Skin is the basic graphics object in Aston2. Skin layout defines in a special XML file that references to resources (images, sounds, etc.). Usualy, each widget reads skin layout from individual XML file. Actualy, here are supported file names:

• Panel.xml - for panels
• Desktop.xml - for wallpapers
• Start Button.xml - for start button widget
• User Name.xml - for user name widget
• Recycle Bin.xml - for recycled bin widget
• Search.xml - for search widget
• Clock.xml - for clock widget
• Calendar.xml - for calendar widget
• Weather.xml - for weather widget
• Resmon.xml - for resource monitor
• LangSwitcher.xml - for language switch bar
• Notebook.xml - for notebook widget
• Menu.xml - for menu based widgets like: tray, quick launch, task list, top list, search popup, disks, power control, desktop icons, etc.

Each skin layout file contains standard XML header and layout root section. The section layout contains description of the Aston2 objects, position of they elements and etc. Each object can have own additional settings.
For example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layout>
  <object name="Menu"/>
  <object name="Top List"/>
  <object name="Power Control"/>
</layout>

Now, let's talk about object name agreement. A widget can be attached to start menu, to side-panel or just be float on desktop. You can use different appereance of widget in each case, just use the sufficies.
For example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layout>
  <object name="Clock"/>
  <object name="Clock (Menu)"/>
  <object name="Clock (Horizontal)"/>
  <object name="Clock (Vertical)"/>
  <object name="Clock (Right)"/>
  <object name="Clock (Float)"/>
</layout>

Here are supported sufficies:

• Menu - for start menu mode
• Horizontal - for top or bottom side-panel
• Vertical - for left or right side-panel
• Left - for left side-panel
• Right - for right side-panel
• Top - for top side-panel
• Bottom - for bottom side-panel
• Float - for float mode

For example, if Aston2 looks for object "Clock" in right panel mode, it looks for "Clock (Right)" firstly. If object with such name wasn't found, than Aston2 looks for "Clock (Vertical)". Finaly, if it wasn't found yet, than Aston2 looks for just "Clock" without any suffix.