for a skin.

You can use the online W3C validators or the “HTML Validator” extension for Firefox, which show you the number of HTML errors in the browsers status bar.

Browsers

You should test your skin in several browsers, the minimum being IE 7 & 8 and Firefox.

Both offer you tools to view / debug the CSS of your skin. In Firefox you can install the Firebug extension and Internet Explorer 8 the “Developer Toolbar”. Both allow you to click on an element in your skin to see what CSS is influencing its appearance (and where it’s defined)