I hummed for a little while... I then peered at my to-do list... nothing inspired me. Next I swivelled around in my chair until I was more lightheaded than I normally am... but still no inspiration... I inhaled more coffee.. not a nada of inspiration... eventually I decided to poke my nose over Andy's desk to see what he was up to... actually it was more an attempt to be annoying :D anyways, at the time he was head down bum up putting the finishing touches on YIM Skin Maker PLUS++ and there was little I could do to capture his attention.. apart from ask him about his latest project... so ask I did and that's how our new seriers of articles on Yahoo! Messenger Skins got started :)

Over the last few weeks we have been researching and plonking our way through numerous versions of Yahoo! Messenger (v5.6 though to v8.1) and trying loads of different ideas, theories and skins to get a better understanding on how it all comes together and how the skins have evolved over the years. It's been a huge learning curve but a great experience, and today we popped out the other side of the marathon effort and added our newly created skins to our Yahoo! Messenger Skins Download section, and I've just finished putting up articles which cover everything from an introduction to Yahoo! Messenger Skins through to Installing and Skin Making (including a tips & tricks article) and if you have a passion for making backwards compatible skins you may find Yahoo! Messenger Skin Reference Table  and Yahoo! Messenger v8 .xml file helpful :)

For interests sake, we also touched on the Pink Skin that Yahoo! currently has available for download on their Yahoo! Messenger website. This skin isn't currently compatible with Yahoo! Messenger v8.1 nor are the other 3 skins they provide (Celadon, Bronze, Pink, Gray / Orange), the most noticeable omission is the Plugins icon from the toolbar but we've provided some quick fix instructions for this issue, along with some more remedies for other Pink Skin quirks :)

Links:
- Yahoo! Messenger Skins
- Installing Yahoo! Messenger Skins
- Making Yahoo! Messenger Skins
- Skin Making Hints, Tips and Tricks
- Yahoo! Messenger Skin History
- Yahoo! Messenger Skin Reference Table  
- Yahoo! Messenger v8 .xml file
- Yahoo! Messenger Pink .xml file
- Our Yahoo! Messenger Skins (Downloads)