fancy form designs

Hello,

I find that my forms are all boring and the same. I have seen some very great form designs using very good graphics for the buttons and forms, and even change the skin of the form to another button.

I would like to know how to do this, as l want to be able to add a little more to my forms to make them stand out for the rest.

Does any one know any websites that tell you how to do this?

Thanks in advance,

Steve

The Codebank on this site may have some pointers, but I'm sure you could find various related articles and the like on The Code Project site.

Edit:
Just keep in mind that the average user doesn't want glitz and glamour. They want ease of use and functionality. A form with a little extra is not such a bad thing but I'd recommend you don't go overboard. That's a trap a lot of web sites fall into and they become unusable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jmcilhinney

The Codebank on this site may have some pointers, but I'm sure you could find various related articles and the like on The Code Project site.

Edit:
Just keep in mind that the average user doesn't want glitz and glamour. They want ease of use and functionality. A form with a little extra is not such a bad thing but I'd recommend you don't go overboard. That's a trap a lot of web sites fall into and they become unusable.

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That's right. I prefer plain old windows on my XP machines here, and if I get a piece of software, with all those round buttons, colors and stuff, I will be tempted to throw it out.

I suggest you go with Windows Themes, so your forms are "fancy" if the user want it. There's a 3rd party tool for that I used in the past, as MS's UseXPStyles (cannot remember now) had some problems back then. Ask around

I think the third-party tool that SiB is speaking of is VisualStyles from www.skybound.ca. I use it and am very happy with it. If you are determined to go further, dee-u found this link. I haven't tested out the utility but those who've posted sound fairly impressed.

Hey, that is our secret, why did you reveal it... :D

Yip..thats' the one

Works great! USE IT

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dee-u

Hey, that is our secret, why did you reveal it... :D

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I want everyone else to start using it so everyone's apps look the same except mine. :)

Hi All,

I would like to customize my app to eventually use something like the tiger theme here

Can I develop an out of the box user interface first with all of the functionality complete and then apply the advanced buttons, etc afterward? Or would it better if I did all of the design work up front?

One other thing to note is my application will be plug-in based, so I would like to carry over the interface design to the plug-in.

Steve