Open Bug 221972 Opened 21 years ago Updated 3 years ago

customizable palette for HTML compose

Categories

(SeaMonkey :: Composer, enhancement)

enhancement
Not set
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: mohr.42, Unassigned)

Details

(Keywords: helpwanted)

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5a) Gecko/20030728 Mozilla Firebird/0.6.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5a) Gecko/20030728 Mozilla Firebird/0.6.1

The palette for background and text colors in HTML compose should be
customizable.  It could have a set number of base colors that don't change, and
then a set number of customizable colors that users define (using color codes,
to make things simpler).

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Changing component to one that actually handles this code...
Assignee: sspitzer → composer
Component: Composition → Editor: Composer
Product: MailNews → Browser
Marking dupe because I'd already seen the related Composer bug when I filed this
under MailNews.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 90665 ***
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 21 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
Product: Browser → Seamonkey
I don't see how this is a duplicate of 90665. That bug addresses the subject of creating a menu item that enables the user to repeat a formatting action. Assigning a text color is one possible formatting action among many others. That would be extremely useful, but it doesn't really pertain to this bug.

This bug has to do with the fact that the EXISTING palette is inadequate. For example, it doesn't contain blue (#0000ff). I mean, it's not exactly a bizarre, uncommon color. If I want to format text in pure blue, here are the steps I must now take:
- Pull down the text menu to "Text Color...", or click on the text color palette icon in the toolbar.
- Place the cursor in the text box and click
- Type in the "#0000ff" HTML color string
- Click "OK"

Once I have done that, I agree that it would be very useful to be able to type a hot key combination to repeat that formatting action, as 90665 proposes, but that will only work if I must repeat the action in continuous succession. 90665 doesn't help me avoid having to type "#0000ff" the next time I want blue...or any other color I repeatedly use that's not included in the standard palette. A customizable palette would solve that problem.

[Devil's Advocate: At the very least, why not change the standard palette to include blue? I'm resisting filing that as its own bug. (heh)]

I suppose that another way to fix this would be to have all the colors in the existing palette show up as a submenu of the "Text Color..." menu, but in order to be useful they would have to be listed as their HTML text strings, which could then be edited to provide, in essence, a user customizable palette.

Hmmm...actually, that would require user-definable menu items, which SeaMonkey doesn't have yet, as far as I know. Once the menu items exist, they can easily be assigned hot key combinations in OS X System Preferences, but that doesn't help users of other systems that don't provide that capability.

But couldn't user-defined colors be implemented in Preferences? For example, Preferences:Appearance:Colors currently provides 5 options for specifying user-select colors (Text, Background, Unvisited Links, Active Links, Visited Links) -- albeit the choices are still limited to the standard palette (aaarrrggghh!!!). There's even a checkbox that instructs SeaMonkey to "Use system colors". So obviously, SeaMonkey already has the conditional ability to look somewhere else for instructions as to its color implementation. 

Couldn't the Preferences:Appearance:Colors options include a button that brings up a dialog box in which a user-defined HTML text string can be entered for each color in the palette? For purists, I suppose there could be a "Restore Default Palette" button. If someone can tell me where the HTML text strings for the standard palette are located, maybe I can play with it.

In any case, it seems a shame that this bug was marked as a duplicate of 90665 early on. It seems that stimulating a discussion of possible fixes is perfectly consistent with Bugzilla's purpose.
Looking at the two bugs now, they do appear different, but related.  Reopening.

I should note that I no longer have time to follow bugzilla, and am only responding to this due to a personal email from <freevito@mac.com>.
Status: RESOLVED → UNCONFIRMED
Resolution: DUPLICATE → ---
Freevito, are you still interested in seeing this enhancement implemented? The reporter said two years ago (comment #4) that he isn't following bugmail anymore. (Or, Robert, are you again?)

Is this bug not yet fixed?

Is anyone willing to fix it?
Tony: Yes, I'm still interested in seeing this enhancement implemented, but I'm not a coder, and I don't know where the palette resides. I'd be willing to play with it if someone would point me in the right direction, though. After many years of having to enter code for colors I use all the time—colors that aren't included in the standard palette—I'm willing to learn what to do in order to make it happen.

Alas, this is probably not high on the Mozilla team's priority list. When I filed the bug, the Moz suite was still under active development. Since then, the suite has migrated to SeaMonkey, and the SeaMonkey team apparently has even fewer resources now. Also, you'll note that there is one solitary vote for this bug...mine. Apparently there are no others who want this enhancement enough to vote for it. It's not likely to go anywhere without more votes.
In reply to comment #6
I see. I'm not a coder myself; I'm just volunteering some of my time to triage bugs.

Neil, do you know someone who could help (and be willing)? If you don't (or after adding him), feel free to remove yourself.
Keywords: helpwanted
No reply to comment #7.
Resetting A+QA: takers welcome!
Assignee: composer → nobody
QA Contact: esther → composer
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
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