There are three main methods that can be used to edit skins. You can use the Appearance Manager interface of Discus to edit the skin with your web browser, transfer the skin file to your computer and edit it with a text editor, or edit the skin right on the server. Here are some tips about each method of editing.

Important! Before editing your board's skin, read the skin primer. Pay particular attention to the parts warning you that improper skin editing can cause your board to function improperly, and in the worst case, it could cause you to lose all of the data on your board. It is strongly recommended that edited skins be tried out on a test board. The skin primer has much more information about this. Read it!

Editing using the Appearance Manager

Using the Appearance Manager interface, you can edit your board's skin without the need to access files manually on your server. This is a straightforward method to make small changes to a particular part of the skin. However, you must cope with the rather primitive capabilities of the web browser's text input boxes as you compose your code, so if you are going to make major changes, you will probably find this method inadequate.

1. Log in to the administration program of your board as the board administrator (typically "admin") and select the Appearance Manager link from the main menu.

2. If you need to know what skin your board is currently using, click the "Skins" tab and note the file name of the skin next to which the radio button is checked.

3. Click the "Editor" tab and scroll (if necessary) to locate the skin file you wish to edit under the light-green "Skin File | Skin Name" bar in the list of files.

4. Click the file name of the skin you wish to edit. This will launch a pop-up window with the skin editor (if the pop-up window does not appear, perhaps you have a personal firewall, browser setting, or accessory program that is blocking it).

5. In the skin editor window, the various parts of the skin are separated in separate text boxes. The skin primer contains a description of commonly changed skin parts. The template language manual contains a more detailed description of the parts of skins.

6. Make the desired changes to the desired part of the skin. Scroll to the bottom and click the "Save" button. Note: this saves changes made in ALL of the boxes.

7. Close the window, and then consult the skin primer for regeneration instructions and next steps.

Editing on your own computer

You can transfer the skin file from your server to your own computer, and edit it locally. To make this work, you will need:

• FTP program: For example, WS_FTP or Cute FTP. This may well be the same FTP program you used to install Discus. Note carefully: any ordinary FTP program will work. However, you must NOT use Front Page or any other transfer program designed to publish an entire website.

• Text editor: For example, Windows Notepad. Those with more frequent web design or programming needs may have an alternate text editor such as Ultra Edit. Note carefully: any plain text editor will work. However, you must NOT use an HTML editor (like Front Page) or a word processor (like MS Word or Wordpad).

Once you have verified that you have the necessary software, follow this procedure:

1. If you don't know what skin your board is using, follow steps 1-2 of the procedure for "Editing using the Appearance Manager" above.

2. Open your FTP program and connect to your server. Navigate into your Discus administration directory (typically named discus_admin_##########). In that directory, navigate into the "skins" subdirectory.

3. Locate the skin file you want to download. All skin files have an extension of *.tmpl. The skin file your board is using, along with other skins that you downloaded or that were installed by default will all be found in this "skins" directory. Select the skin you wish to edit and transfer it from the "skins" directory to your computer. Use ASCII mode in your FTP program when making this transfer.

4. Locate the downloaded skin file on your computer and open it using a plain text editor. Therein, you will find the entire skin file. The template language manual contains instructions on the construction of the skin. Make the desired changes and then save the file.

5. With your FTP program, upload the modified file back to your server. Use ASCII mode for this transfer.

6. Consult the skin primer for regeneration instructions and next steps.

Editing the skin on the server

For those with telnet/SSH access to their server, you can use a unix terminal editor (such as "vi") to make changes directly to the skin file.

1. If you don't know what skin your board is using, follow steps 1-2 of the procedure for "Editing using the Appearance Manager" above.

2. From the unix command prompt, navigate to your Discus administration directory (typically named discus_admin_##########) and go into the "skins" directory.

3. With your chosen text editor, edit the appropriate *.tmpl file from this directory, and save your changes as desired.

4. Consult the skin primer for regeneration instructions and next steps.