How To Use Skins

Collect has the ability to alter the colors on the screens like forms, buttons, popup help, etc. The colors can be set for all users, or it can be set on a per operator basis.

You cannot set different skins for different databases.

Collect! Main Menu with Custom Skin

Navigate to the Collect\bin\skin folder. The default installation contains the following files:

default.cfg
default.dat
dfbutton.bmp
dfform.bmp
dfhelp.bmp
dfinfobox.bmp
dfmain.bmp
dfmenu.bmp
dfmenuhighlight.bmp
dfsubform.bmp

Image Files

To edit the skin for all users, simply open each BMP file with an image editor and fill the file with the new color and save. The change will take effect the next time you open Collect!. The images must be in the .BMP format.

To edit the skin image for an individual user, copy and paste the BMP file and give it a new name. Once done, refer to the next section on the DAT file.

Skin Dat File

If you wish to make a skin for each operator, or group of operators, you can do the following:

Create a .DAT file for the operator (jc.dat or group 60.dat) and set the following configurations in the file:

BMP Images

bk = The white space border around the Main Menu and Welcome to Collect! forms.
bt = Buttons
mn = The Top Menu (File, Edit, Browse, etc.)
fb = Forms
ph = Pop Up Help
iw = Information Boxes on the forms that have them like Main Menu.
mh = Not Implemented
sb = Scroll Bars
bb = Bottom half of Pop Up Message boxes like "Are you sure you wish to exit Collect!"
sf = Sub-Forms

HEX Codes

ta - Tab - Currently Active
te - Tab - Inactive and has no data or sub-records
tp - Tab - Inactive and has data or sub-records
tt - Tab - Text (the same color is used for all 3 states above)
fl - Field Label (Alias or Caption)
fc - Fields - Full Access
fr - Fields - Read Only Access
ft - Fields - Text (the same color is used for both states above)
bc - Button Text

The default DAT file looks like this:

The default file does not specify the options for the hex codes; as a result, it will use the internally defined color scheme.

Example Hex Code Setup

Skin Cfg File

When signing in, Collect! uses the default.cfg. To specify unique colors for your operators, create a .CFG file for your operators (jc.cfg) that indicates which DAT file to use.

The default CFG file looks like this:

default.dat

If you wanted JC to use a specific DAT file, you could change it to 60.dat or JC.dat.