Modifying Help Window Colors

You can change the colors of the topic tree or topic display area of a help window by setting application resources. Choosing constrasting colors is important. This ensures that text (foreground color) will be visible against the background color.

To Change Help Window Colors for an Application

Edit your HomeDirectory/ .Xdefaults file by adding these resources:

application_name*DtHelpDialog*DisplayArea.foreground:   color
 
application_name*DtHelpDialog*DisplayArea.background:   color
 
application_name*DtHelpDialog*TocArea.foreground:   color
 
application_name*DtHelpDialog*TocArea.background:   color
 
application_name*DtHelpQuickDialog*DisplayArea.foreground:   color
 
application_name*DtHelpQuickDialog*DisplayArea.background:   color

Substitute the name of the application whose help windows you want to change for application_name.

You can ask your system administrator for a list of colors that you can use or refer to your system documentation.

Save and close the file.
When you restart your application, it will use the new color values for the topic tree and topic display area in its help windows.

Example

These resource entries change the foreground and background colors of the topic tree (TocArea) and topic display area (DisplayArea) for an application named DtCardCatalog.

DtCardCatalog*DtHelpDialog*TocArea.foreground:  yellow
 
DtCardCatalog*DtHelpDialog*TocArea.background:  blue
 
DtCardCatalog*DtHelpDialog*DisplayArea.foreground:  yellow
 
DtCardCatalog*DtHelpDialog*DisplayArea.background:  blue
 
DtCardCatalog*DtHelpQuickDialog*DisplayArea.foreground:  yellow
 
DtCardCatalog*DtHelpQuickDialog*DisplayArea.background:  blue

Quick help windows do not have a topic tree, so the TocArea resource is omitted.

Modifying Help Window Colors

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To Change Help Window Colors for an Application

Example