Creating your own skins for Yahoo! Messenger may or may not be as difficult as you think. For those with a bit of skill, a good graphics program (such as Fireworks, Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, etc.), and some time on their hands, they can make something that suits thier fancy.

Yahoo has a page dedicated to this, but they have only put up information for creating the basic files for the program. Unless you know where to look, you will only create 9 images and find out later that some of the buttons are still the default ones Yahoo uses. The ones they tell you about are: "message.bmp", "chat.bmp", "call.bmp", "add.bmp", "online_user.bmp", "busy_user.bmp", "idle_user.bmp", "offline_user.bmp", and "background.bmp".

In order to create a file for every possibility, take a look at the file called INSTALL.LOG in the "C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger" folder (if your hard drive is "C"). You will see a part that lists all the files you can create: File Copy: C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\skins\Default\(FILE NAMES)

They are:

1. aimoffline_user.bmp
2. aimonline_user.bmp
3. **background.bmp (main background image)
4. **busy_user.bmp (shows next to names when your friend changes their status)
5. friend_groupclose.bmp
6. friend_groupcloseW.bmp
7. friend_groupopen.bmp
8. friend_groupopenW.bmp
9. friend_root.bmp (located next to "FRIENDS FOR -" at the top of the friends window)
10. friend_rootW.bmp
11. icqoffline_user.bmp
12. icqonline_user.bmp
13. **idle_user.bmp (shows next to names when your friend changes their status)
14. **offline_user.bmp (shows next to names when your friend changes their status)
15. offline_userW.bmp
16. online_mobile_user.bmp
17. **online_user.bmp (shows next to names when your friend changes their status)
18. online_userW.bmp