Literature and Latte

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Per the attached PNG screenshot, I'd like to be able to specify the color Scrivener uses to highlight a selected item in the Binder.


In the screenshot, the Binder entry Step 4: Full Screen is selected. The highlighting of that item is close enough to the default background color of the Binder that it requires a bit of searching to locate it.

I've experimented with the Binder Background option, and am familiar with View —> Use Label Color In —> [Binder | Icons]. Both are nifty settings but neither specifically provide a way to more clearly highlight a selected Binder entry.

So assuming (uh oh) that there is currently no way to specify the Selected Binder Entry color, my wish is for that capability to be added to some future release of Scrivener.

Cheers & thanks,
Riley
SFO

I just discovered this myself; it's controlled by the OS in System Preferences->General->Highlight Color. I don't know if Scrivener could override that.

robertdguthrie wrote:I just discovered this myself; it's controlled by the OS in System Preferences->General->Highlight Color. I don't know if Scrivener could override that.

I'm on Windows 7. 'twould appear that Highlight Color is an Apple option?

I say that having poked around W7's Window Color and Appearance tool without finding an option labeled Highlight Color(?)

Cheers & thanks,
Riley
SFO

Hi Riley

In Windows 7, there are "Advanced Window Color and Appearance" settings if you're willing to use a Classic or High Contrast theme. See item 7 at:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/28 ... hange.html

Unfortunately, the Classic Theme engine is gone in Windows 8, probably to achieve a faster boot time. Microsoft exhorted developers to let the OS manage these colors, and then removed users' ability to customize them in Control Panel.

Rgds -- Jerome

sfosparky wrote:

robertdguthrie wrote:I just discovered this myself; it's controlled by the OS in System Preferences->General->Highlight Color. I don't know if Scrivener could override that.

I'm on Windows 7. 'twould appear that Highlight Color is an Apple option?

I say that having poked around W7's Window Color and Appearance tool without finding an option labeled Highlight Color(?)

Cheers & thanks,
Riley
SFO

How did I miss the difference? Huh. Sorry to muddy the waters.

JJSlote wrote:In Windows 7, there are "Advanced Window Color and Appearance" settings if you're willing to use a Classic or High Contrast theme.

Thanks, Jerome — that is in fact interesting and useful information.

But at this point, at least, I'm not willing to, figuratively speaking, have the Scrivener tail wag my Windows 7 theme's dog.

So I'll instead offer additional sacrifices to the L&L Goddess in the hopes they can provide a way of specifying the Binder's highlight color. If that turns out to be undoable, I'll learn to live with the non-choice…

Cheers & thanks 'gain,
Riley
SFO

At risk of stating the obvious, in the meantime, you should change the binder background color, so you get some contrast!

-gr

gr wrote:At risk of stating the obvious, in the meantime, you should change the binder background color, so you get some contrast!

Thanks, but per my original post:

I've experimented with the Binder Background option, and…

Cheers!
RBV

I wholeheartedly agree with the need for this. Half the time I can't even find the entry when I use "Reveal Binder". And using label colors is out of the question since they just add visual noise that I have to sift through to find my current item.

My idea: I think some sort of contrast (in addition to color) is needed for the active item. Example: Perhaps using boldface would help? Or a unique background color just for the active item? And maybe an arrow pointer to the left or right?

p.s. In the mean time, using a light yellow (like the yellow of a sun-faded legal pad) for the binder background color is about the best I've found other than white (which I'm using for my editor background).

Just chiming in with my "me too"

Thanks!
Bruce

Just a note: the lack of contrast when the binder isn't focussed is a known problem. If we could have easily sorted it out by now we would have. The highlight colour is dimmed when the Binder doesn't have focus, causing it to sink nearly entirely into the background colour. As you might guess, for the same reason we haven't found a way to adjust the highlight bar itself, we can't provide a control to customise it.

The solution is to choose a darker Binder background colour that stands out more against both the active and inactive row highlight. An example would be RGB 167/184/190.

As a work-around, I've found that (although it's a bit of a nuisance), I get good results by setting every document to a "default" label (I'm currently using the name "blank" and the color white). I also moved the "blank" label to the top of the label list, so it appears right under "none" and is easy to get to.

This approach forces the Binder to use the colored dot marker to indicate the current document. Since the dot's pretty big, and it's right-aligned, I find it very easy to locate in the tree (which in my projects contains hundreds of docs). I'm always glancing at the sub-doc counter blobs, too, and it's in the same place.

Although the extreme contrast between UN-labeled and labeled docs is rendered meaningless, now there's a new high-contrast distinction between the colored docs (since they all have labels now) and the current doc that's lost focus -- provided that you set the binder background to something dark.

I hope this may help some users. For newbies, it's worth noting that you can select lots of docs and change their labels all at once, so the nuisance factor isn't all that burdensome.

Allen

Guess which one is the current doc: