I've auto-installed my dnn application ( v 4.5.3) through my host - webhost4life.  I want to completely reskin it, and have subscribed to learn how to do this.  Do I need to pull the site down locally on my machine to be able to do this? If so, is there an easy/efficient way to do this? My db is already created and I can access/modify it live on the web now. Is there a way to modify/create the necessary files on the host server or would that be too much trouble?

If you want to completely reskin your site, you'll need an appropriate skin package.  Do you have one?  If so, you should be able to install it and specify it for your site.  I'd recommend creating a hidden page on your site, and verify that the skin works on your site for that page before you apply it to the entire site.

If you need to do more extensive testing or if you need to develop a skin for your site, then I would recommend that you make a copy of your site on a local computer for testing.  When you are happy with what you have, you can still just install the new skin on your live site using the skin installation procedure.

You can become well educated about skins by studying the tutorials available here.  Look at the Skinning Tutorials especially.  There are other administrative and DotNetNuke tutorials that you will also find quite useful if you need to create a local copy of your website and/or move information between the sites.

And, feel free to continue to ask questions.  That is what this forum is for!

There's not a lot of coding involved in creating a skin.  You need to create a basic html file that determines the general layout of a typical page.  If you want to have more than one page layout, you need more than one html file.  Those are the basic "skin" files.

The page "look" is determined by the skin.css file.  If you are familiar with css, then that shouldn't be a problem.

I would recommend that you take a good look at

• Issue 28
  

• Issue 27

These tutorials cover lots of the details.  For a slower start, take a look at Free Skin - Simple Red Leaf CSS Skin.

And, looking at many of the skinning tutorials wouldn't hurt, either!  Don't forget to ask us if you have specific questions.

Also Issue no 5 and 6 is the beginners introduction to skinning in DotNetNuke and the various concepts needed, so it's highly recommended that you view those tutorials.

if you wish to experiment with skinning it is easier to experiment on a localhost installation, if you follow these tutorials it will allow you to transfer your live site to a localhost installation:
How to install DotNetNuke 4.5 to Windows XP Pro with IIS

How to backup a live hosted DotNetNuke website and restore it to a localhost installation

Thanks,