I would like to darken some of the colors in the 'Basic -Dark' theme (or a copy of that theme). So far, the documentation I have found (in a 6 year old thread here) says "just change the colors to what you want." Sadly, there appear to be only three color settings in the basic dark theme. I've poked around and tried to guess what things are and come up with this (in my theme's Custom.xaml file):
But, I cannot find anything that changes the background color for the button under the mouse. Those MouseOver items seem like they should, but they don't.
...So... Is there any actual documentation on what all of these different settings mean?
Oh, I also tried using my browser to look at the schemas links, but both produced this message "The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable." Did I do that wrong, or are those obsolete?
Finally, I noticed the Customize button in my theme selection dialog is disabled. I assume that's expected and there may actually be a tool for customizing the themes coming soon? Any schedule on that?
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The theming system was changed in 1.26.1.0. This was changed because maintenance and support was to tedious and complicated. The Basic - XXXX themes changes all necessary properties by just changing 3 settings. It is easier for most users. If you want to change some details, you will need to copy and customize the Detailed - XXXX theme. There is no documentation for the theme properties. They are in English and are pretty self explanatory and "most" are updated instantaneously.
FYI: The xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation", is an XML namespace tag. It does not necessarily need to exist. Actually it can be anything as long as it is unique. This URL is added by Microsoft to conform to a particular convention.
To customize a bundled theme (Basic -XXX X or Detailed - XXXX), make a copy by clicking the Copy button.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
First, thanks for the explanation, it helps a little, at least. (smile)
Second, does that mean there's no way to change the 'MouseOver' color used in the buttons without also changing something else? As I said, I changed all the 'MouseOver' colors I could find and there was no effect.
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You cannot change the 'MouseOver' color used simply by editing the Custom.xaml file of the Basic theme. You need to make a copy of the Detailed theme and make changes there.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I'd though the "Customize" button wasn't implemented yet... Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it activates a tool for themes based of 'Detailed'! (smile) Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
I have one suggestion for the theme customization tool:
Change the combo boxes that it uses from a "drop-down list" to a "drop-down" that allows me to type directly into the value field instead requiring me to use the cumbersome color selector. This would be very useful, especially since themes will often share many colors and the ability to just type in the colors directly would make theme editing almost a pleasure!
Just had another idea: The color selection panel appears to be custom (at least, it isn't the standard Windows color picker) and it might benefit from the inclusion of the current theme colors to make re-using the same color easier when the theme's colors aren't in the default color set (which is probably the most common situation.)
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
As for using the same color for other elements, you can click on the dropdown arrow button, click on the Advanced button, cut/paste in the area above the R(ed) where it show the Hexadecimal representation of the color (eg. #FFD4FFFF)
As for changing the interface, that part of the program is an old third-party tool. I do not have the code for it. :-(
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Advanced... Yes, that was the very cumbersome method I referenced. (smile) I was just hoping you had access to the initial drop-list so that it might be changed to a drop-down so that we could type/paste into it without ever activating the other tool. But, I guess that the entire theme editor is a 3rd party thing, or at least the control used for color selection is, right from the start, a fully packaged custom control. Oh well, I hope it didn't hurt to ask! (grin) Thanks for your help. I used Microsoft's Color Picker PowerToy to grab the colors that Explorer was using, so I think my Dark Mode-ish theme is pretty nice (sample at https://www.svalli.com/files/MyDarkMode.png in case the image below doesn't work right):
I would like to darken some of the colors in the 'Basic -Dark' theme (or a copy of that theme). So far, the documentation I have found (in a 6 year old thread here) says "just change the colors to what you want." Sadly, there appear to be only three color settings in the basic dark theme. I've poked around and tried to guess what things are and come up with this (in my theme's Custom.xaml file):
But, I cannot find anything that changes the background color for the button under the mouse. Those MouseOver items seem like they should, but they don't.
...So... Is there any actual documentation on what all of these different settings mean?
Oh, I also tried using my browser to look at the schemas links, but both produced this message "The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable." Did I do that wrong, or are those obsolete?
Finally, I noticed the Customize button in my theme selection dialog is disabled. I assume that's expected and there may actually be a tool for customizing the themes coming soon? Any schedule on that?
The theming system was changed in 1.26.1.0. This was changed because maintenance and support was to tedious and complicated. The Basic - XXXX themes changes all necessary properties by just changing 3 settings. It is easier for most users. If you want to change some details, you will need to copy and customize the Detailed - XXXX theme. There is no documentation for the theme properties. They are in English and are pretty self explanatory and "most" are updated instantaneously.
FYI: The xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation", is an XML namespace tag. It does not necessarily need to exist. Actually it can be anything as long as it is unique. This URL is added by Microsoft to conform to a particular convention.
To customize a bundled theme (Basic -XXX X or Detailed - XXXX), make a copy by clicking the Copy button.
First, thanks for the explanation, it helps a little, at least. (smile)
Second, does that mean there's no way to change the 'MouseOver' color used in the buttons without also changing something else? As I said, I changed all the 'MouseOver' colors I could find and there was no effect.
You cannot change the 'MouseOver' color used simply by editing the Custom.xaml file of the Basic theme. You need to make a copy of the Detailed theme and make changes there.
I'd though the "Customize" button wasn't implemented yet... Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it activates a tool for themes based of 'Detailed'! (smile) Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
I have one suggestion for the theme customization tool:
Change the combo boxes that it uses from a "drop-down list" to a "drop-down" that allows me to type directly into the value field instead requiring me to use the cumbersome color selector. This would be very useful, especially since themes will often share many colors and the ability to just type in the colors directly would make theme editing almost a pleasure!
Just had another idea: The color selection panel appears to be custom (at least, it isn't the standard Windows color picker) and it might benefit from the inclusion of the current theme colors to make re-using the same color easier when the theme's colors aren't in the default color set (which is probably the most common situation.)
As for using the same color for other elements, you can click on the dropdown arrow button, click on the Advanced button, cut/paste in the area above the R(ed) where it show the Hexadecimal representation of the color (eg. #FFD4FFFF)
As for changing the interface, that part of the program is an old third-party tool. I do not have the code for it. :-(
Advanced... Yes, that was the very cumbersome method I referenced. (smile) I was just hoping you had access to the initial drop-list so that it might be changed to a drop-down so that we could type/paste into it without ever activating the other tool. But, I guess that the entire theme editor is a 3rd party thing, or at least the control used for color selection is, right from the start, a fully packaged custom control. Oh well, I hope it didn't hurt to ask! (grin) Thanks for your help. I used Microsoft's Color Picker PowerToy to grab the colors that Explorer was using, so I think my Dark Mode-ish theme is pretty nice (sample at https://www.svalli.com/files/MyDarkMode.png in case the image below doesn't work right):
Here are the theme files, if you or anyone else want them: MyDarkMode MaxLauncher Theme