Slightly different workspace color question...

[JoeB]

I know how to change the workspace color but, unlike my PSP9, when I change the color it changes the color for the entire UI (i.e., toolbars, palettes and the main workspace where you open the image. Is there a way to be able to keep the dark grey color for everything else but change the color of the actual workspace (i.e., the area in which you open and wok on an image) to medium grey? In PSP9 my workspace window is grey and my menus, palettes, etc, are a different color from the workspace window.

And while I'm asking, what does the View>Background Color item do? What background color is it supposed to set - the color behind an open image, something in the workspace, or what? Can't find that particular item in Help or a google search.

[hartpaul]

Hi Joe,
This feature was introduced in PSPX6.
Load an image, make sure Windows > Tabbed Documents is ticked ( Or in windowed mode with a small window drag a corner outwards to show the background)
Right click on the background choose Background Color. Choices are : Black, Dark Gray, Medium Gray, Light Gray and White.

[JoeB]

Hi Joe,
This feature was introduced in PSPX6.
Load an image, make sure Windows > Tabbed Documents is ticked ( Or in windowed mode with a small window drag a corner outwards to show the background)
Right click on the background choose Background Color. Choices are : Black, Dark Gray, Medium Gray, Light Gray and White.

Thanks. That explains the Background Color option. But how to change the background color of the workspace so that it's different from the stuff that surrounds it like menus and palettes?

[Kathy_9]

Like this?

click for larger view

[JoeB]

Ssorry, Kathy_9, not like that. That requires maximizing the image. That IS the medium grey color I want in the workspace window, but I want all images opened in that workspace to be fit within their own window with the image titlebar, and I can drag each image around as I desire by dragging on that title bar. I'm not sure how that was done in PSP9 or if PSP9 just came that way! But thanks for the effort!

[Jean-Luc]

.../... Is there a way to be able to keep the dark grey color for everything else but change the color of the actual workspace (i.e., the area in which you open and wok on an image) to medium grey? In PSP9 my workspace window is grey and my menus, palettes, etc, are a different color from the workspace window.
.../...

Joe,
you may try to change the color workspace yourself :

Workspace colours.pdf

(592.87 KiB) Downloaded 54 times

Have fun !
Jean-Luc

[Jean-Luc]

Joe,
you may try to change the color workspace yourself :
http://ovh.to/xu4HqYG
Have fun !
Jean-Luc

For example...:

[JoeB]

.../... Is there a way to be able to keep the dark grey color for everything else but change the color of the actual workspace (i.e., the area in which you open and wok on an image) to medium grey? In PSP9 my workspace window is grey and my menus, palettes, etc, are a different color from the workspace window.
.../...

Joe,
you may try to change the color workspace yourself :
http://ovh.to/xu4HqYG
Have fun !
Jean-Luc

Thanks for the reg file! It looks from the image at the bottom of the pdf that I should be able to just change that workspace window color and leave everything else as is. I do prefer the dark grey/almost black for the menus, etc., because I find the white text on black/dark grey stands out much better than any of the other available workspace options in X7. I'll likely play around with this on the weekend.

Now, I have just briefly skimmed the PDF so not even sure what I'm expected to do. With that caveat, I have just one important question.

While I know it says I should back up the registry, the only place this reg file will play around with (if I understand properly) are the registry entries for workspace colors for PSPX. Is that correct? If so, I really would only want to back up the present default entries in case I mess things up with the new entries. So I'm wondering if one of the two options below would be the better choice and if the first one is possible:

1) Never having done this, can I just back up the specific registry entries that might get messed up with this reg file, and specifically what would I back up?

2) Perhaps an easier choice would be to create a restore point immediately prior to using the new reg file and then test PSP. If things get messed up then, as long as I haven't installed or changed anything else on my OS in the meantime, I could restore my restore point and things should be back to normal.

Any comments?

[JoeB]

I would like to add that perhaps I might find the answer to the questions I asked above once I have had time to read that pdf more carefully. In the meantime, one thing I notice from the image that I like is that the separators can be made a lighter grey (which I am guessing is whatever color you assign to the Page Background color). That's something I asked for a couple of days ago in the Wish List thread, so that would be something else I should be able to achieve with this code. I am assuming that once these changes are made a person can just save the new workspace as a different name from the present one and that would preserve the old workspace I had been using?

[JoeB]

Replying to myself again, I have answered some of my questions by experimenting, and not happy with the answers.

First, I backed up what I thought was the the proper sub=key in Registry - i.e., UI Configuration in the correct path as shown in the pdf.

Next, I created a System Restore point.

I used Notepad and saved the blue stuff from the PDF as couleurs_pspX7.reg as per instructions.

As I don't use the Light Gray workspace and never intend to, I just left the registry code I had saved as it appeared in the PDF.

I double-clicked the new reg file to install it. It worked.

Opened PSPX7 and changed my workspace color from Dark to the new Light gray.

I HAD make the assumption that the image at the end of the PDF was a reflection of the result that this new registry configuration would give if I were to install the newly created .reg file (which was an incorrect assumption). I had also assume that Jean-Luc's example image was something else he had created himself just for fun, given how garish it was. However, it turned out that the new reg configuration resulted in a workspace color identical to the example shown by Jean-Luc, not the one at the end of the PDF.

No problem, I thought.

Went to my backup of UIConfiguation.reg and double clicked, and windows said it correctly installed. However, opening PSP and going to the Light workspace color still gives the garish one.

So did a System Restore to the point I had created just prior to modifying the registry with the new reg file. The restore failed. I hadn't changed anything except as outlined above.

So I guess that the bottom line is that even backing up the registry and doing a system restore is not sufficient to ensure that a registry edit can be undone.

However, I am lucky in that I would never use the light gray workspace color anyway (I'd use either Dark or Medium) so it's no real loss and likely a learning experience. So I guess my next step will be to just try to figure out how to preserve my Dark workspace color and learn how to change just the main workspace window and page background color (assuming the latter will give me lighter colored separators).

[JoeB]

OK, I'm stumped. Jean-Luc kindly provided a reg file that can be played with to modify workspace background colors, and I started by simply letting the registry editors merge that reg file, and that gave me a workspace color scheme (when selecting the Light Grey option) that is definitely distinctive but not practical. That's OK with me because I don't use Light Grey so that's a good color scheme for me to experiment with. So, to experiment, I then used Notepad and made a few changes with some of the hex color codes and merged that reg file. When I open the Light Grey folder in the registry I can see that those values have been modified, but I can't see any changes in the workspace color in PSPX7.

But here's the really confusing part for me. I used the color dropper to sample several different colors from the new light grey workspace color (e.g., the deep salmonish colors of the buttons, the light grey of the workspace window, the darker grey of the menu bar). Then I searched for the hex codes of these colors in the reg file that was provided, as well as in the registry entries on my computer using the registry editor. My plan was to find out where these codes existed in the reg files and modify them with different hex values to see what effect they would have on the workspace color.

The problem is that NONE of those hex color codes appear in either the original reg file I downloaded OR in the registry entries that appear in the Light folder using the registry editor!

So can anyone with some knowledge of this stuff help this poor soul by a hint or two as to how one is supposed to modify the registry entries - as suggested by the PDF file - if I can't even find the hex colors in that reg file that should correspond to the colors that show in the new workspace colors. Any and all help would be most appreciated!

NOTE: I have finally figured out that using the reg file created from the pdf does not permanently change my Light workspace colors, it only adds some modifications to the Default registry value (which itself can't be displayed to allow modifications). So by simply deleting all of the entries created by the new reg file (NOT the Default one!!) the Light workspace color option goes back to what it should be.

[Jean-Luc]

Here the .reg file seen in my PDF ...

Jean-Luc

[Jean-Luc]

The extension .reg is not allowed on the WebBoard. My file was rejected...
I've renamed the .reg with .doc
If the file is accepted here, rename it with the extention .reg (remove the .doc)
Jean-Luc

[JoeB]

The extension .reg is not allowed on the WebBoard. My file was rejected...
I've renamed the .reg with .doc
If the file is accepted here, rename it with the extention .reg (remove the .doc)
Jean-Luc

Don't see the file. Maybe zip it?

[Jean-Luc]

Pfiew ! It is a pain...
Not allowed...
Here the ZIP file:

X7-couleurs.zip

(4.63 KiB) Downloaded 59 times