Change default colour used to display selected text?

[catkin]

Hello

Is it possible to change the colour used by Writer 3.1.1 to identify selected text?

After using "Find and Replace" to search for and select text, the default pale blue used since 3.1 does not stand out clearly against a white background. It takes more time than necessary to locate by scanning the page.

EDIT: this is particularly problematic for short search strings and for search targets found in both the Table of Contents (blue text on grey background) and URLs (blue text).

Best

Charles

[For the benefit of search engines: "colour" is also spelled "color"]

[Robert Tucker]

I think this is an operating system problem. Is the selected background colour not the same in all your applications?

On Linux the solution would be: System>Preferences Appearance, select Theme and then click Customize and go to the Colors tab.

On Windows I think you need the Advanced Appearance options. See:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310543
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproui/thread/ac76cc56-6ff2-4778-b260-8141d7170a3b
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LibreOffice 3.6.6 on Fedora 18, LibreOffice 4.0.2 on Ubuntu 13.04 (Double Boot)

[catkin]

Thanks Robert

AFAIK it is not an OS setting. The pale blue colour is not used to denote selection in any apps other than OOo. The same idea was suggested in an earlier oooforum thread (http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=78868) where it was established that the colour is specific to OOo.

It was also established that the colour could not be changed but that was prior to OOo 3.1. I am hoping that the colour can now be changed.

Best

Charles

[peterroots]

I have 3.1 and can not see an option to change the search highlight colour. However my blue is not really light and shows up fine against a blue, un-followed link for example.
Maybe it is style dependant, on Kubuntu the default style is Oxygen (talking about the appearance of ooo not styles in docs)
If you are using Linux you could try an alternative style and see if it changes anything.
I have no idea if this is possible in windows though.
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Kubuntu 11.10 LibreOffice3.4.4

[catkin]

Thanks Peter

I'm using Xfce 4.6.1 desktop (on Slackware 13.0) and ran through all the Appearance Styles. The highlight colour of selected text never changed although it did stand out with style Xfce-dusk. Unfortunately black text on a nearly black document background was then very hard to read!

Best

Charles

[Robert Tucker]

On Gnome on Fedora the background of selected text can definitely be changed at System>Preferences>Appearance, Theme Tab, Customize button, Selected items button.
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LibreOffice 3.6.6 on Fedora 18, LibreOffice 4.0.2 on Ubuntu 13.04 (Double Boot)

[catkin]

[catkin]

The issue seems to be that OOo 3.1.1, as installed from OOo_3.1.1_LinuxIntel_install_en-US.tar.gz, does not respond to gtk themes.

Has anyone been able to change the highlight colour of selected text in OOo installed from OOo_3.1.1_LinuxIntel_install_en-US.tar.gz using gtk settings, via a GUI interface or otherwise -- such as a ~/.gtkrc file?

As described in this Linux Questions post, the issue was demonstrated by watching an OOo Writer window and a Mousepad (Xfce text editor) window, both displaying selected text, while selecting successive "Settings->Appearance->Style"s. The colour used to highlight selected text in the Mousepad window changed while it remained unchanged in the OOo Writer window.

[vic]

As a new (potential) OOoW user, I came to the forum looking for help with exactly the same problem, so I'm glad I found this thread. Here, for what it's worth, is a suggestion for the original poster.

I tried out different page background colours (Format/Page/Background) and discovered that using Blue-Gray as background colour made the selection stand out just a little bit better. Most other colours made it worse, but that may depend on your monitor etc. The visibility of other elements seems so far unimpaired.

You'd think that making the selection colour optional would be a pretty trivial task for a programmer. Or wouldn't it?

Edit: I just discovered I can set the Open Office document background colour under Options, which is even more convenient for my purposes.

regards, Vic

[catkin]

Thanks for the suggested workaround, vic
_________________
OOo 3.2.1 on Slackware64 13.1 with Xfce desktop
Registry Workshop (SourceForge project, based on OOo Calc)

[vamped]

[dooshra]

Hi all
In order to make selection in all OOo applications more visible, go to Tools> Options> View.
look for Selection-Transparency.
Decrease the value or un-check the check box.
Good Luck
PS this option is available in OOo 3.2 and not in 3.1

[vic]

I was still using version 3.1, but I just installed 3.2.1 and they have fixed it! Thanks to the OOoTeam, and thanks Dooshra for drawing attention to it
Vic

[lancerkind]

You change it by navigating to the setting for the View selection transparency.
On OSX: preferences. In dialog, beneath OpenOffice.org tree select View. Look the panel for Selection. Play with the transparency setting.

What you're doing is deciding how transparent the highlight box should be.
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==>Lancer---

[viper_wolf]

Disabling the transparency made selection at least visible on my laptop, but it's not ideal since it's white text on black background. Would still be great if OpenOffice let us change the color within the application it's self (of both the highlight both and the text). Decreasing the transparency is no where near ideal since it fades out the text as well. If the selection box was drawn under the text, then it would have been an option. My laptop monitor needs colors that contrast each other or it's just not visible.