Newbie question - editing Skins & Uri processing & "Parse Skin Package" function

We created a new skin by taking an existing skin, and rezipping to a new package name and installing it. So far so good: the Uri paths are substituted as expected with full path references as shown in the extract below.

Then, we start to hack the skin. We FTP the files direct to the skin directory and choose "Parse Skin Package" on the Admin/Skins tab hoping to reexpand the Urls. The skin substitutions below do not happen. What am I doing wrong? What does this "Parse Skin Package" function do? - a Google finds no information.

What is a good way to do the re-editing development cycle on a skin?

PS: I already read that some people just edit the processed skin directly and then only have to FTP it back, but this doesn't work for us because the skin developer is using only a simple subdirectly which works fine with the original unprocessed paths (ie media/top_line_left.jpg not /Portals/_default/Skins/XYZskin/media/top_line_left.jpg). If we download the processed file and work on that the paths are wrong and we would have to undo the expanded paths to repackage the skin again.

Surely we can continue to edit the skin in the unexpanded format we started with?

Help!

Any comments greatly appreciated


--- cut extract from Skin upload ---

# Begin processing file: portal.ascx
# Substituting: media/top_line_left.jpg
With: /Portals/_default/Skins/XYZskin/media/top_line_left.jpg
# Substituting: media/top_line_right.jpg
With: /Portals/_default/Skins/XYZskin/media/top_line_right.jpg
# Substituting: media/spacer.gif
With: /Portals/_default/Skins/XYZskin/media/spacer.gif
# Substituting: media/bg_banner.gif
With: /Portals/_default/Skins/XYZskin/media/bg_banner.gif
# Substituting: media/bg_black_bar.gif
With: /Portals/_default/Skins/XYZskin/media/bg_black_bar.gif
# Substituting: media/bg_header.jpg
With: /Portals/_default/Skins/XYZskin/media/bg_header.jpg
# Substituting: media/bg_orangebar.jpg
With: /Portals/_default/Skins/XYZskin/media/bg_orangebar.jpg
# Substituting: media/bg_leftpane.gif
With: /Portals/_default/Skins/XYZskin/media/bg_leftpane.gif
# Writing file: portal.ascx
End processing file: portal.ascx

Begin processing file: skin.css
# Writing file: skin.css
End processing file: skin.css

hi ungeek~

I edit my skins all the time after they have been decompressed/uploaded to the DNN installation.

Can you please re-phrase what your problem is again.

~a8le~

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