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Thread ID: 26061 2002-10-18 11:04:00 DeskTrans Prog. Text colour for icon names exLL (515) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
90584 2002-10-18 11:04:00 Kiwitas kindly sent me the DeskTrans program to remove the background coloured box that surrounds desktop icon names . :)

I have managed to do that and they now show in white text . That's ok for most of the icons, but due to lack of contrast, the ones on the lighter areas of the desktop picture are unreadable . The read me file advises how to change the text to blue but so far I have been unable to do that . :-(

In Windows 98, I downloaded the program to the My Downloads File on my D drive . Using Win explorer it showed up as three files; DeskTrans . exe, License txt . , and Readme txt . When I double click on the DeskTrans . exe file nothing seems to actually open, but it does have the desired result of changing the text to white . It stays that way until next time I start the computer and then reverts back to my previous setting . (The reverting back part is ok as I haven't yet put it in my startup program . ) Have I done everything correctly up to this point? ?:|

Here is part of the Readme file notes:

DeskTrans . exe
<Program usage:
**************
Dead simple - Call program either without params (color defaults to WHITE), or with an integer parameter . Parameter must be Base 10 representation of a 32Bit color value (use Windows Calculator to get your desired number from hex) . . .
e . g for white font, just use "DeskTrans . exe", for black font use "DeskTrans . exe 0", for dark blue use "DeskTrans . exe 64" . . . >

I'm afraid it's not *Dead Simple* for me . (I must be Brain Dead and Simple I think LOL)

1 . How do I make it open as "DeskTrans . exe 64" to achieve blue font for the icons?

2 . For other colours, how do I *get your desired number from hex*? What is hex?

3 . Do all icons have to have same coloured text, or can a few have different colours?

Thanks in advance .

exLL 		exLL (515)
90585 2002-10-18 11:42:00 ive used a few different programs of this type, and so far, ive always gone back to the most dead simple on imo...TransText

Trans Text (greyscale.orcon.net.nz) 757k

it maybe on the heavy side, but it REALLY is dead easy, it runs usually in the taskbar, but you can disable it so that it does its job, and then closes, ready to be relaunched on startup.
you cant have your desktop running on Active Desktop (which is enough trouble by itself :p) while using this program, but i think its the same story with all of these types of programs

grtz sal.
tga 		sal (67)
90586 2002-10-18 13:10:00 In XP it will do it itself if you've got XP. -=JM=- (16)
90587 2002-10-18 13:18:00 oh, yeah, these programs are for us XP wannabes :p

grtz sal.
tga 		sal (67)
90588 2002-10-19 02:24:00 To Sal and JM .

Thanks for the early morning replies . :)

I have plain old Windows 98 so your suggestions won't work for me . :-(

I don't use Active Desktop so at least that won't be a problem .

It was a very small program, about 28kb only .

Cheers . 		exLL (515)
90589 2002-10-19 02:29:00 when i said 'us XP wannabes', i was meaning people, like myself, who wanna make our windows98 more nicer to look at, so trans text will work!

grtz sal.
tga 		sal (67)
90590 2002-10-19 02:32:00 The program I use that does it OK is here. My system W98se. http://www.wallpaperchanger.de
Bye 		Peter H (220)
90591 2002-10-19 04:08:00 exLL, you need to right click on the shortcut to the program on your desktop, and select "properties"

In the "Target" box, you can append the number as shown in the instructions.

I know nothing about the program, I am speaking generically....

Hex is Hexadecimal, or Base 16 numbers (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F)

Decimal is Base 10, as we use normally. 11 in HEX is 0B, 16 is 0F, 255 is FF

Also I do not believe you can choose which Icons have the colour, its a global setting. 		godfather (25)
90592 2002-10-19 05:21:00 Sal and Peter H.

I will check out those programs you recommended, Trans Text and Wallpaperchanger. (Yes Sal, I did take your XP comment the wrong way, thanks for explaining it). Although they seem quite promising, if the very small one that Kiwitas sent me does do the job I will probably stick with that.

godfather. That has solved my problem. I had tried right clicking on Desk Trans.exe to get properties, but that was in Win Explorer as I did not know that I should have created a desktop icon. I found the target, changed it, and the text has gone from white to a dark kind of purple. I now know enough to be able to experiment.

The hex explanation was helpful too. I was aware of a base 16 but had not had it explained to me.

Grateful thanks to all. :-) :-) :-)

exLL 		exLL (515)
90593 2002-10-19 08:50:00 exLL: If you want to play with the colour options in that program you could install the shareware graphics program Paintshop Pro from a PC World CD . Once installed just load your desktop . jpg image and use the Colour Dropper tool to pick up a colour and gain the Hexidecimal colour off that .

A colour that would blend in with the bush in your pic would be #68572C (not sure if you need the # or not) for a brownish colour or maybe #504E28 if you want it more greenish . Hopefully the program can do something with those numbers . :-) 		Susan B (19)
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