Jake Colman wrote:
>
> When selecting text in my scrolled lists the text appears as white characters
> on a black background. Apparently, on certain projectors used by our Sales
> Team this color combination is unreadable; the white text is washed out and
> invisible.
>
> Is there a global setting I can use to change the color combination used for
> selecting text? Ideally, perhaps, a darker shade of grey as the background,
> with a shadow to suggest a raised bar, and the text remaining black?
>
> --
> Jake Colman
> Sr. Applications Developer
> Principia Partners LLC
> Harborside Financial Center
> 1001 Plaza Two
> Jersey City, NJ 07311
> (201) 209-2467
> www.principiapartners.com

This will depend on whether you are using Motif1.2 or Motif 2.x.

In Motif1.2, the selection(s) are painted with inverse colors. that is,
unselected items are painted with XmNforeground colored text on
XmNbackground colored background, and selected items are drawn with
XmNbackground colored text on XmNforeground colored background.

In Motif2.x, the XmNrenderTable resource can be used to use arbitrary
colors.
--
Fred L. Kleinschmidt
Boeing Associate Technical Fellow
Technical Architect, Common User Interface Services
M/S 2R-94 (206)544-5225

"Fred L. Kleinschmidt" wrote:
> Jake Colman wrote:

> > When selecting text in my scrolled lists the text appears as white characters
> > on a black background. Apparently, on certain projectors used by our Sales
> > Team this color combination is unreadable; the white text is washed out and
> > invisible.
> >
> > Is there a global setting I can use to change the color combination used for
> > selecting text? Ideally, perhaps, a darker shade of grey as the background,
> > with a shadow to suggest a raised bar, and the text remaining black?

> This will depend on whether you are using Motif1.2 or Motif 2.x.
>
> In Motif1.2, the selection(s) are painted with inverse colors. that is,
> unselected items are painted with XmNforeground colored text on
> XmNbackground colored background, and selected items are drawn with
> XmNbackground colored text on XmNforeground colored background.
>
> In Motif2.x, the XmNrenderTable resource can be used to use arbitrary
> colors.

The easy solution is to use the XmNselectColor resource to change the
behaviour, at least in Motif 2.x (haven't used Motif 1.x since last century,
so I can't recall if it was present back then). Set it to
XmDEFAULT_SELECT_COLOR or HIGHLIGHT_COLOR to override the default behaviour of
XmREVERSED_GROUND_COLORS. man XmList for details.

Another way around the OP's specific problem would be to use a bold font,
which is a lot more legible in white-on-black mode.

--
Per Espen Hagen, Principal Scientist
Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, Maritime Systems Division