                        ActiveSkin Control 3.0 Beta
             Copyright (C) 1999 Dmitry Volvach. All rights reserved.
                       e-mail: dmitry@softshape.com

                            All Rights Reserved

CONTENTS
========

1. OVERVIEW
2. CONTACT INFORMATION


1. OVERVIEW
===========

This is a beta version of ActiveSkin 3. Please note, it is available only for
beta testing purposes, you should not rely on using it for the development
purposes, its structure is the subject to change.

What's new in ActiveSkin 3?
  * New streaming capabilities enable saving skin in a structured storage file,
directly into application EXE file, or over Internet.

  This feature allows to not to use "xml"-like skin description files, 
  making possible to store all skin in one binary file (its default extension 
  is "skn"). This is a system structured storage file, like "doc" or "xls"
  files, so its properties can be viewed and edited even in Win98 without 
  SkinBuilder installed. Also, this feature allows to build your skin in 
  your application without hassle, using SkinForm or new SkinStorage controls,
  so you can redistribute your application without any skin files included.
  You can load skin directly from any URL, but the asinchronous loading is not
  implemented yet. Do you need it? If so, please write me.

  * Full menu support

  Yes, this was the main disadvantage of ActiveSkin 2, it was not possible to
  use menus with your application. But now it is in past! New "skinned"
  menu support works fine even with the older skins, and shows all its power
  with the skins for ActiveSkin 3.

  * New "skinned" controls: SkinLabel, SkinControl, SkinButton, SkinScrollBar

  There are some controls, one of the most long-awaited is SkinLabel - you do 
  not need to place your labels into containers any more! Please write me back,
  if you think that ActiveSkin leaks other controls.
  And what about existing ActiveX controls? With skins, designed especially
  for ActiveSkin 3, it is possible to change their colors to make them match
  to the skin color scheme.

  * Advanced script event support takes full control on script launching

  New concept of event masks is introduced now, you can create scripts that
  can be launched using very advanced conditions.

  * Lots of new skin features added (colorkeys, text&font properties,
mouse icons etc.)

  Just examine new SkinObject properties and properies of SkinSource - it is
  the skin "container", that holds all SkinObject hierarchy and overall skin
  properties: Artist, color scheme, fonts, pictures etc.

  * SkinBuilder was highly improved

  It becomes much more useful and simple because of new ActiveSkin 3 concept, 
  just use it.

I will appreciate your comments, questions and of course bug reports
on ActiveSkin 3, so please feel free to e-mail me.

2. CONTACT INFORMATION
======================

    Comments, questions and suggestions for ActiveSkin can be directed
by e-mail to dmitry@softshape.com

    Questions about skin design and using SkinBuilder can be directed
by e-mail to sergey@softshape.com


Copyright (C) 1999 Dmitry Volvach. All Rights Reserved.
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