ColorSwitch v. 0.2
Copyright (C)  Lionel Kirsher (kirsherATyahoo.com)

ColorSwitch is a TkDesk color configuration utility.

**See the README file for installation instructions and troubleshooting.



_____Choosing Colors____________________

Using the color-picker:
Double-click <Button-1> on a feature swatch to get a color picker.
When you "OK" the color picker dialog, the feature swatch is updated.
That color is still selected (in the X Selection), so you can apply it to other feature swatches by clicking them with <Button-2>.

Entering a color manually:
Select a feature by single-clicking a feature swatch with <Button-1>. Then type in the color specification--either a named color, like "black" or a hex color, like "#fa0"  Hex colors may be either #RGB or #RRGGBB.  You can then apply the same color to other feature swatches by clicking them with <Button-2>.

Using the named colors listbox:
Click the ">>" button to display the "Named Color Selector," consisting of a large swatch over a listbox with the X named colors. 
Navigate the listbox and double-click <Button-1> on a named color to select it.
The swatch above the listbox shows that color. Apply the selected color by clicking any feature swatch with <Button-2>

Listbox Navigation Assistance: Make the listbox "jump" to a color by typing the first characters of the color name and either pass the cursor (mouse pointer) across the large swatch OR press Enter. The listbox scrolls to display the first color name matching the characters you entered. (Glob with an implicit trailing "*") 
You'll still need to double-click a color to select it.

For example, to move to the "plum" colors, type:  "pl" and pass the cursor across the center of the large swatch. (Or press <Return>)
As you type, you'll notice the characters appear in the center of the large swatch. you can delete characters with <Backspace> or clear the text by passing the cursor across it. You'll need to do this before jumping to a different color.

The navigation assistant takes the typing focus as long as no feature has the focus. (A feature has the focus when a black rectangle appears around its color description.) You can ensure that the navigation assistant has the typing focus by moving the cursor into the right (expanded) portion of the window.

Note: The listbox contains the "Named Colors" that I found on my system in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt and alphabetized. If they work for you, great. If not, sorry. 

Copying from one feature swatch to another:
Select the color by single-clicking <Button-1> on a feature swatch. This puts the color specification in the X-selection. Paste the color onto any other feature by clicking the feature swatch with Button-2>. (Because it's in the X-selection, you can also paste the color into other applications.)


_____Saving Color Sets______________

Click "Save Set" to save the ColorSwitch's current color settings to a file.

The "Save As..." dialog comes pre-loaded with the appropriate destination directory (~/.tkdesk/ColorSets/) and filename "ACTIVE_colorset"  This is the path/filename used when TkDesk loads its colors, so if you want to use this color set in TkDesk, just click "Save."

A confirmation dialog opens, reminding you that this will overwrite an existing file. Click "Yes" to continue.

In the "Save As..." dialog, you can enter another filename to save the settings "for later." In this way, you can build a catalog of TkDesk color schemes that you can retrieve with just a few mouse clicks.

You can replace any of the existing color sets by double-clicking its listing in the "Save As..." dialog. Then confirming the action.


_____Loading Color Sets______________

Click "Load Set" to get an "Open File..." dialog showing the ~/.tkdesk/ColorSets/ directory. Double-click any color set file to load it into ColorSwitch. You can edit the set in ColorSwitch or save it as the "ACTIVE_colorset" (described above) to make it available to TkDesk.

ColorSwitch comes with several sample color sets that you might want to try.


_____Activating the Color Set in TkDesk

You have two options. In either case, the TkDesk System file sources the file "~/.tkdesk/ColorSets/ACTIVE_colorset" to acquire the new color settings.

Option one: Restart TkDesk. 
	
Option two: Open the System configuration file. From a TkDesk browser, you can choose TkDesk (menu) ->Configuration ->System. 
With the System file active, press the F5 key. It takes several moments for TkDesk to reload the file. When it's done, you might notice that...

	..."The colors are wrong. There's 'background' everywhere." Yeah, I don't understand this either, but it's not a problem. Any NEW file browsers or editor windows you open will have the correct colors--with one excption: the "Listbox Selection." This is the highlight color of a file selected in the browser/directory window. On my system  at least, the Listbox Selection color does not update until you restart TkDesk.


_____What ColorSwitch does not do: 
ColorSwitch does not control the colors for directory and file listings in the browser/directory windows. You'll still need to edit them in the "FileTags" file. 
Be aware that some colors for the file listings might not look good--or even be visible--on a particular Listbox Backgound. Black text on a black background is not very useful.

Likewise, some icons in the ButtonBar might not look good (or be visible) on certain background colors.

______________________

TkDesk is a Desktop and File Manager for Unix and the X Window System
Copyright (C) 1996-1998  Christian Bolik
 
ColorSwitch is a TkDesk color configuration utility by Lionel Kirsher.
Copyright (C) 1999  Lionel Kirsher  (kirsherATyahoo.com)

The author of this program disclaims all responsibility.
 
 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
 (at your option) any later version.
 
 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 GNU General Public License for more details.
 
