Theme creating - where are colors for selected items?


  1. midix
    Posts : 5
    Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 7601 Multiprocessor Free Service Pack 1
       New #1

    Theme creating - where are colors for selected items?


    I am creating a theme for myself - I prefer some darker elements. I use Ave Vista/WIn7 StyleBuilder.

    I have customized many elements already, colorized images as I like and now all items in lists and menus (simple lists, listboxes, folder views) appear pretty good, but there are two problems for now:

    - the items in Task Manager window do not change color to white when I select them. Why so? I mean - the selected text elsewhere (like in folder views) becomes white. Obviously there is some special property needed for Task Manager, but I cannot find it. Can anybody help?

    - the item descriptions (like disk space, library description, details) also do not respond to selection. I found this:
    Explorer & Shell > Explorer > Items View > ItemsView > Subheader > Normal
    to change the color from light gray to some other, but it works globally for all states (hot, selected, normal). How can I get it to appear lighter when selected?

    I guess there will be more questions later

    Thanks.

    Bump:
    screenshot:



    As you see, in folder view items have white text but black text is left in Task Manager and Select program (and also Open/Save dialogs).
    Last edited by midix; 21 Jan 2010 at 14:29. Reason: Screenshot added
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  3. midix
    Posts : 5
    Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 7601 Multiprocessor Free Service Pack 1
    Thread Starter
       New #2

    really no ideas? I guess then I 'll have to redesign my style to have non-negative (not dark) selection box for listboxes....
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  4. ksdixon
    Posts : 49
    Windows 7
       New #3

    midix said:
    OMG, it looks like you're using Windows 7, Aero, and have maanged to change the ''selected items'' colour in Windows Explorer to a dark green. Please can you explain how you've done this? I can't see the light-blue-on-white default of Vista and 7 (currently using 7) as I am registered blind, and have been forced to suffer this design choice for 4 years now...
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  6. midix
    Posts : 5
    Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 7601 Multiprocessor Free Service Pack 1
    Thread Starter
       New #4

    Hi, lilsting10, it seems we have a common problem - I also have vision problems since birth and that is why I also do not like the default blue scheme of Vista / 7.

    Now I do not remember exactly which elements I had to change to get the selection dark green.
    As far as I remember I recolored some of the bitmaps in Ave Vista/WIn7 StyleBuilder:

    Explorer & Shell > Explorer > Items View > ListView > ListItem (items for left side of folder view)
    Explorer & Shell > Explorer > ListView > ListItem (items in Save as, Open dialogs)
    Explorer & Shell > Explorer > TreeView > TreeItem (some other tree items on the left)

    but I am not 100% sure if those are enough because I recolored almost every bitmap to dark green or gray, and set other color options so selected items are inverted (light letters on dark green back). Unfortunately I had to redesign Explorer selected items to light green and black text, because of the problem I mentioned before - some programs do not accept white text setting, so they show black on dark green, and that is bad.
    Only for menus I left dark green selection and white text. Some programs still do not accept such coloring and show black text on dark green in menus, but there are not so many such programs, so I can live with that.
    Also I replaced some elements (buttons, checkboxes, radiobuttons) with those from XP - they have more contrast in colors, so easier to see.

    Now my explorer looks the following way:
    http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/k...rs/themegr.png
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