Table background colours in 5.3

users
#1

Hi.
Just adding this in case another user has come across this situation.

In LO 5.3.3 Writer I found I could not change the palette or edit any colours in Table>Properties>Background. The only choices were from a set palette (later found to be named named standard.soc)
Some searching and it is an issue with 5.3+ being worked through.
The colours available from the palette were not suitable and I wished to change a kaky Brown to light green.

I found with a file search on my machine the LO install placed standard.soc in /usr/lib64/libreoffice/share/palette/standard.soc
Opening the text file I saw my there was no Brown but also found I had another standard.soc ~/.config/libreoffice/4-suse/user/config/standard.soc
This did contain the kaky Brown. This file is 3 years old and as I have done 4 distribution updates in that time I can't be sure where it came from, but on an install of LO5.3 on a new machine the file is not in ~/.config/libreoffice/4-suse/user/config/

I found by copying a palette to ~/.config/libreoffice/4-suse/user/config/ and naming it standard.soc I could edit the file and change colours (in simple RGB hex) or add a new colour at the end of the file to have a colour I wanted available in Writer tables. This new changed palette will also become the standard palette for you in other areas of LO. You could of course edit /usr/lib64/libreoffice/share/palette/standard.soc but that will change the palette for all users and require root privileges.

steve

#2

Hi,

Steve Edmonds schrieb:

Hi.
Just adding this in case another user has come across this situation.

In LO 5.3.3 Writer I found I could not change the palette or edit any
colours in Table>Properties>Background.

Yes, in that dialog you can only select a color from the currently active palette. You have to change the palette before you open that dialog. That is not new.

Changing the palette in Writer or Calc needs a trick: Draw a shape, e.g. a rectangle, in its context menu use item Area. And there you can change the palette. It will become the currently active palette for the entire document. Afterward you can delete the shape.

This problem exists since the beginning of OpenOffice.

In newer LibreOffice versions is only the change, that you cannot have several user defined palettes but only one. It is still possible to have lot of palettes as common palettes, but they are not editable in the UI.

Kind regards
Regina

#3

What do you mean that you cannot have several user defined palettes?

I have several user-defined color palettes listed in my Ubuntu folder of "/.config/libreoffice/4/user/config".

The color palettes that were installed by LibreOffice 5.3.x is located in "/opt/libreoffice5.3/share/palette" - or at least with Ubuntu 16.04.

I make sure that their names start with "color_" so there is no problem with two having the same name.

I just created a few lines and each line was colored by a different palette's file. So you can have many palette files used in a document. But, if you mean that in the Tools > Options > Chart color definition, then I agree that you need to have some way to easily add colors to the Chart list of colors. It lists "LibreOffice" in a option but it seems not to be changed to a different palette, like the font color option in Writer and in the Application Colors.

Maybe an easier way to add/delete colors from the standard.soc palette would be nice. I had to do a global search to find the standard.soc file and where those palettes installed.

I am getting really good making color palettes, but for the average user it might not be that easy. I have a lot of different color chart PDF files. That give me some nice HEX numbers for the colors. It I did not have those, I would have to use GIMP and its Color selector option[s] to define a color, then add it to a user defined palette. I once made a HTML file for a lot of text colors with changing the background color or tiled image. I should have saved it to use it for seeing what text colors/sizes would work with a defined background color or image in Writer. I make many poster that use background/watermark images.

#4

I did see your explanation when I searched but it did not allow me to change the colour (set a user defined colour) for the background of a table. I created a custom palette with my colour but it did not stick when I changed from the shape fill to the table background.
Regards, steve

#5

Hi,

Tim-L--Elmira-NY schrieb:
[..]

In newer LibreOffice versions is only the change, that you cannot have
several user defined palettes but only one. It is still possible to
have lot of palettes as common palettes, but they are not editable in
the UI.

[..]

What do you mean that you cannot have several user defined palettes?

The new Area dialog has a button to "Add" a color. Such colors are added to the palette "custom". You cannot add a color to any of the other palettes, even if you have writing rights form your OS.

I have several user-defined color palettes listed in my Ubuntu folder
of "/.config/libreoffice/4/user/config".

Then they are remnants from older LibreOffice versions. You cannot create new ones from an current LibreOffice version and you cannot add colors to them.

In a current LibreOffice user defined colors are no longer stored in *.soc palettes, but they are listed in the registrymodifications.xcu

The color palettes that were installed by LibreOffice 5.3.x is located
in "/opt/libreoffice5.3/share/palette" - or at least with Ubuntu 16.04.

That is, was I called "common" palettes. They can be used by several users, but no user can alter them from inside LibreOffice.

Of cause you can add a lot of own defined *.soc files, but you have to generate them outside of LibreOffice.

In addition, in all these discussion about color palettes you have to keep in mind, that the names, you give to the colors are irrelevant for the document. They are not stored in the document. So if you give the document to someone else, what you call "DeepPink" might be called "Fuchsia" for him (in case the color is under this name in his current palette), or he will only see the numbers (in case there is no match).

Kind regards
Regina

#6

Hi Steve,

Steve Edmonds schrieb:

Hi,

Steve Edmonds schrieb:

Hi.
Just adding this in case another user has come across this situation.

In LO 5.3.3 Writer I found I could not change the palette or edit any
colours in Table>Properties>Background.

Yes, in that dialog you can only select a color from the currently
active palette. You have to change the palette before you open that
dialog. That is not new.

Changing the palette in Writer or Calc needs a trick: Draw a shape,
e.g. a rectangle, in its context menu use item Area. And there you can
change the palette. It will become the currently active palette for
the entire document. Afterward you can delete the shape.

This problem exists since the beginning of OpenOffice.

In newer LibreOffice versions is only the change, that you cannot have
several user defined palettes but only one. It is still possible to
have lot of palettes as common palettes, but they are not editable in
the UI.

Kind regards
Regina

I did see your explanation when I searched but it did not allow me to
change the colour (set a user defined colour) for the background of a
table. I created a custom palette with my colour but it did not stick
when I changed from the shape fill to the table background.
Regards, steve

Yes that is because the "Custom" palette is not a true palette. But you can switch this way without problems from the default "Standard"-palette to the "html"-palette, for example.

The implementation of the new Area dialog is work in progress, and for tables, it is not yet available.

Kind regards
Regina

#7

Thankyou for your explanations, the new Area dialogue is a great feature but I did read that it might be some time before fully implemented and our discussion might help other users as it was not easy to find the way to set a custom colour for the table background.
steve

#8

Hi,

Tim-L--Elmira-NY schrieb:
[..]

In newer LibreOffice versions is only the change, that you cannot have
several user defined palettes but only one. It is still possible to
have lot of palettes as common palettes, but they are not editable in
the UI.

[..]

What do you mean that you cannot have several user defined palettes?

The new Area dialog has a button to "Add" a color. Such colors are added to the palette "custom". You cannot add a color to any of the other palettes, even if you have writing rights form your OS.

I have several user-defined color palettes listed in my Ubuntu folder
of "/.config/libreoffice/4/user/config".

Then they are remnants from older LibreOffice versions. You cannot create new ones from an current LibreOffice version and you cannot add colors to them.

In a current LibreOffice user defined colors are no longer stored in *.soc palettes, but they are listed in the registrymodifications.xcu

I know that LibreOffice color palettes - that came with it in the install - do not go into the ".config" folder any longer.

My last install was a "purge then install" so there would be no rollovers from the older versions. I am now using 5.3.5 instead of 5.2.7[?].

Ubuntu terminal install commands
     "sudo apt-get remove libreoffice?" or "sudo apt-get purge libreoffice?"
     then
     "sudo dpkg -i *.deb" install.

Right now, users can add palettes to this folder for testing and use. This is an easier place to "store" user defined color palettes. To stop a possible issue with two palettes with the same name installed in two folders, I am naming the SOC files with "colors_" at the beginning of the filename.

As for sending the document to others for editing, and not having the colors you defined in the document, I do not do this often. When I do have a project that several people doing the editing, I make sue these people have both the font files and now the color palettes. Of course if they use Word instead of Writer, they get the font file only.

#9

Regina Henschel wrote

The new Area dialog has a button to "Add" a color. Such colors are added
to the palette "custom". You cannot add a color to any of the other
palettes, even if you have writing rights form your OS.

There are two problems with this that I hope will be fixed:

1. The "Add color" function should either be available in *every* color
dialog and in every 'LibreOffice program (Writer, Calc, etc.) and/or there
should be a *setting in Options* to edit the colors in one central location.

2. It should be possible to add colors to *any* palette, especially the
"Standard" palette. Exacerbating this problem is the fact that it is not
possible to select the other palettes in some dialogs (e.g. Calc / Edit
Header).