Problem with appearance of some programs after installing theme

[Zen_Warrior]

Hi,

first i want to say this is a great forum and you guys are awesome. I never was really into custom themes and icons and stuff. But it seems i gained some taste for it. :cheeky:

However, i ran into some issues after installing a theme. Some of my programs like audacity, open office, vlc etc. were also applied with the theme colours. But there is no way i can work with them like that.
Is there any possibility to exclude programs so that they get not affected by a theme installation?

I hope there is a solution for this.

Greetz Zen_Warrior

[YourNumbr1Fan]

Hi Zen_Warrior, welcome!

As to your inquiry concerning the colors of custom themes, like text/menu/window color, effecting programs like OO and Audacity......The only solution I'm afraid is to use a light theme that has colors you can live with. Many of the elements that an msstyle (the actual root of a theme) control are global, but not all of them. Most programs have certain elements hard-coded into them too, things that are not controlled by the theme, like text and/or menu and/or window colors, which might not look so hot with those theme-controlled elements.... There's no way to single-out or exclude any program from being affected by a global theme-property, or to force that property upon a program's hard-coded u.i. (user interface).

Example: Let's say you're using a dark theme, one that has very dark menus, etc., and the text colors that the theme creator chose are a light yellow or green or something like that...colors that would show up clearly against a dark background..., but a program you use has a white menu color hard-coded, so that yellow text becomes hard-to-see in that instance. Now let's say that you contact the theme-maker (or open the theme in WSB yourself to edit it) and get him/her to change the yellow text to black. Afterwards, you can see the text clearly in your program...but now you can't see the text against the dark menus and window colors in other parts of the theme! So...then you get the theme-maker to change the menus/window colors to a lighter color, which throws off the entire look of the theme and/or renders some other text/menu combo unreadable!....

....It's a pain in the rear trying to get a dark theme to 'play nice' with some installed programs or browsers. There are some tricks that work (color combos) in many cases, but there's just no way to get it perfect for all situations.

Your best course of action, I repeat, is to simply find a custom light theme that has colors you can live with. Or a grey one, or one that is a dark-light combo. Especially if you use your computer for working with office-related programs. Or buy yourself a copy of Windows Style Builder and learn to tinker with or create themes yourself. I'm a beginner in fooling with themes, and one of the first things I learned was that there are limits to what you can pull off when it comes to color combinations between text and menu/window colors. Light themes are MUCH easier to deal with than dark ones. I myself prefer themes that are not too dark, but dark-ish (like dark grey, or a combination of dark and light) themes that 'play nice' with a broader scope of color combos. I don't like using very light themes as a rule, ones that are eye-popping bright. Or themes that are almost jet-black dark.

Anyway, I hope I helped you understand the situation a little better. :Peace: Have a great day!

[Zen_Warrior]

Hi YourNumbr1Fan,

thank you very much for your detailed explanation. I really appreciate that you took time for this answer. :Peace:

I guess i will have to find a theme that fits my needs. But i am confident that i will find it here^^

Greetz, Zen_Warrior