Dark theme for computer

[Heimo]

WAAAAAAAY easier on the ole' eyes the way you have it here, Harry. I honestly hate a stark white background as it leaves my ole' tired eyes stressed, especially since I deal a lot with computers writing reports all day in my job.

I completely agree with you, that is why you wont find a single white page om my desktop computer, even the Microsoft word page displays as black it is really a lot easier on the eyes...

[F.C.]

You can do that??? WTF!! HOW? I swear, by the time I put in 10 hrs writing reports I have to squint the entire 50 mile drive commute back home each evening. I have to actually use glasses to eat my supper my eyes are so fuzzy. The OL could put the dog's dish in front of me and I'd not know better... cept for the flavor, however, I've pissed her off often enough over the past 28 years getting served burnt chow has become a mainstay at our house menu. LOL...

[Heimo]

You can do that??? WTF!! HOW? I swear, by the time I put in 10 hrs writing reports I have to squint the entire 50 mile drive commute back home each evening. I have to actually use glasses to eat my supper my eyes are so fuzzy. The OL could put the dog's dish in front of me and I'd not know better... cept for the flavor, however, I've pissed her off often enough over the past 28 years getting served burnt chow has become a mainstay at our house menu. LOL...

yes you can do that, it can be quite easy too, depending on the operating system you are using...

If you are on a computer that runs windows 7 (that is what I am using) it is as easy as running a small application that patches 3 system files to allow the use of 3rd party themes on that computer, then you simply paste the theme of your choice into the resources folder in the windows directory and apply the theme...

But you would have to ask the IT guy at your workplace if you would be allowed to do this since modifying system files may be against company regulations...

here is a screenshot from my office to show you how it looks...

[F.C.]

I'll be cutting and pasting this post to our IT guy in the morning. That, there, is exactly what I need to reduce my eyestrain. Thanks.

[Harry]

I split this off of the styles topic...

One issue I can think of in doing this is in setting up documents for printing. If it is just black text on white paper and it is reversed then no issue but previewing and working wysiwyg is not gonna look like what you are going to get out of the printer.

[Heimo]

I split this off of the styles topic...

One issue I can think of in doing this is in setting up documents for printing. If it is just black text on white paper and it is reversed then no issue but previewing and working wysiwyg is not gonna look like what you are going to get out of the printer.

I have not had any printing issues yet, it prints just fine. If you open the document on a different computer it looks just normal where the text is black again and the page white like normal....
so basically if you forward a document to someone, they wouldn't even know the colors looked the way they did...
and the print preview thing, since the theme I am using ain't perfect, I noticed the page is also dark on the print preview in word, but the page is white in print preview in excel, it is just a minor glitch... but since it still prints the correct way it does not bother me...

you should also remember that there are a huge amount of themes out there and not all of them will work the way you want them to, some changes the color of the pages in word some does not...

Edit:
also if the theme causes problems during printing/previewing it is just 3 clicks to change it back to normal in windows 7... so you could quickly change it back and forth if needs be...

[Harry]

What I meant is what if you change a font color to say something near black (dark blue)? The wysiwyg display on the screen will change the font to something you wont be able to read on the monitor but it will print fine. You just arent seeing it the way it will print unless you are printing on black paper

[Heimo]

What I meant is what if you change a font color to say something near black (dark blue)? The wysiwyg display on the screen will change the font to something you wont be able to read on the monitor but it will print fine. You just arent seeing it the way it will print unless you are printing on black paper

Ahh ok now I see what you meant... yeah changing the font to something dark would make things a bit more difficult, but then again it is so fast to switch between themes, you can change it back and forth without much hassle so I would just do that if I needed to work with dark fonts...

On a side note...

I have just noticed that some of the pre installed themes in windows 7 also changes the color of the word document, though it does not look as nice as the one I use, but the upside is that if you use windows 7, you can have a black word page without modifying anything and quickly change it back to normal once you are done typing reports... here is an example of how it looks....



if you want, I'll add a few screen shots on how to change this setting...

[Harry]

Yup, thats what I meant. Hehe, my guess is just go ahead and post the screen shots/instructions... FC seemed pretty hot on the idea.

[Heimo]

Ok here is how to change the theme...

screenie 1.png (176.36 KiB) Viewed 4236 times

this gives you the personalization window scroll down to find the high contrast themes

to change it back to normal

quite easy on windows 7...