nAuthor-defined colors may conflict with the user’s default screen colors.You can create custom-color hot spots in your Help topics by changing the default color of the hot spots. Custom-color hot spots are a useful way to create a unique look for your Help file. However, you should be aware of the issues surrounding the decision to change Help’s standard hot spot color.
For guidelines on using color in Help files, see Chapter 3, “Designing Your Help System.”
Issues to Consider Before Changing Hot Spot Colors
When deciding whether to use colored text in your Help file, consider the following issues:
nAuthor-defined colors may conflict with the user’s default screen colors.
Most Microsoft applications do not override the user’s default colors, and users expect Help to be consistent with that behavior.
nIn some circumstances (displaying on gray-scale monitors, for example), colored text may not be visible on the user’s machine.
Help cannot guarantee that colors the user hasn’t chosen will have enough contrast to be visible.
nYou cannot rely on color to make important distinctions of meaning.
If the product is localized for an international market, the colors will have no intrinsic meanings in the various countries and cultures. Moreover, on monochrome monitors the color disappears, so the Help file loses any meaning associated with color.
You can solve all these problems only if users are in complete control of their screen colors.
The Windows pallette provides 16 colors, many of which are not good choices as text colors. Windows will only display text in solid colors, so you can’t use any dithered colors. If we assume that the background color of the Help window is white (not necessarily a good assumption), this eliminates using any bright colors such as yellow or cyan. The dark colors, like dark green and dark red, are all readable, but some, like dark blue, have less contrast with black. Dark green is readable and not visually distracting, but brighter than dark blue. If you want to give the text more emphasis, you might choose dark green.
On the other hand, if you want to give the colored text less emphasis but have some differentiation from black, you might choose dark blue. The effect of the blue text would be more subtle than the dark green. However, blue text is less recognizable than black text because we have fewer receptors in our eyes that can detect blue. Therefore, blue fades to the background and does not stand out. Blue is high-contrast, but isn’t easy to distinguish from black for everyone. So generally, blue text should be used sparingly as a secondary color.
Conflicts with the User's Screen Colors
The Windows default color scheme includes black text on a white background. However, the Windows Control Panel lets users change their default screen colors, including the text and background colors. Because the Help application does not interfere with a user’s selection, Help authors cannot assume that Help will always display black text on a white background.
Depending on a user’s choice, colored text may be difficult or impossible to see. For example, if a user chooses yellow text on a black background, and the Help author uses dark blue text in the Help topics, the colored text may be very difficult to read. Individual computers may also have hardware or other display-related problems, such as an inability to resolve contrast between some colors—light grey and dark grey, for example.
Problems with Color on Different Displays
Help cannot predict how the text colors are actually displayed on different monitors. For example, on some gas-plasma displays that use VGA color drivers, Help displays colors as various shades of red (gray-scale red).
Help can predict the readability of a given text color on a given background color only under two circumstances:
nThe text color is the user’s default text color.
In this circumstance, Help relies on the user to make the right choice. If the text isn’t readable, the user must change the color in Control Panel.
nThe author defines a text color that is exactly the same as the background color.
In this circumstance, Help uses the default text color and displays it as normal text.
Problems with Assigning Meaning to Color
In addition to the technical aspects of color, color also affects a user’s emotions. In fact a big part of human color perception is psychological and emotional. For example, dark green and dark blue are fairly bland colors but appeal to a wide audience. Dark red is brighter and hence more attractive to the eye, but it is often associated with anger or strong emotion.
These emotional responses are also related to cultural associations—red means stop, warning, passion; green equals go, ripe, money. In American culture, red text might be good for warnings, but it can be a very bad color for Help text that contains neutral information. Moreover, you cannot use color to create absolute meaning because color associations vary within a culture, and from culture to culture. If you’re writing Help for an international product, the English version will be used by many non-Americans who will interpret your color associations differently.
Overriding Custom Hot Spot Colors
If your Help file contains a custom color for hot spots, the user cannot use the standard WIN.INI entries—JumpColor, PopUpColor, MacroColor, IFJumpColor, IFPopUpColor—to override your custom colors. To override an author-defined hot spot color users must type the following entry in the WIN.INI file:
[Windows Help]
Colors=NONE
When Help finds this entry in the WIN.INI file, it uses the system default colors for foreground and background colors, regardless of how the Help file was authored.
If you change the standard color of hot spots in your Help file, it is your responsibility to instruct users how to override your custom colors.
There are four ways to create a custom-color hot spot. You can:
nCreate an underlined hot spot and change the color of the hot spot text to one of the Windows standard 16 colors (Windows color, standard solid- or dotted-underline).
nCreate an underlined hot spot and change the color of the hot spot text to a custom RGB color (custom RGB color, standard solid- or dotted-underline).
nCreate an invisible hot spot and change the color of the hot spot text to one of the Windows standard 16 colors (Windows color, no solid- or dotted-underline).
nCreate an invisible hot spot and change the color of the hot spot text to a custom RGB color (custom RGB color, standard solid- or dotted-underline).
To create a hot spot with a Windows color and standard underline
1.1.Follow the steps to create a standard jump hot spot, interfile jump hot spot, pop-up hot spot, or macro hot spot.
2.2.Insert an asterisk (*) as the first character of the context string (just before the exclamation point if it is a macro hot spot).
Note The asterisk must be formatted as hidden text.
3.3.Select the hot spot text.
4.4.From the Format menu, choose Character.
5.5.In the Color box, choose the color that you want for the hot spot text.
6.6.Choose OK.
Figure 8.x shows a correctly formatted custom underlined hot spot in a topic file.
To create a hot spot with a custom RGB color and standard underline
1.1.Follow the steps to create a standard jump hot spot, interfile jump hot spot, pop-up hot spot, or macro hot spot.
2.2.Insert an asterisk (*) as the first character of the context string (just before the exclamation point if it is a macro hot spot).
Note The asterisk must be formatted as hidden text.
3.3.Select the hot spot text.
4.4.From the Format menu, choose Character.
5.5.In the Color box, choose the color that approximates the custom color you want for the hot spot text.
For example, if you want to create a custom blue, choose one of the blues from the Color box.
6.6.Choose OK.
7.7.Save the file as RTF.
8.8.Open the RTF file as Text; do not convert it to .DOC format.
9.9.In the \colortbl section of the RTF header, change the RGB value of the hot spot color.
For example, if your hot spots are blue (\red0\green0\blue255), change the RGB value of blue in the \colortbl to your custom color, \red0\green0\blue64, for example.
Note Help uses \red0\green128\blue0 for the standard hot spot color.
Figure 8.x shows a correctly formatted custom hot spot in a topic file.
10.10.Save the RTF file as text.
When you build the Help file, the hot spots will appear in the custom color.
To create a hot spot with a Windows color and no underline
1.1.Follow the steps to create a standard jump hot spot, interfile jump hot spot, pop-up hot spot, or macro hot spot.
2.2.Insert a percent sign (%) as the first character of the context string (just before the exclamation point if it is a macro hot spot).
Note The percent sign must be formatted as hidden text.
3.3.Select the hot spot text.
4.4.From the Format menu, choose Character.
5.5.In the Color box, choose the color that you want for the hot spot text.
6.6.Choose OK.
Figure 8.x shows a correctly formatted custom hot spot in a topic file.
To create a hot spot with a custom RGB color and no underline
1.1.Follow the steps to create a standard jump hot spot, interfile jump hot spot, pop-up hot spot, or macro hot spot.
2.2.Insert a percent sign (%) as the first character of the context string (just before the exclamation point if it is a macro hot spot).
Note The percent sign must be formatted as hidden text.
3.3.Select the hot spot text.
4.4.From the Format menu, choose Character.
5.5.In the Color box, choose the color that approximates the custom color you want for the hot spot text.
For example, if you want to create a custom red, choose one of the reds from the Color box
6.6.Choose OK.
7.7.Save the file as RTF.
8.8.Open the RTF file as Text; do not convert it to .DOC format.
9.9.In the \colortbl section of the RTF header, change the RGB value of the hot spot color.
For example, if your hot spots are red (\red255\green0\blue0), change the RGB value of red in the \colortbl to your custom color, \red64\green0\blue0, for example.
Note Help uses \red0\green128\blue0 for the standard hot spot color.
Figure 8.x shows a correctly formatted custom hot spot in a topic file.
10.10.Save the RTF file as text.
When you build the Help file, the hot spots will appear in the custom color.