For years there have been Control Panels for coloring windows and buttons for System 6. Now there is a Control Panel that lets you do the same stuff with System 7 windows.
Color7 has three basic components: the Display section, Colors section, and Settings section. The Display section is pretty self-explanatory. It takes up most of the left side of Color7’s window. Any changes to button colors, window colors, and menu colors are shown here.
The Colors section is on the right and next to the ‘Sample text’ box. The Colors section is split into four different groups: menu colors, button colors, window colors, and a color for text highlighting. You can change these colors by clicking on the box that contains the color that you want to change. Some of the button and window color boxes are surrounded by gray rectangles. These colors are separate shades which combine to form colors for different parts.
The Settings section covers the bottom of the control panel’s window. The Undo button undoes the last color change. The Revert button restores the colors to how they were when Color7 was first opened. The Reset button changes the colors back to the factory-standard System 7 colors. The Info button gives an explanation of what to do, and gives shareware information. The last button, the Matching button, causes certain colors to be synchronized with others. When Matching is On, some of the button colors are controlled by corresponding window colors. When Matching is Off, all of the colors can be controlled individually.
The example buttons and windows may occaisionally change to black-and-white. This is because the examples follow Apple's window- and button-drawing routines very closely. Windows and buttons will not show in full color if certain combinations of colors are used. If this happens, undo the previous color change and try again.
Also, when the menu bar colors are changed, certain Macs may show gibberish on the bar. Unfortunately, this appears to be a bug in Apple's 1MB ROMs.
VERSION INFORMATION
1.2 -- October 3, 1993
Fixed a bug that caused continuously blinking buttons when Color7 was used in 24-bit mode. Also adjusted the color choosing routine so that colors would not change after closing the Color Picker window.
1.1 -- July 28, 1993
After getting bug reports from people not using System Enablers, finally tracked down bugs which caused Color7 to crash when closed.
1.0 -- July 24, 1993
Improved the speed of updating the window by drawing the sample windows directly, rather than copying the picture of actual windows. Also fixed the text highlighting, so that the highlight color stays put through restarting. Made routines to give visual feedback of which buttons affect which colors. Added a few more alerts at the end.
1.0d1 -- July 1, 1993
First attempt. The text highlighting wasn't allowed, and the sample windows were made by actually creating two windows, copying them, closing those windows, and pasting the saved picture. Extremely slow.
(These first three versions are all within one month, because I was leaving town on August 1.)
SHAREWARE INFORMATION
This is a shareware program. You are free to give this program a try. If, after thirty days, you do not feel that this program is worth something, please remove it from your hard drive. If you feel that the program is worth holding on to, please send US$10 (or whatever you think it’s worth) to
Michael Landis
c/o Amateur Software Factory
32972 Avenida Descanso
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
Color7 can be freely distributed, as long as this document goes with it. This control panel may not be distributed commercially without consent from the author.
BUG REPORTS
Color7 is still in the making. If you have any troubles with it, or have suggestions for future enhancements, please either write to the above address or e-mail me at the following addresses:
GEnie: M.LANDIS4
Internet: landis@seas.ucla.edu
America Online Landis1
These addresses are listed in order of usage; I'm most likely to answer mail promptly from GEnie, but it may take a while to get a response from America Online.
