Few questions

[dmytron]

I'd like to make Lazarus to look more like Windows Delphi so here are my questions:

• How to change the color of Component Palette? White color drives me crazy, and I'd more like to make it clBtnFace to be in touch with the near toolbar. And how to change the color of Object Inspector to clBtnFace?
• How to change the font of the IDE? I understand it's an open source font but I'd like to have it more similar to Delphi's. Maybe change it to some free font that is more "solid"
• Where's compiler progress window? It has been vanished from the Options window, and I 'd like to have it

[JuhaManninen]

I'd like to make Lazarus to look more like Windows Delphi so here are my questions:

In fact Lazarus does not need to look like Windows Delphi. LCL should be compatible with VCL but the IDE can be different. But yes, it should look good in any case.

How to change the color of Component Palette? White color drives me crazy, and I'd more like to make it clBtnFace to be in touch with the near toolbar. And how to change the color of Object Inspector to clBtnFace?

Yes, it should be configurable. Now it is not.

How to change the font of the IDE? I understand it's an open source font but I'd like to have it more similar to Delphi's. Maybe change it to some free font that is more "solid"

Font in menus and labels etc.? To me it looks good. I am on Windows and just compared with Delphi 2007 and they look equally good.

Where's compiler progress window? It has been vanished from the Options window, and I 'd like to have it

http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Lazarus_1.4.0_release_notes#IDE_does_not_show_Compile_Dialog
It can be restored if somebody ports it to the new build system and promises to maintain it.
On the other hand it is useless because all info is already in the messages window.

[dmytron]

Font in menus and labels etc.? To me it looks good. I am on Windows and just compared with Delphi 2007 and they look equally good.

So how to change it, anyway?

In fact Lazarus does not need to look like Windows Delphi. LCL should be compatible with VCL but the IDE can be different. But yes, it should look good in any case.

I know it, but to me right now Lazarus IDE is looking ugly. Delphi 7 looks better to me. One of the reasons is this omnipresent white color.

[balazsszekely]

You can find the source under: $(LazarusDir)/IDE

[JuhaManninen]

So how to change it, anyway?

I don't think it can be changed. Only source editor font can. I never thought of it, it has looked good to me.
Can you please attach a screenshot. Maybe there is a configuration problem. I attached mine.

I know it, but to me right now Lazarus IDE is looking ugly. Delphi 7 looks better to me. One of the reasons is this omnipresent white color.

Object Inspector's colors can be configured but not the TreeView part. Needs improving, too.
Component palette's layout can be configured now but colors not. Anybody noticed the layout page in environment options yet?

[marcov]

Object Inspector's colors can be configured but not the TreeView part.

(The treeview is called structure editor, and the properties of objects is called object inspector in modern Delphi's.)

[dmytron]

Here's my screenshot. I must say that I have installed Windows XP theme 2 hours ago so right now it looks less ugly. However, you can see there is some problem with the drawing of the menu. These theme has more contrast (as you can see), so now it's not the same white everywhere. But it was a nightmare in the default Windows 7 theme.

You can compare it with the Delphi 7 screenshot (got it from Google Picture Search). See how the color is the same as in toolbar and component palette as in object inspector. Beside, I think the toolbar is more beautiful there because it has separators so feels more 3-dimensional this way.

I'd change it myself ( would replace to Coolbar) but don't know whether should I edit .lfm file by hand or is there an easier way.

[engkin]

Repeat your screenshots with and without themes enabled to show mainly the menus, just like the way Juha did it above. This way you don't have to reduce the size %50 and will show us the problem clearly.

[dmytron]

Updated screenshots.

[wp]

Delphi 7 is from the old times when themes were still to be invented by MS. Therefore the component toolbar is gray.

Delphi XE2, on the other hand, is themed and it shows the component palette in white - at least in principle because the the toolbar with the component icons has a gray background and this covers most of the white background of the pagecontrol. (I personally find this kind of layout very ugly, it just look buggy...)

Lazarus is themed and the component palette must be white (at least with the standard theme of Win7/Vista).

Please don't fiddle around with changing individual elements of a theme until Lazarus does not has the complete architecture for all elements.

[dmytron]

What about changing toolbar to the Coolbar?

[JuhaManninen]

Updated screenshots.

Your both versions have menu captions chopped at the end. Why is that? Otherwise the fonts are ok but they are smaller than in my screenshot. I have a rather standard Windows 7 installation with 1920 x 1080 resolution and 125% font size.

What about changing toolbar to the Coolbar?

You mean the toolbar with IDE speedbuttons like New Unit, Open, Run, Pause etc.?
The component palette should still be separate I guess.
We are surely not tied to Delphi 7 IDE layout. If you have good ideas, please create a mockup and/or screenshots.
It already bothers my that there is Component Palette and Component List and they cannot be configured as clear alternatives.

wp, how did you get that kind of palette in Delphi XE2? I remember it has the new listbox style palette.
I don't really know much about theme support in Lazarus. Maybe I must learn more about that.

[engkin]

Updated screenshots.

You also have this same problem.  Read the rest of the thread and see if you can help hunt the bug. There is even a proposed temporary fix in the thread but can not test its validity as I can not reproduce. Of course, while changing the color to one you like.

[wp]

Juha, sorry I had completely forgotten this detail: I had installed Andreas Hausladen's DDevExtensions, and this allows to add the "Old component palette".

Why isn't it possible to achieve the multi-line tab layout in Lazarus? The component palette (and the editor window) is just something like a TabControl or PageControl, isn't it?

[wp]

Component palette's layout can be configured now but colors not. Anybody noticed the layout page in environment options yet?

Yes, I've seen it some time ago and already rearranged the palette to my liking. One of the greatest features of the new Lazarus! It makes the multi-tab layout less important.