I have divided the Yahoo messenger skin tutorial up into six seperate categories to make navagation easier.

Introduction | Make a Platform | Color the .BMP's
Guide to the .BMP's | Alter the .XML | Guide to the .XML

NOTE: This tutorial was written for Yahoo messenger version 6.0, but it will also work with higher versions 7.0 , 7.5, and 8.0. The only differences between the versions are added images for things like the voice function.

In this tutorial I will explain the steps needed to make your own Yahoo messenger skin. If you can follow my instructions you will see just how easy it can be. Basically there are two factors that change the apperance of your Yahoo messenger skin.

#1. The 57 .bmp files inside of each skin folder.

#2. The .xml file that is also included in the skin folder.

The .bmp's are fairly easy, It really depends on how much time you want to spend on them. Bmp's or bitmaps are small picture files that you can open in a art program and alter. If you have knowledge with art programs or a high quality art program to use it will defintly be easyer.

When I started I was just using "Microsoft's Paint" and had no clue what I was doing. It can be done that way. Or you may want to try a free program called Ultimate Paint. It has some cool effects, but if you really get into it you will have to spend some money for a good art program. Recently I have heard alot about Gimp. It is another free program that is supposedly pretty good. I have not tried it myself thou. I recommend and use Jasc Paint Shop Pro. Its not free but it is much cheaper than PhotoShop, and can do almost everything PhotoShop can.

The .xml is fairly close to HTML (note: HTML coding does not work here). You can change the color of things and the fonts. Using different codes. It will be explained later in the Guide to the .XML.

So now you need to create a platform skin to get started.