hello,

in columns_ui, I have a column that is formatted as all white: the string would be something like:

$puts(white,FFFFFF)
$get(white)|$get(white)|$get(white)|$get(white)|$get(white)|$get(white)|$get(white)|$get(white)|$get(white)
//I think that's nine fields...

when I select that row, however, there appears to be a default "boxing" of the column, with light grey lines. Is there any way to disable that, so that even when that row is selected, the display in that column will be all white?

On an semi-related rant, formatting color is pretty poorly documented. As far as I could tell, there is one button labeled "Tools" in columns_ui when you click it, gives you the option for "string help", that explains how the pipes demarcate the different color properties. took me awhile messing with the program and looking at others' strings before I worked this out. Should this not be in the newbie guide?

thanks,
Mike

Totally agree, there should be some solid documentation out there. This is really the only thing stopping me from making my own config, the lack of info out there about the colour strings.

I don't know if you can disable it, but the colour can be changed under "Selected item frame colour" in the Options: Columns UI > Playlist view > Playlist view display settings

hi,

Thanks for the info. This is where it gets tricky. When I said earlier that the entire column was white, I sort of lied. What I should have said, is that part of the column is blue, whille other parts of the column are white, depending on other parameters. So, if I set the "selected item frame colour" as white, I will get the effect I want when the row I am selecting happens to be a "white row". But when it's selected in a "blue row", then the blue part will be framed by white, which I don't want.

What I am trying for is to have an "artist and info" column, and to create the effect of a box on the lefthand side of the playlist. The selected item frame color really distracts from that effect, and it doesn't seem to be something that I can change on a per-track basis.

hi,

FYI here is what I have learned. You can either express RGB color info as hexidecimal form, or as RGB decimal form. For hexidecimal form, you need to bracket the color code with some sort of Unicode control character. So for instance, black would be:

000000

you can also decimal form, using the function $rgb(). So black would be:

$rgb(0,0,0)

In columns_ui, as far as I can tell there are nine fields that you can specify. They are as follows:

text|selected text|background|selected background|[selected background non-focus]|[left frame]|[top frame]|[right frame]|[bottom frame]

each field is separated by a pipe, and the square brackets [] indicate optional fields. Frame refers to the outline of the data field (i.e., a box around the field). I have seen other people's strings where they don't list all the fields, so I don't know how foobar will parse the information if not all fields are present. To be safe, I have been specifying all fields.

An example:

Lets say you want to set the following colors:

text: black
selected text: white
background: white
selected background: black
selected background non-focus: grey
and, you want to draw a green box around each displayed data field

Go to Foobar2000 ->Preferences -> Display -> Columns UI

then select the columns tab. There is a "sub tab" there called colour. Input the following strings:

//define color variables for easier writing
$puts(black,$rgb(0,0,0))
$puts(white,$rgb(255,255,255))
$puts(green,$rgb(0,255,0))
$puts(grey,$rgb(192,192,192))
//the actual color string follows
$get(black)|$get(white)|$get(white)|$get(black)
$get(grey)|$get(green)|$get(green)|$get(green)|$get(green)


This is probably frightfully trivial for 99% of the people reading the forum, but as a newbie myself I found it frustrating that this was not better documented. Hopefully someone else will find this useful.

cheers,
Mike

I dunno what exactly you are looking for, but columns ui does have its own documentation set up as a wiki here and i just added a page about the colour string (here) since i was feeling productive and exact/accurate info was sparse on it.

In terms of there being little documentation, i think the columns ui documentation is reasonable, though far from complete. I hardly going to spend an unrealistic amount of time on it - the foobar2000 wiki and columns ui documentation wiki are only going to be good as the contributors make it.

[/quote]
I dunno what exactly you are looking for, but columns ui does have its own documentation set up as a wiki here and i just added a page about the colour string (here) since i was feeling productive and exact/accurate info was sparse on it.

In terms of there being little documentation, i think the columns ui documentation is reasonable, though far from complete. I hardly going to spend an unrealistic amount of time on it - the foobar2000 wiki and columns ui documentation wiki are only going to be good as the contributors make it.

[/quote]

hi,

actually, I stand corrected, there is reasonable documentation for columns_ui in the wiki you mentioned, which I happened to discover today (prior to reading your post) through google. It just takes some digging to find where the documentation is; i.e., there is no obviously linked-to newbie guide.

As for what I want, see this screenshot as an example (not mine):

http://pelit.koillismaa.fi/fb2k/screenshots/fb2k_187_83.png

On track 9 "Nautilus & Zeppelin" (the selected track), you can see on the left hand side where there is no text in the row, you can still see the outlined frame of the selected track. Now obviously, this screenshot is not using columns_ui, but you can imagine that if that left-hand part of the row were in fact a separate column under columns_ui, then that frame color cannot be set on a column-by-column basis (as far as I can tell): this appears to be a global setting. What I would like to be able to do, is either disable frame color for the selected item, set it as transparent, or at least be able to specify it on a column-by-column basis.

I hope this makes sense. I will try to post screenshots later tonight to explain a bit clearer.

I linked the columns ui documentation alongside the main download links, though no there is no link from the component itself.

I though you was refering to this "newbie guide", Ive seen a few others around as well.


I know what you want, its not currently possible (I guess you knew that), but has been requested before and will probably be in a future version of columns ui.