Is it possible to change the cursor colour of "NotePad" ?

On my X5 I use the EVO theme. This means that the default background is a lot whiter than the classic theme.

The issue is that the cursor in NotePad is almost not noticeable. Is it possible to make the cursor darker? I know that for MUI based I can change the general setting, but this one seems to be hardcoded and not using MUI.

You can try to find in this thread....

https://www.os4welt.de/viewtopic.php?t=2479

...but as far as I remember there are some dependencies and its hard to do. Compression (pdf maker) looks wrong with this theme too. Anyway I like the style the guys got so I hope they can modernized AOS look and still keep AOS4 spirit.

@rjd324

The textgadget cursor and other gadgets such as the string.gadget uses the shine pen for it's background.

You can change the colour it uses in GUI prefs

Darkening the shine pen may have unintended consequences though.

@rjd324


I also use the EVO theme it's really very nice, but doesn't seem to stick to the default configuration of AmigaOs4.1. There are some problems here as well.

With odyssey during input there are also problems with this theme, the cursor is not displayed. To explain the problem better I made a little video.



I also have problems with this theme when I open the Media ToolBox can you confirm this?

What you can do is go to palette prefs and change the first colour slot from 216,216,216 to something like 200,200,200. This will make the background darker in the notepad but will change that colour everywhere it is used.

For MUI open the prefs and go to the "Text" and there is a box at the right side named "Colour" which is for the cursor. Select a lighter colour and this will make the cursor visible.

The Problem with much Software and Gadgets (like text, string) is that they use index colors and on old systems the first 4 colors are the only colors and where different from each other (background index1, foreground index2) etc. And with less colors, this 4 colors have to be very different to see it (gray background, white cursor).

But if you want to build a lighter theme than the old, dark one it is almost impossible to get it right. And this is the case with the evo theme. I did some adjustments in my version but i don´t like it. If i have a bit time i will make an update with some color compromises.

The best way would be if coders, gadgets, software use pens and there also not the pens which they like (often they find a nice pen color in the default theme and use it, but it never works with another color scheme).

And what we need is a "CursorPen" but no one will code it for me ;)

The current cursor color is bound to another UI element. I don´t remember what and have to look next days. But when i change it, we get other ugly corners (maybe foreground Pen? i will look into it...).

For MUI: It seems you don´t have the EVO Mui Settings loaded? As i remember right, the background of a windows should not have a marble texture and the buttons also looks like the old OS4 theme. So look into the EVO drawer and copy the MUI config to MUI:

As walkero wrote, you can change the color for the cursor there.. .very nice, we need it for reaction ;)


My plan was to upload the theme to amiga-look.org but had no time yet (and i want to fix some issues). I´ll try my best to get it done soon, with an adjusted EVO version (maybe it needs to be a bit darker to be able to see the cursor).

NOTE: The string Gadget has a function where the cursor changes its color if the cursor color and the background in string gadget are to close. This is for me not the best function (as a cursor pen is better and someone seems to spent time with such a hack ;) ), but it could be a compromise in the text gadget for the note pad too.

@imagodespira

There is as far as I remeber an enhancement request for a new CURSORPEN.

It needs updates to intuition and then all the gadgets needing it to be updated.

It's not quite as trivial as you might think at first glance.

@imagodespira

Thanks for the detailed explanation, I didn't know exactly how to use it.

After I selected the EVO presets via Mui, it also works perfectly with Odyssey and keyboard input and the input is visible.

It should run a little more automated, but still a really great theme. Thanks for the help and also providing this theme for AmigaOs4.1

Greetings from Germany

I tried a bit and the cursor uses already a dri->Pen but one which may bring some problems in some situations. If i remember right, some older software can look strange. In my configuration, i do not have issues. So try it if it works on your systems.

www.entwickler-x.de/amiga/EVO.lha

I changed the "shine" Pen to a lighter one. So if you have a running EVO you just can go to GUI Prefs, click "Shine" (third line) and choose a lighter color (white is the third index color, in my archive i used the last color in the gray gradient, index 11).

I hope it works for you, maybe this is a good solution when other software are not damaged...

I also play around with a classic inspired minimal theme. When i installed OS4.1 classic on WinUAE i found a fallback theme while installation wich looked nice for me. So i tried it on my X1000, reduced as much bitmap graphics as possible and did some adjustments. Maybe some users want to try it if they are in "Amiga Classic Mode" ;)

www.entwickler-x.de/amiga/classicEvoPlus.lha





@broadblues: Right, me or Costel posted a request. And yes, it seems more work than expected.

@Maijestro: Yes, it is a bit complicated. It would be nice to have a "Theme Changer" Tool which make all the adjustments and some use definded settings which should be stored directly in the prefs config of OS4 Prefs. For instance the Workbench Prefs. There are Color Settings for the Text mode which have do be adjusted. I have here my own setting but do not pack it into my theme archives because in Workbench.prefs are many User settings which are overwritten (hidden devices, Format of the Title Bar infos and Icon sizes etc.) I am also not a big fan of the system that every small Prefs program can adjust visual things. So no clear theme can made because often it collides with the user settings (here WB prefs, then Fonts is a bit strange with bigger Screen sizes...) For me, it all should be in the GUI Prefs to adjust. Very strange is the AmiDock. Visual settings like background images are stored in the same xml file like the icon settings, so no designer can make a clean theme where Amidock also is changed... But maybe this makes our system special and interesting, and users have something to do ;) Greetings back from germany ;)