Bug 165104 - Can't Change Colour of Non-Printing Characters in Writer
Summary: Can't Change Colour of Non-Printing Characters in Writer
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
25.2.0.3 release
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: LibreOffice-Themes
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Reported: 2025-02-07 13:27 UTC by Radish
Modified: 2025-02-07 18:36 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

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Description Radish 2025-02-07 13:27:08 UTC
Version: 25.2.0.3 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: e1cf4a87eb02d755bce1a01209907ea5ddc8f069
CPU threads: 28; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (10.0 build 26100); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: en-GB (en_GB); UI: en-GB
Calc: threaded


The release notes for 25.2.0.3 say the following:

"The colour of non-printing characters can be customised. (Heiko Tietze, TDF) tdf#80054"

I thought this a great option, now I can get rid of the awful 'blue' coloured pilcrows.

However, having checked and double-checked settings, nowhere can I see any possibility of changing the colour of non-printing characters.

This is either a bug or by some means I am missing the setting.

How do I change the colours of non-printing characters?
Comment 1 V Stuart Foote 2025-02-07 16:28:42 UTC
New control for the Writer Non-printing Characters [1] found on the Tools -> Options -> Application Colors panel got further refactoring into the new (but late) Tools -> Options -> Appearance theming framework [2].

Still working, just that it is now in the listbox of Customization items as 'Writer Non-printable characters'--as localized.

You can change it in an applied Appearance theme, but at 25.2 not the default Automatic theme, already fixed [3] for 25.8 (bug 164393)

Meanwhile please download and install an appearance theme, you can adjust the NPC color there.

@Heiko, did you need to tweak the release note? Maybe add ref as available via the Appearance theme panel...

=-ref-=
[1] https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/171814
[2] https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/174835
[3] https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/179406
Comment 2 Radish 2025-02-07 18:36:10 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #1)
> New control for the Writer Non-printing Characters [1] found on the Tools ->
> Options -> Application Colors panel got further refactoring into the new
> (but late) Tools -> Options -> Appearance theming framework [2].
> 
> Still working, just that it is now in the listbox of Customization items as
> 'Writer Non-printable characters'--as localized.
> 
> You can change it in an applied Appearance theme, but at 25.2 not the
> default Automatic theme, already fixed [3] for 25.8 (bug 164393)
> 
> Meanwhile please download and install an appearance theme, you can adjust
> the NPC color there.
> 
> @Heiko, did you need to tweak the release note? Maybe add ref as available
> via the Appearance theme panel...
> 
> =-ref-=
> [1] https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/171814
> [2] https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/174835
> [3] https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/179406

"Meanwhile please download and install an appearance theme, you can adjust the NPC color there."

Thank you for the vital clue. I downloaded a theme — Office 2003 Blue Theme — applied it as you suggest and that got me the option to change the NPC colour for "Writer Non-Printable Characters". I selected to change the colour to "Black" and voilà! I got black pilcrows. Oh, how wonderful, at long last! Then, and I forgot the exact steps I took to do so, I adjusted things so that I was back to my preferred colour settings for "Document Background" and "Application Background" and I was back to my own preferred settings with my own self-created theme. Then I deleted the '2003' theme I had downloaded but my settings remained the same, NPC still "Black". All solved. Wonderful!

Above said I look forward to 25.8 when all of this will become useable by a fairly naïve user (like myself to be honest) without the current somewhat arcane hurdles to jump.

Thank you! :0)