Is There An Idiot's Guide To Making A Homescreen?

[Guest rameses]

I'm sure I've seen it in one of the forums somewhere, but I've searched and can't find it.

What I'm looking for is a simple guide on how to put together a homescreen. I've used the Ruttensoft Homescreen Designer program, but would like to have a go at doing one from scratch by myself.

I've had a look at some XML files of existing screens and have tried to work out what to do, but as I have very little experience of XML some of it is a bit baffling.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Guest tudor]

Have a look on this XML tutorial, then try to change slightly different values and see what they do. That should get you started and curious enough to google it.

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

There is a guide in the Articles section of the site but also try the customisatin section.

Most people learn how to do home screens by altering existing themes and then seeing what happens.

[Guest Tomas Kocanda]

What about to try Homescreen Designer:

http://www.ruttensoft.com/

and try to make couple homescreens using this tool? Then you can open the file and try to modify it. I think, it´s easier for start then building XML code from scratch.

And perhaps you will find that the screen made by homescreen designer is all you need. I´m almost sure, it will cover most of your needs.

Tomas

[Guest xenophobe]

What about to try Homescreen Designer:

http://www.ruttensoft.com/

I'd have to second this. WYSIWYG editor. Works pretty well from what I've done, but it's not flexible enough to do exactly what I want.

I'm creating a full homescreen (complete replacement) by manual editing as my first project, and it is coming along alright, but there are a few things you need to get to grips with. If you're fluent with HTML, you'll get the basic idea of what's going on with the XML and shouldn't have any problems, though you'll still need to do a bit of learning.

[Guest Maikeul]

on the microsoft smartphone downloads page there is a theme generator and it is really simple and works great.