A couple other notes I forgot to respond to:
As per your suggestions, I made a few changes to the site.skins page and the preview page now bolds the skin name to make it stand out better.
Yes, a skin has to be installed to be previewed. But you can click that skin in the second column and delete it.
As for the code.skin.name.css changes not taking effect, there was a slight mistake in the site.skins.css page. Somehow I neglected to include this middle line:
[command edit {=content} loadtime={now} page=code.skin.{?skin}.css]
[command skin update {?skin}]
[command nextpage site.skins&skin={?skin}]
That's what updates the new style.css file to reflect your changes. You'll note this line is included in the site.skins.update page. But that actually doesn't seem to be working properly. I only setup one skin to use skin settings (the ancient skin) though I am planning to make more of the css configurable via settings in all the skins. But after a good bit of digging around, I found a slight glitch in the new code that was keeping that from working.
I won't post that fix here (unless you ask for it) but it will be in the next release. When that comes out be sure to install the ancient skin and then click the update settings and you'll see what I mean. It's got color pickers for multiple settings in the css. You simple select the color you want and click save. The code.skin.ancient.css page stores that data and then the style.css script is update instantly. Very cool effect.
Actually, if you want to take a peek you can install the ancient skin and then copy overwrite the local skin css file with the share skin css file. The glitch involved deleting the data values in that file in the site installation process. Once that is corrected you can see the effect. Now to just fine a couple hours and update all the skins like that. I'm also thinking I can create a picture upload system for graphics in the skin, making it super easy to install new graphics... Not sure its worth the trouble when you can edit the skin directly, but mabye...
And last but not least, I updated all the site.skin pages to include the current skin right at the top of the page. Much better that way!
Thanks for all these great suggestions and fixes. Why a community is so awesome!
Cheers,
Dan