How to Set Up a Demo Skin

When you are designing a site for someone that includes a custom skin, it is helpful for the end-users to see that skin “live”. With DotNetNuke®, you can create a “skin preview” page that is visible to a select group of users and apply your skin just to that page.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log onto the site as an administrator.
2. Create a new page named “Skin Preview” using the DotNetNuke Control Panel at the top of the page. This will create the page and navigate you to that page so that you can edit the content.
   
3. Click on the Edit link in the “Actions” section of the DotNetNuke Control Panel. This will open the page settings.
   
4. Set the Page Permissions to the Security Role or specific Username that should have View permissions for the page.
   
5. Open the section named “Advanced Settings” by clicking on the Expand/Collapse icon ( / ). Then, under the “Appearance” settings, select the particular Page Skin and Page Container that you want to be applied to this page.
   
6. Scroll to the bottom of the Settings page and click the “Update” link to apply these new settings.
   

Now the page can be viewed with your demo skin. If you wish, you can then fill this page with demo content to go along with the skin, to give your end-users an idea of the complete design. This approach will allow your clients to have a “living” example, one where they can even play with the content to explore the possibilities and limitations of your design.