I'd like to create my own icon set but see no way of doing that ?
Check out page 85 of the reference manual 
... Specifically, the 'save icon set template' maneuver that you should be able to build from in order to easily create your own custom set correctly.
It's actually page 93 in the PDF manual.
Hmmm... it's actually 'both' 85 AND 93 ... depending on your point of view.
Unfortunately in the digital world, most document viewing software applications count or calculate page numbers, they do not reference the publisher's page numbers. It best to cite material using the author's page numbering. This is more accurate, since: it the page the author/publisher will refer to, and someone reading the material may be looking at a printed copy and will no longer have access to the calculated page number. Many forms of print media often have several pages that are not numbered or are numbered separately in Roman Numerals, symbols, et cetera. These pages are not the content of the body of work proper. In all manuals of style, citations use the publisher's page numbering.
True but I just opened the PDF manual and went to page 85 and it wasn't there then I did a search for 'create'.
Maybe state page 93 in the PDF and page 85 in the print manual. 
Using the chapter and sub-heading titles means people can find stuff when the page numbers change and people can also find stuff in the HTMLHelp manual as well as the printed PDF. Or do both.
I've downloaded Tanis icons and and saved out the template xml file from within Opus so how do I glue these two together to form an icon set?
If I open the xml file I can see this sort of line
Do I place the actual path & filename of the png file where is says icon name? What about the row and col fields?
Also I must have the best part of a 1000 png files. What's the fastest way to get them in an icon set?
So I haven't 'actually' done this myself... but it seems likely that the icon name tag in the XML is in fact the name of the image file, AND the info that is displayed in parentheses of 'standard' icons (after the proper name display) when viewed while editing a toolbar button icon in customize mode (when you hover over an icon). Non-standard icon names probably just display the name tag data as the only info in the button/icon editor.
That said, it looks like the row/column info should indicate the 'positioning' of the icon within the set while viewing them in the editor... But if so, then it seems the default template XML generated by Opus is a little OFF from what is actually displayed in the editor.
It's different to that, but I'm at work and don't have the information to hand. If Jon hasn't woken up and posted it by the time I get home then I'll post it later.
Icon sets can contain lots of individual icon files, in which case the lines will specify a filename as well as an icon name (which tells Opus which icon is to be replaced, or added if it's a new name, by the icon set).
Alternatively, icon sets can contain just a single image file (per icon size) which is a grid of many icons. That's where the row and column stuff comes into it.
Aha... so there is some info missing then .
Sounds like a good FAQ addition - to give people various examples of the different ways the set can be built. So you're talking about an icon library or some such where the row/column info comes in eh?
We could probably make a button/script combo to help people create generic icon sets REALLY easily and quickly based on selected image files... Pipe the filenames into an XML, zip it all up AND rename it to a .DIS file all in one shot... WOOHOO!
Could take 3-4 icon files and create a working example and post it here. So folks (like me) can download it, dissect it, and add to our configs. I have an idea of how it works, but there's nothing like a working example to pull apart.
Jeff, you are reading my mind. 
Here's an example XML file which references lots of individual icons. The xml file and the icons themselves should all be in the root of the .dis (.zip) file.
opus5.5.zip (1.1 KB)
@Nudel
I really have no XML or icon experience, as I'm sure others do not as well. Could you post a working .dis file with 3-4 icons?
[quote="kenalcock"]@Nudel
I really have no XML or icon experience, as I'm sure others do not as well. Could you post a working .dis file with 3-4 icons?[/quote]
The XML file is just a text file and you can turn it into a working .dis file by including some icons with the filenames it references and zipping them all up.
You don't need any XML knowledge at all. Just copy and paste and edit the filenames.
I'm plugging away at this too and it's not that rough.
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The command... is the "small" and "large" references a way for DO to refer to which image when the [large image size] indicator is selected when maintaining buttons? Or is this something else?
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Is Small fixed at 20x20, large at 32x32?
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It looks like I should (recommended) to group icons in a similar size. But I happen to have an MS Powerpoint icon .gif that measures 226x224. Would DO9 display this in that format? Or dos it shrink it to whatever image size I map it to (large or small)? I seem to recall in the past that it would stretch a tiny image file to the large size if told to do so. This means that I now have to start hunting for specific sizes of icons. Just want to confirm if this is true for optimal resolution.
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I've tried uploading an .icl file but it didn't work. Is there a way to convert an .icl file to .dis format? I've got quite a few .icl fiels that are comprehensive for Vista, XP, MS Office, and others... I'd like to take advantage of them if I could.
Thanks.
I think so.
I think you can use whatever sizes you want but it's best to stick to those sizes, else your icon set will look strange when mixed in with other icon sets.
Type "scale images" into the preferences filter and you'll find an option (under Display - Toolbars) that specifies whether large images should be scaled down to normal size in toolbars. That's for external images and I'm not sure if it gets applied to icon sets, but it might have an effect.
Or you could resize the icons using Opus's Image Converter (or some other image editor).
There are tools which will batch extract all the icons in a dis file. The one I use is a nice icon editor called Axialis IconWorkshop. (At least, I think it has this feature.) It's not free but it's more than worth the money if you want to work with .ico files.
Of course, Opus toolbar icons don't have to be in .ico format. PNG, GIF, BMP, even JPG should also work.
So I have all these 100's of png icon files and it seems I somehow have to merge them into one big png file and then reference each icon via the col and row. So what's the best way to get all these files into one big compatibile file?
Well - the manual, this thread and the XML file nudel posted all say that you don't have to do this (although you could). 
Just reference the image file names in the XML file and pack the XML file and the images in a ZIP file and rename its extension do .dis.
Greetings,
Jan