103455 - Background of folder list and message list is always white

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 93583

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, enhancement)

Description

[Joe Peterson]

I'd like to be able to change the color of these panes.  White is so blinding,
especially if one prefers light text on dark windows...  Note, this is linux
version.

Comment 1

[laurel]

*** Bug 121611 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 2

[brian]

can some one change the OS to All?

like to be able to use the appearance -> colour settings from the prefs to
change the b/g colour of the panes

Comment 3

[Jesse Ruderman]

Bug 63809 covers the message pane.

Comment 4

[Lapo Luchini]

This is a dupe (a subset, actually) of bug 151881.

Comment 5

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 351173 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Here's what I use to workaround the problem:

Edit (or create) userChrome.css (in the Chrome directory of your profile) and add these lines:

/* Overriding theme coloration in tree panes */
#folderTree, #threadTree
{
  background-color: Window !important;
}

There are probably similar IDs for address book etc.  These settings could be made in a theme, and probably should be in the Classic theme -- Thunderbird uses the Windows default colors in qute, rather than imposing colors on these panes.

Comment 7

[Johannes Leushuis]

Thanks, it works!

But now the "Subject or Sender contains:" field in the upper right corner of the mail window remains white, still irritating my eyes.

I guess this is the same problem as the URL-bar in the Seamonkey browser remaining white, when you change the background colour of the browser and set to ignore the specified colours of the web pages. Still irritates.

You say "Thunderbird uses the Windows default colors in qute, rather than imposing colors on these panes." If this is done also in Seamonkey, would this mean that also all backgrounds in Seamonkey turn to Windows default colours (e.g. light grey) when Windows default colours are chosen in the preferences panel of Seamonkey?

Can it be done?

Thanks even more.

Johannes

Comment 8

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #7)
> But now the "Subject or Sender contains:" field in the upper right corner of
> the mail window remains white, still irritating my eyes.

Use the DOM Inspector to figure out the ID of that field, and add the ID to the list of selectors in the same chrome file.

> You say "Thunderbird uses the Windows default colors in qute, rather than
> imposing colors on these panes." If this is done also in Seamonkey, would this
> mean that also all backgrounds in Seamonkey turn to Windows default colours
> (e.g. light grey) when Windows default colours are chosen in the preferences
> panel of Seamonkey?
> 
> Can it be done?

That preference applies system colors to rendered pages, not to chrome.  (In mail, that applies to the rendering of the message.)  Chrome is set up in the theme.  There may be themes for Seamonkey which use or allow system colors.

Comment 9

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

Any user can fine-tune the rendering of both Chrome and Content by means of <profile>/chrome/userChrome.css and <profile>/chrome/userContent.css, in addition, of course, to selecting a theme. The DOM Inspector component (or extension) can be a quite useful tool for that purpose.

I expect this bug will be called WONTFIX.

Comment 10

[Joe Peterson]

I actually do use userChrome.css, etc., now to set various colors, etc., so yep, that works.  It's definitely a "project" to set up, but at least it can be done (also, one has to make sure these files are copied to other machines to get the same effect - can't just rely on a simple prefs file).

If a few colors could be chosen in a simple UI within Thunderbird (and thereby avoid having to go the userChrome route for relatively simple coloring), I think it would go 98% of the way toward what anyone would need.

However, I certainly understand if you decide to close this as WONTFIX, given that it *can* be done in other ways at this point.  Just food for thought.

Comment 11

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

I don't have the power to close this WONTFIX, that's for the higher-up guys; but I like the black text on white background -- I can understand other people have other likings though; but I suppose the right place to cater to such various likings is with various add-ons -- of the "theme" category.

Comment 12

[Johannes Leushuis]

If there are four duplicate bugs of this, then it is urgent. Furthermore it is not a question of "liking", I just can't stand white backgrounds any more, regardless of my computer screen settings, otherwise I can't work with Seamonkey mail any more. So the severity is not "enhancement" for me, but "critical".

I use the solution given by Mike above, but although I work with Seamonkey for years it has costed me also years to figure out through this bug sytem how to change the advanced settings. We are not all specialists however, perhaps especially handicapped people. So it the more urgent for them that this colour matter can be settled in the normal (UI) way.

And we are not asking to make anything new. If the background colours are changed in the normal UI-preference settings (Edit-menu, Preferences, Appearance, Colours) then "Use my chosen colors, ignoring the colors and background image specified" is used to override the normal background settings even more.

Now we are only asking that this should work universally, for all window backgrounds (in Navigator, Composer and Mail & Newsgroups) - not just for some window backgrounds. After all, in the UI Preference window, the Appearence section (with Fonts, Colors, Themes and Languages/Content) precedes the Navigator, Composer and Mail & Newsgroups sections. So these general settings should rule all of these subprograms - and all windows of them.

(In Opera - although made with special attention for handicapped users - it is worse. There is no way to indicate that my chosen colours have preference over the colours and background image specified, but by using the user.css file, which takes also time to find out. The option "Always use this color as background" was thrown out after Opera 3.21 - so much for the handicapped users)

In Seamonkey the theory - the lay-out of the UI-Preferences - panel is there and great, but the practise does not work yet.

And the programming should become simpler - using one background colour instead of many!