Visio5: How to Change the Visio User-Interface Colors (254603)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Visio Standard 5.0
  • Microsoft Visio Professional 5.0
  • Microsoft Visio Technical 5.0
  • Microsoft Visio Enterprise 5.0
This article was previously published under Q254603

SUMMARY

Color settings for many Visio user-interface elements, such as the drawing page, grid lines, stencil background, and so on, are accessible to you and easy to change. You can change color settings to fine-tune Visio colors for a particular monitor, such as a gray-scale monitor, or to customize your Visio window.

MORE INFORMATION

How Visio Stores User-Interface Colors

Visio stores color information for its user-interface elements in the Visio.ini file. Each color setting in the Visio.ini file includes a series of three numbers. This series represents the values of the hue components--red, green, and blue--that make up the color. For example, to produce the color white for the drawing page, Visio assigns the following red, green, and blue (RGB) values:

ColorPage=255 255 255

Changing User Interface Color Settings

If you want to change the color of a user-interface element, you can change its RGB values in the Visio.ini file. After you change color settings in the Visio.ini file, Visio uses the new settings every time that you open the program, whether you open an existing Visio file or create a new one.

To modify color settings in the Visio.ini file:
  1. If Visio is running, quit Visio.
  2. Open the Visio.ini file in a text editor such as Notepad. By default, the Visio.ini file is located in the Visio\System folder.
  3. Scroll to the [colors] section.

    If the [colors] section does not appear, do the following:
    1. Add a blank line after the [application] section heading at the top of the file.
    2. On the new line, type the following:

      IniShowAll=1

    3. Save and close the Visio.ini file, start Visio, and then close it.
    4. Open the Visio.ini file again, and then scroll to the [colors] section.
  4. In the [colors] section, find the setting for the user-interface element that you want to modify and change one or more of its red, green, or blue values to assign the color that you want.

    To find out how your changes affect the Visio user interface, save the Visio.ini file and start Visio. (Make sure to quit Visio again each time that you make additional changes to the color values.)

    TIP: To save time having to start and quit Visio with each change, you can find a specific color's RGB values in the Windows color palette. For more information about working with the Windows color palette, refer to your Microsoft Windows documentation.
  5. After you assign the colors that you want, save and close the Visio.ini file.
TIP: If want to restore the default Visio.ini file settings, close the Visio program and delete the Visio.ini file. The next time that you start Visio, it creates a new Visio.ini file.

Examples of Visio User-Interface Colors

The following table includes the color settings for some of the Visio user-interface elements. This information is taken from the Visini.txt file, which Visio Setup installs in the Visio\DVS folder when you choose to install the DVS component.

For more information about the Visini.txt file, see the "References" section later in this article.

Visio.ini settingUser-interface element it corresponds to
ColorGridBackground
=255 255 255		The background color of the drawing page grid lines.
ColorGridForeground
=192 192 192		The foreground color of the drawing page grid lines.
ColorInactive
=192 192 192		The color of a selection box of an object on the drawing page that is inactive or unable to perform the requested dynamic action. Also used for subselected objects.
ColorMasterName
=0 0 0		The color of the label text if a master is not selected in the stencil window.
ColorMasterNameBackground
=128 255 128		The background color for the label text if the master is not selected in the stencil window.
ColorNameCell
=192 192 192		The color of name cells in the ShapeSheet window.
ColorNameCellLabel
=255 0 0		The color of text in a name cell in the ShapeSheet window.
ColorNonPage
=192 255 255		The color of the pasteboard, which is the area that surrounds the drawing page in the Visio window.
ColorPage
=255 255 255		 The color of the drawing page.
ColorPageBorder
=0 0 0		 The color of the page border.
ColorPageShadow
=192 192 192		The color of the drawing page's drop shadow in the Visio window.
ColorPreviewBackground
=128 128 128		The background color of the print preview window.
ColorPrimary
=0 255 0		The color of the selection box for the primary selection.
ColorRulerBackground
=193 193 193		The background color of the ruler.
ColorRulerLabel
=0 0 0		The color of the ruler label.
ColorSecondary
=0 255 255		 The color of the selection box for the secondary selection.
ColorStencilBackground
=128 255 128		The color of the stencil window.
ColorTipBackground
=255 255 128		 The background color of the tip window.
ColorTipLabel
=0 0 0		The color of the text in tool tips.
ColorValueCell
=255 255 255		The color of a value cell in the ShapeSheet window.

REFERENCES

For more information about the sections and settings in the Visio.ini file, see the Visini.txt file in the Visio\DVS folder. Scroll to the [colors] section to find information on setting Visio user interface colors.

NOTE Visio Setup installs the Visioini.txt file when you choose Solution Files under the Developing Visio Solutions component of the Setup program. If you do not have a DVS folder, run Visio Setup again and install the Solution Files.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:11/25/2003
Keywords:KB254603
©2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.