Say it Ain't So - Word 2007/Vista have taken away my Color Control

[RBlan]

From Windows 3.1 through XP I have been able to choose all the colors I must
look at while working in Word all day long. I like warm gray border elements
and maybe very low saturation blue-green title bars.

Now I have to look at that baby blue color scheme for the rest of my life
and think of baby puke as I write? Yes, color IS subjective, dontchaknow.

Really, the philosophy behind decreasing the scope of user choice and
imposing a single color scheme on everyone smacks of arrogance out of control
and beyond belief!

Yes, I turned off Aero and went back to Classic. (And I sort of liked Aero,
despite its low-visibility titles problem) Classic works for Notepad, IE,
etc. It makes no difference on others: Word will be blue, and so will
Windows Live Mail (a different blue -- go figure), and who knows what else.
No more blue screen of death, just life imprisonment, eh?

Or maybe, I'm just missing that magic control panel that allows you to make
things just the way you like them? I'm about ready to downgrade to XP, I
think. This is getting frustrating...

 

[Graham Mayor]

What you see is what you get.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi R.,

At present activating the Accessibility display features in the control panel and setting up a theme/color scheme from that list, is
pretty much the only way to override the 3 built in color schemes in Office 2007

Blue - Windows XP default color set

Black - Windows Vista default color set

Silver/grey - Plain rather than gradient background - can make recording onscreen tutorial or capturing screen shots for printed
documents clearer.

There are some side effects from using the Accessibility settings as many of the 'graphic effects' in the display are removed.

FWIW, a large number of business users never get to see anything at work other than the default color set, day after day, that is
setup in Windows

==============
From Windows 3.1 through XP I have been able to choose all the colors I must
look at while working in Word all day long. I like warm gray border elements
and maybe very low saturation blue-green title bars.

Now I have to look at that baby blue color scheme for the rest of my life
and think of baby puke as I write? Yes, color IS subjective, dontchaknow.

Really, the philosophy behind decreasing the scope of user choice and
imposing a single color scheme on everyone smacks of arrogance out of control
and beyond belief!

Yes, I turned off Aero and went back to Classic. (And I sort of liked Aero,
despite its low-visibility titles problem) Classic works for Notepad, IE,
etc. It makes no difference on others: Word will be blue, and so will
Windows Live Mail (a different blue -- go figure), and who knows what else.
No more blue screen of death, just life imprisonment, eh?

Or maybe, I'm just missing that magic control panel that allows you to make
things just the way you like them? I'm about ready to downgrade to XP, I
think. This is getting frustrating...>>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[RBlan]

: What you see is what you get.

At present activating the Accessibility display features in the control panel and setting up a theme/color scheme from that list, is
pretty much the only way to override the 3 built in color schemes in Office 2007

I would like to see that Accessibility Silver/Gray theme. Either I don't
have that on My Vista Ultimate 64 bit computer or it's something else I
found. After reaching Control Panel the closest item is "Ease of Access
Center" which offers only "High Contrast". There is also a "Make the computer
easier to see / Optimize visual display" option.

That offers a "Choose a High Contrast color scheme" link. This takes you to
Appearance Settings which offers you the following color schemes: Windows
Aero, Windows Vista Basic, Windows Standard, Windows Classic... You can pick
your colors in any of those, but it will have no effect on Word 2007 or
Windows Live Mail, and who knows what else. Appearance Settings also offers
High Contrast White, High Contrast Black, High Contrast #2, and High Contrast
#1. You can click on any of those to see their default color schemes, perhaps
useful to some.

The closest thing I saw to a Silver/Gray theme was the first item, High
Contrast White. Stark, to say the least. It will change the Border and Menu
colors on Word 2007, however, unlike the first four.

Now here's the weird thing: If you click on the "Advanced" button for High
Contrast White (and I assume the other High Contrast choices but I didn't get
that far), you get the Advanced Appearances dialog that allows you to change
all the traditional appearance parameters. In fact, I just checked, you get
the same 'High Contrast" options and the ability to modify them directly from
the Control Panel - Personalization - Window Color and Appearance. (The
actual paths have different names depending on whether you use the Vista or
Classic view, just to keep things simple.)

There is a warning that says "Colors and sizes selected here only apply if
you have selected a Windows Classic color scheme. If any other scheme is
applied, these colors and sizes might not appear." Yeah, especially in Word
97, right?

Guess what folks? If you are willing to go to the classic windows look, you
can have Word 97 (and all your other windows) in any color you want. Just
Pick those colors
inside a "High Contrast" Advanced dialog, they can be low contrast or
whatever you like. One exception is the blue "New-Reply-Reply All- etc, menu
strip on Windows Live Mail, which seems to be some kind of graphic
superimposed on the rest of the window. But Word looks good if you play with
it a little -- be sure to use the drop-down menu of items that can be
manipulated, you can't reach most of them by clicking on the graphics. I
adjusted my Desktop icon size and separation while I was at it. Unfortunately
you can't save multiple schemes as you could on earlier Windows, but that's
true of any of Vista's schemes -- Choice is bad -- MS knows best, right?

Please don't tell MS about this workaround for getting your own color scheme
in Word 97. They might repair that bug in their next update.

--RB

 

[RBlan]

:

Unfortunately

you can't save multiple schemes as you could on earlier Windows, but that's
true of any of Vista's schemes -- Choice is bad -- MS knows best, right?

Correction: You can save your new scheme and then play with others. You Just
can't save it from the same dialog where you created it. Make your scheme,
click OK, and then go back to "Personalize" and select "Theme".

You can give your new scheme a name and save it from this new dialog. I
guess choice is not _always_ bad.

-RB

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You misunderstood Bob. The color scheme choice is for Office 2007, not
Vista. In Word, click the Office button, then Word Options. Under Popular,
there is a dropdown list for "Color scheme" that offers Blue, Black, and
Silver.

 

[RBlan]

You misunderstood Bob. The color scheme choice is for Office 2007, not
Vista. In Word, click the Office button, then Word Options. Under Popular,
there is a dropdown list for "Color scheme" that offers Blue, Black, and
Silver.

Okay that was not hard to find, since you put it that way. I guess what I
discovered was what Bob was trying to describe in the first place. Thanks.

By the way, the 'Silver" Aero theme in Word 2007 does not irritate me, so
I'll probably use it sometimes. I saved it with my warm gray border theme as
one of my Aero themes along with my warm gray "accessibility" classic windows
theme. Thanks.

-RB