Skinning through the shellstyle - here a short explanation

[Purecut]

It is possible to style the explorer previewpane through the shellstyle.dll. This will make you autonomous from you used fonts and color in your main theme. Also animation is possible.
Here a short description about the main labels:



And here a example for the "documentslayoutstyle"


    <style resid="documentslayoutstyle">
      <if id="atom(PreviewContainer)">
        <Element padding="rect(10rp, 8rp, 8rp, 8rp)"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(ReadingPane)">
        <Element padding="rect(4rp, 4rp, 4rp, 4rp)"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(clientviewhost)">
        <ViewHost foreground="windowtext" background="themeable(gtc(ItemsView, 0, 0, 3802), window)" sortcolumn="themeable(gtc(ItemsView, 0, 0, 3802), window)" subtext="ARGB(255, 139, 139, 139)" />
      </if>
      <MetadataElement ThemeSubApp="DocumentsPreviewPaneControl"/>
      <element id="atom(animation)" animation="position|exp|fast"/>
      <MetadataLabel foreground="themeable(ARGB(255, 255, 236, 0), windowtext)" fontstyle="shadow"/>
      <MetadataElement foreground="themeable(ARGB(255, 255, 255, 255), windowtext)" fontstyle="shadow"/>
      <if id="atom(PreviewMetadataControlEditable)">
        <MetadataDisplayElement foreground="themeable(ARGB(255, 255, 255, 255), windowtext)" fontstyle="shadow"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewMetadataEditControl)">
        <InPlaceEdit foreground="themeable(ARGB(255, 255, 255, 255), windowtext)" fontstyle="shadow"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewMetadataSubTitleControl)">
        <MetadataElement foreground="themeable(ARGB(255, 255, 255, 255), windowtext)" fontstyle="shadow"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewMetadataTitleControl)">
        <MetadataElement foreground="themeable(ARGB(255, 255, 255, 255), windowtext)" fontstyle="shadow"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(ItemCountLabel)">
        <MetadataLabel foreground="themeable(ARGB(255, 255, 255, 255), windowtext)" fontstyle="shadow"/>
      </if>
      <PreviewMetadata padding="Rect(10rp, 5rp, 10rp, 3rp)"/>
      <MetadataDisplayElement contentalign="bottomleft | endellipsis"/>
      <if id="atom(PreviewMetadataRow)">
        <Element height="18rp"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewMetadataControlEditable)">
        <MetadataDisplayElement cursor="ibeam"/>
        <if KeyFocused="true">
          <MetadataDisplayElement contentalign="focusrect | bottomleft | endellipsis"/>
        </if>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewMetadataEditControl)">
        <InplaceEdit contentalign="bottomleft | endellipsis"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewMetadataReadOnlyControl)">
        <InplaceEdit contentalign="bottomleft | endellipsis"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewForceLoadMetadata)">
        <Button background="themeable(dtb(PreviewPane, 2, 1), ARGB(0, 0, 0, 0))" contentalign="bottomleft" cursor="hand" font="9;Semibold;shadow;Segoe UI" foreground="gtc(FlyoutStyle, 3, 3, 3803)" height="18rp"/>
        <if MouseFocused="true">
          <Button background="themeable(dtb(PreviewPane, 2, 2), ARGB(0, 0, 0, 0))"/>
        </if>
        <if KeyFocused="true">
          <Button contentalign="focusrect | bottomleft"/>
        </if>
      </if>
      <PreviewThumbnail background="ARGB(0, 0, 0, 0)" padding="Rect(18rp, 4rp, 4rp, 4rp)"/>
      <if id="atom(PreviewMetadataTitleControl)">
        <MetadataElement font="8;Semibold;shadow;Verdana" height="18rp"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewMetadataSubTitleControl)">
        <MetadataElement font="8;Normal;shadow;Verdana" height="18rp"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewMetadataControl)">
        <MetadataElement contentalign="bottomleft | endellipsis" font="8;Normal;shadow;Verdana"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(ItemCountLabel)">
        <MetadataLabel contentalign="bottomleft | endellipsis" font="10;Normal;shadow;Verdana" height="24rp"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewMetadataSpacer)">
        <Element height="24rp"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewEditMetadata)">
        <Element height="24rp"/>
      </if>
      <MetadataLabel contentalign="bottomright | endellipsis" font="8;Normal;shadow;Verdana" height="24rp" padding="Rect(0rp, 0rp, 3rp, 0rp)"/>
      <Sizer background="ARGB(0, 0, 0, 0)"/>
      <if SlidesUpAndDown="true">
        <Sizer cursor="sizens" height="5rp"/>
      </if>
      <if SlidesUpAndDown="false">
        <Sizer cursor="sizewe" width="3rp"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewPaneSizer)">
        <Sizer background="themeable(ARGB(0, 0, 0, 0), buttonface)"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PageSpaceControlSizer)">
        <Sizer background="themeable(dtb(PreviewPane, 3, 0), buttonface)" borderthickness="rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,0rp)"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(ReadingPaneSizer)">
        <Sizer background="themeable(dtb(PreviewPane, 4, 0), buttonface)" borderthickness="rect(0rp,0rp,0rp,0rp)"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(ProperTreeExpandoSizer)">
        <Sizer background="buttonface" bordercolor="buttonhighlight" borderstyle="solid" borderthickness="rect(0rp,1rp,0rp,1rp)" height="4rp"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewPaneSizer)">
        <Sizer FramePersistType="2" InitialSize="53" MinSize="53" ReservedSpace="170"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(CommonItemDialogSizer)">
        <Sizer FramePersistType="2" InitialSize="100" MinSize="100"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PageSpaceControlSizer)">
        <Sizer FramePersistType="2" InitialSize="160" MinSize="60" ReservedMaster="atom(ReadingPane)" ReservedSpace="132"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(ProperTreeExpandoSizer)">
        <Sizer FramePersistType="2" InitialMaxxedOut="true" InitialSize="120" ReservedSpace="26"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewPaneSizer)">
        <Sizer DisablingPolicy="{17067f8d-981b-42c5-98f8-5bc016d4b073}" ExplorerVisibility="{43abf98b-89b8-472d-b9ce-e69b8229f019}"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(ReadingPaneSizer)">
        <Sizer DisablingPolicy="{33dcce8d-b6f8-4b7a-ac93-45e301f956aa}" ExplorerVisibility="{893c63d1-45c8-4d17-be19-223be71be365}"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PageSpaceControlSizer)">
        <Sizer ExplorerVisibility="{cb316b22-25f7-42b8-8a09-540d23a43c2f}"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(ReadingPaneSizer)">
        <Sizer FramePersistType="3" GrowTargetFirst="true" InitialSize="260" InitialVisibility="false" MinSize="68" ReservedMaster="atom(PageSpaceControlSizer)" ReservedSpace="202"/>
      </if>
      <TemplateBackground background="ARGB(0, 0, 0, 0)"/>
      <if id="atom(ReadingPane)">
        <TemplateBackground background="themeable(Gradient(gtc(ReadingPane, 1, 0, 3810), gtc(ReadingPane, 1, 0, 3811), gtc(ReadingPane, 1, 0, 3812), 4), window)" font="gtf(TextStyle, 4, 0)"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(RPaneCoverSheet_NoSel)">
        <Element background="ARGB(0, 0, 0, 0)" foreground="themeable(gtc(ReadingPane, 2, 0, 3803), windowtext)"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewShineLayer)">
        <TemplateBackground background="themeable(dtb(DocumentsPreviewPaneControl::Edit, 3, 0), window)"/>
      </if>
      <if id="atom(PreviewShineLayer)" Vertical="true">
        <TemplateBackground background="themeable(dtb(PreviewPane, 1, 2), window)"/>
      </if>
    </style>

[sunbeam2000]

good explanation!!!

just two suggestions:

i would prefer to set the textcolor in msstyle and not by ARGB

and

set the Previewpane background in Background and not in Shinelayer, so you can lay a (transparent) Shinelayer over it..

but that's only my opinion...

[Panda X]

good explanation!!!

just two suggestions:

i would prefer to set the textcolor in msstyle and not by ARGB

and

set the Previewpane background in Background and not in Shinelayer, so you can lay a (transparent) Shinelayer over it..

but that's only my opinion...

Following the DirectUI Notes in the Other section you can do set the property in the MSStyles rather than ARGB in DUIXML.

[Purecut]

I have never said that you have to do this so. People are complaining what all the stuff means and I have shown them to understand the sections in the shellstyle.dll what all the stuff means, so that they can better understand the format of the shellstyle.dll. Not more or less.