Hey there. I am a first time IPBFree user and am at a complete loss on how to change the default skin. My friend and I are having problems understanding how to edit/change the default as well as the actual CSS itself. Is there anyone who uses IPB who can explain, using as much detail and possibly diagrams as possible how to edit/change a skin, upload a banner and member group icons on this software? And possibly a sidebar?)

Please answer in a IPB Skins for Dummies format and thank you in advance.

IPBFree used the same skinning techniques as InvisionFree, so it's all CSS.

There are plenty of IF tutorials and explainations out there. I would suggest the one at the IF Skin Zone, mainly because it's color coded and therefor easier to see.

As for changing images, those fall under "Manage Skin Sets" » Images, although those don't edit member group images. Member groups can be made and given images in the "Manage User Group" section under "Users and Groups".

That's just... a really general overview of your questions, though. If you need me to explain more of be more specific I can.

Our main concern at the moment is exactly how to change the skin. We tried using the same method we're used to using (copy the code and insert into the head and body and CSS sections in the IF admin CP) and in the first attempt the actual code showed up at the bottom of the board in white font and on the second attempt the skin would not center. The admin CP layout might be throughing us off, but is there somewhere else we are supposed to place the code?

Thanks for the suggestion though.

I see what you mean now ^^

In the admin CP, scroll down to where it says manage style sheets. Click 'Copy to New Stylesheet', and paste the CSS code from IF in your new CSS page. Then go to board wrappers and click 'Create New Wrapper'. Copy/paste the header/footer code from your IF skin into those sections on this wrapper- everything else can be ignored. After you have those made, you should be able to go to 'Create New Skin Set' under "Manage Skin Sets". Title your new Skin, and choose the new wrappers and CSS from the dropdown box. Make sure to check the "Set as default skin set" box if you do want this new skin to be the default.

If you need more explanation on any of that, just reply here and I'll try and help you out. Also, feel free to let me know if I missed a step or something- I don't own an IPBfree board, I've just played with a test forum.

*Glomps sarahj* Thank you so much! It worked perfectly. My friend and I are very grateful. *offers chocolate in gratitude*

*Edit* This is probably a really stupid question, but where do you go to change the banner? We've tried every logical place we could think of, yet so far all we've managed to do is change the IPB logo's dimensions or alter the colours.

Your topic has been solved and moved to the 'Solved Support Topics' forum! Still have a question, or something isn't clear yet? Open up a new topic, but be sure to be more specific this time!