Development Suggestion - Distsinct TABS

Discussion of features in Seamonkey
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bluewizard
Posts: 220
Joined: July 11th, 2006, 12:38 pm

Development Suggestion - Distsinct TABS

Post by bluewizard »

I'm just putting this out there for what it is worth.

I like the integrated mail and browser of SeaMonkey, it has consistently been my browser of choice for MANY years. Generally I've been satisfied with the direction of development.

Just one small complaint. When I have multiple TABS open, it gets hard to determine which is the current Open TAB. I was looking through Theme to see if I could find one that emphasized the Open TAB more distinctly. The best I could find was "Foxfire-lightblue" in which the inactive TABS are semi-transparent, the active TAB is solid gray, but when lot of TAB are open it is still hard to determine the Active TAB. Frequently I find myself closing the wrong TAB.

So, for future development, if the Active TAB could be more distinct, or the inactive more subdued, that would be much appreciated.

Also, if someone knows of a simple, compact, uncluttered Theme that makes a bigger distinction between the open Active TAB and all the inactive TAB, please let me know, and I'll check it out.

I like a compact uncluttered Theme, I don't use Icons on the screen, just Text for Back, Forward, Reload, etc....

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and if you have any suggestions, please post them.

Steve/Bluewizard
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therube
Posts: 21703
Joined: March 10th, 2004, 9:59 pm
Location: Maryland USA

Re: Development Suggestion - Distsinct TABS

Post by therube »

In {ProfileDir}/chrome/userChrome.css ...
(create if it does not exist)
(change the [rgb(#,#,#)] to your desire)

Code: Select all

@namespace url(http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul);

/* Change color of active tab */
tab{
   -moz-appearance: none !important;
}
tab[selected="true"] {
   background-color: rgb(0,153,255) !important;
   color: black !important;
}


Edit: added closing '}'
Last edited by therube on May 15th, 2013, 9:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
Fire 750, bring back 250.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 Pinball CopyURL+ FetchTextURL FlashGot NoScript
rsx11m
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Location: US

Re: Development Suggestion - Distsinct TABS

Post by rsx11m »

Aren't you missing a closing '}' for the second rule, or maybe even more was cut off?
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therube
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Location: Maryland USA

Re: Development Suggestion - Distsinct TABS

Post by therube »

You're right, thanks.
(There was more & it was with that more where the close } had been.)
Fire 750, bring back 250.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 Pinball CopyURL+ FetchTextURL FlashGot NoScript
bluewizard
Posts: 220
Joined: July 11th, 2006, 12:38 pm

Re: Development Suggestion - Distsinct TABS

Post by bluewizard »

Curious, it is possible to add a 4th element to RGB for Alpha or Transparency, or does that not work here?

So, using your example -

rgb(0,153,255)

now becomes -

rgb(0,153,255,127)

Where 127 would make it about 50% transparent.

Also, is there anyway to examine the current Theme to find out what values they are using?

Thanks for the help.
bluewizard
Posts: 220
Joined: July 11th, 2006, 12:38 pm

Re: Development Suggestion - Distsinct TABS

Post by bluewizard »

Sorry to be a bother, but the script you gave me controls the color of the Active Tab, is there also a way to control the color of the Inactive Tabs?

The choices seem to be to lighten the Active, or darken the Inactive. I'd like to try both if possible, to see which produces the best result.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me out.
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Andy Boze
Posts: 2755
Joined: June 30th, 2005, 9:53 pm
Location: South Bend, IN

Re: Development Suggestion - Distsinct TABS

Post by Andy Boze »

You can use rgba instead of rgb, where "a" is a value between 0 and 1, with 1 being fully opaque and 0 fully transparent.
rgb(0,0,0) = black
rgba(0,0,0,.5) = 50% transparent black

Put your color statements for inactive tabs in the "tab { }" section.

Code: Select all

@namespace url(http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul);

/* Change color of active tab */
tab {
   -moz-appearance: none !important;
    background-color: rgba(0,0,0,.5) !important;
    color: white;
}
tab[selected="true"] {
   background-color: rgba(256,256,256,1) !important;
   color: black !important;
}
But then again, I may be wrong.
bluewizard
Posts: 220
Joined: July 11th, 2006, 12:38 pm

Re: Development Suggestion - Distsinct TABS

Post by bluewizard »

Sorry for being a little dense, but I don't see where it makes a distinction between the Active and Inactive TAB.

Likely if I just lighten the Active TAB background that will be enough. But if not, I would like to darken the Inactive TABs a bit.

Again, were is the sample scripts shown does it make a distinction between Active and Inactive TAB?

But I do see the part about the ALPHA or transparency. Not sure if I will have to use that, but good to know.

Again, thanks for taking the time to help.
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Andy Boze
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Joined: June 30th, 2005, 9:53 pm
Location: South Bend, IN

Re: Development Suggestion - Distsinct TABS

Post by Andy Boze »

You don't really need to make a distinction between active and inactive tabs. The code is CSS, and it's applied in the order it's written. So what the code in my example is saying is: Make all tabs have a semitransparent black background with white text, then only for the active tab make the background opaque white with black text.

If you really want to address inactive tabs, you'd use

Code: Select all

tab[selected="false"] {
  some_css_directive;
}
But then again, I may be wrong.
bluewizard
Posts: 220
Joined: July 11th, 2006, 12:38 pm

Re: Development Suggestion - Distsinct TABS

Post by bluewizard »

It can't really hurt to try can it?

I mean if the result is messed up, I just delete or rename the .CSS and everything is back to normal right?

Thanks again for your help.
rsx11m
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Joined: May 3rd, 2007, 7:40 am
Location: US

Re: Development Suggestion - Distsinct TABS

Post by rsx11m »

Correct, the changes are only effective as long as the userChrome.css file exists. It is loaded on startup of the application, thus you'll have to restart SeaMonkey every time you make changes. If no userChrome.css file is found on the next restart, simply no rule of the default theme will be overridden.

Most importantly, use a simple text editor to create and modify that file (i.e., nothing more complex than Notepad).
bluewizard
Posts: 220
Joined: July 11th, 2006, 12:38 pm

Re: Development Suggestion - Distsinct TABS

Post by bluewizard »

Thanks I'm going to give it a try.
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