Column headers always shown in white color

[karlchen]

Hello, Boofo.

TabHeaderThemed to 0 and it looks better without all the white. I added TabHeaderBoldArrow=1 to the INI file and the colors are the same whether that is tunned off or on.

The setting TabHeaderThemed=0 is meant to make T.C. 7.50 display the tab headers exactly as T.C. 7.04a did, including the thin up- and down arrow which indicates the sorting order, ascending or descending.
This is what TabHeaderThemed=0 will do.

The setting TabHeaderThemed=1 is meant to make T.C. 7.50 take into consideration the active Windows theme including the selected colour scheme for the tab headers as well, plus display a thicker up- and down arrow which indicates the sorting order, ascending or descending.

The setting TabHeaderBoldArrow=1 or 0 will have no effect on the colours. It is meant to allow you to choose between the old style up/down arrow and the new fat arrow, independently of the TabHeaderThemed parameter.

If you do not set TabHeaderBoldArrow explicitly, the rules are these:
+ TabHeaderThemed=1 => TabHeaderBoldArrow=1
+ TabHeaderThemed=0 => TabHeaderBoldArrow=0

Kind regards,
Karl

[Boofo]

When I had TabHeaderThemed=1 and no TabHeaderBoldArrow in the INI file, the arrow was the thin long one. It didn't become the thck short one until I turned it on. So, what is the optimal setting for that then. And can you change the colors for the focused tab?

I would like to see someone come up with a program to go through the INI files on a new major release and flag the settings that are no longer available or have changed. I'm using the same INI file that I have for the last two years. I just install over the prior version and hope the INI files are taken care of.

[karlchen]

Hi, Boofo.

I'm using the same INI file that I have for the last two years. I just install over the prior version and hope the INI files are taken care of.

So do quite a lot of T.C. users. E.g. my current wincmd.ini is the T.C. 7.04a wincmd.ini plus some of the newly introduced parameters.
You can be reasonably sure that T.C. 7.50 is downward compatible, i.e. it will understand and respect any old parameter which it finds.

The parameters TabHeaderThemed and TabHeaderBoldArrow have both been introduced in T.C. 7.50.
Whenever you change them, you need to stop and start T.C. to see the effect.

When I had TabHeaderThemed=1 and no TabHeaderBoldArrow in the INI file, the arrow was the thin long one.

Hm, this is how I started as well. But T.C. displayed the new fat little arrow from the start.
When using TabHeaderThemed=0 I got back the T.C. 7.04 tab headers including the old T.C. 7.04a arrow. (It is much older than T.C. 7.04a in fact.)

The TabHeaderBoldArrow parameter was added to the [Layout] section only in order to find out whether it were possible to combine
+ TabHeaderThemed=1 and TabHeaderBoldArrow=0
+ TabHeaderThemed=0 and TabHeaderBoldArrow=1
i.e. to find out whether TabHeaderThemed and TabHeaderBoldArrow could really be set independently of each other. - Yes, this works perfectly here on my Windows XP system.

Kind regards,
Karl

[Boofo]

It still would be nice to get rid of what is not needed any longer in the INI files.

[ghisler(Author)]

So regarding the title of the thread, where is the bug? Even with silver theme the header is never 100% white, it has a shadow at the bottom. How will I get the all-white header bug?

[Boofo]

I think they were maybe wanting a selectable color option for it? Unless I was reading it wrong. I got used to it so it is no real biggie for me. That's what I get for picking the silver theme.

[ghisler(Author)]

I see - TC can just tell the theme "draw yourself", but it cannot control the color of the element the theme draws...

[karlchen]

Well, depending on the Windows version which you use you can choose different system-wide colour schemes. By default, Windows XP will offer 3 pre-defined colour schemes, Vista offers 8.

Moreover you are free to modify the colours which the predefined colour scheme uses thus creating your own colour scheme.

Nonetheless the look which you get inside Total Commander after you have configured TabHeaderThemed=1 may not be what you expect and/or it may not be to your liking.

This can hardly be called a bug.

It is impossible to make sure that the result which TabHeaderThemed=1 yields on a given Windows system using a particular system-wide colour scheme, be it a predefined or a self-configured colour scheme, will please the user in all cases.

Therefore I tend to suggest to leave the implementation of TabHeaderThemed=1 as it is.

Whoever does not like the resulting look is free to try out any possible combination of TabHeaderThemed=0/1 and TabHeaderBoldArrow=0/1 and choose the look which they like best. Moreover, it is possible to re-configure the selected system-wide colour scheme. This, however, may yield results in other applications which are not desirable, either.

The alternative to keeping the current implementation would be to implement a Total Commander specific colour scheme which would have to be completely configurable by the user. Yet, I am not sure that this will be worth the time and effort.

Kind regards,
Karl

[Boofo]

Aas much as I like TC, the look of the default skin is what is lacking in it. Other file managers have moved on from that. TC is going to have to someday, too. It's inevbitable.

[karlchen]

Hi, Boofo.

There are quite a few people who will agree with your point of view. And I do not object. Once upon a time in a not too far away future, the complete Total Commander user interface should be subjected to a thorough redesign.

Yet, from my point of view it will be more important to redesign the dialogue boxes in order to make them more user friendly. In particular I hope that all the configuration dialogues will be redesigned in such a way that all of the parameters which can only be changed by editing the wincmd.ini directly will be configurable through the configuration dialogues. If this has been achieved things like integrating the current Windows theme better or completely into the T.C. GUI should be adressed. - Other users may prefer a different order, of course.

Cheers,
Karl

[Boofo]

Yes, the would be good to have the settings available like that. Have them in the area that they are used in.

I was reading online this morning and I came across a blog that was talking about what file manager was the best. TC got a lot of high marks, although there were a few that went with others over TC, even FAR, if you can believe that. The main negative about TC was the look of it. They said it was outdated looking and in need of a clean overhaul. They even said the picture of it on the main site was really bad. That was the only thing they could really find bad about it. TC beat all the others for everything else. It was an interesting article. I wish I could remember where I saw it.

[ghisler(Author)]

I'm not a fan of a different theming in every program. Each time you have to re-learn what a certain button does, etc.

[Boofo]

If you could update the defualt theme, that would be a plus. I'm like you in that too many themes cause too much confusion, but times change so a theme update ever once in a while can be a good thing. TC uses the same theme it always has, doesn't it?