Highlighting color palette (more colors?)

[lkostorz]

Hi.

The choice of colors seems very limited. Is there a way to get a bigger palette, to have more colors?

Regards

Lukas

[LucMeekes · Accepted solution]

I assume you're referring to Prime. Solution: Use Mathcad (15).

Success!

Luc

[jmebara]

What kind of software in todays world limits the amount and kind of colors that a user can use? Even MS paint is more robust then in that regard. Seriously considering going back to Mathcad 15. Sucks bcos lots of time and resources have been invested to have our worksheets changed to Prime but Prime is truly a big Mess. I will keep whining here until one day PTC does something. Even if its in 100 years from now :(.

[LucMeekes]

"What kind of software in todays world limits the amount and kind of colors that a user can use?"

Essentially ALL software does that, simply because software uses digital processors with words with a limited bit-length.

Luc

[jmebara]

How do you mean Luc? 😄

That ALL softwares limit the colors in the color pad that can be used by a user? Or should I use the term commercial software package instead? Most software packages offer a color pad from which one can choose a variety of colors. Or they atleast provide the option to fill in the Red, Green, Blue values to obtain a user defined color model. It should be that simple. Even in the useless chart tool that I so much hate now in Prime 5.0, though there are not so many color options, there is atleast the option to create a user-defined color. I just need a good calculation and documentation tool. Mathcad 15 provided that. We were forced to move to Prime, which initially I thought had done some improvements with the documentaion aspect since it looked more like modern documentation tools....But the more I use prime, the more I realise how lacking it is in functionality.

[LucMeekes]

ALL software limits the amount of colours that the user can choose from.

Even if a software package offers 1024 levels of red, 1024 levels of green and 1024 levels of green, this means that the 1025th level of each of those colours cannot be selected...

And sometimes a limitation to e.g. 16 fixed colours can be a defendable limit: what is the use of 16 traces in a plot where you could set each trace to a separate shade of light emerald green?

All this of course stands far apart from PTC's track record on development of Prime. Yes, in many respects you had better stick with Mathcad 15.

I've said more often: every improvement is a change, the reverse statement unfortunately is not always true.

Success!

Luc

[DJF]

What's weird is that Prime certainly can show more colors, it just doesn't let you pick them.  As an example, Here's a file that has two text colors displayed that I can't reproduce with our limited choices.

https://community.ptc.com/t5/PTC-Mathcad/Choosing-a-Cam-Type-Clutch-to-Drive-a-Centrifugal-Pump/td-p/447880

So how did they do that...?

[LucMeekes]

They most probably created that file by using a source that's much more capable than Prime....

Mathcad.

You can see that by the header, which resembles (equals...) the type used in Quicksheets for Mathcad since version ... very long ago.

That's also the reason why some 'help' sheets for Prime are so clumsy. They just used the converter and apparently did not take the trouble to check if the output still made any sense in Prime, let alone could be improved. (Of course 'improvement' and 'Prime'... two sides of a coin that will only lie flat on the table.)

The foreground colour of the text "MACHINE DESIGN..." is #FF008080.

If I open the sheet in Prime 4 and change the text colour to what Prime4 says it is (in the forground colour selection table a blue hue from the fifth column, the 4th row from the bottom), and save the sheet, it becomes #FF3A6071.

Success!
Luc

[Werner_E]

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So how did they do that...?

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They didn't do anything!

As Luc suspected they simply converted an old worksheet which was done in real Mathcad where you could chose the colors as usual and were not restricted to a few preselections.

Of course you could always change the colors at will the hard way. Save the worksheet. Rename it as *.zip. Unzip the content and edit the appropriate section in the file \mathcad\worksheet.xml. Save, zip and rename to *.mcdx. Easy color selection the PTC way 😉

See attached screenshot.

[DJF]

Sadly enough, I have one file I think I need to use that on.  Interesting trick.

[Werner_E]

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@DJF wrote:

Sadly enough, I have one file I think I need to use that on.  Interesting trick.

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In this case it might be easier to create a sheet in Mathcad 15 with just one text region in the desired text color, convert it to Prime format and copy the region from the converted sheet into yours. Not sure if the color information survives but it may be worth a try.

[DJF]

I may have to try that.  In theory, your first approach should be simple - just do a global replace of one hex code with another.  And it works fine - for math.  It does not seem to work for text.  It appears that it should - in the file it has the color code and I can successfully change them in the file - no instances of the old color remain.  Yet the color doesn't change.  Am I missing something?

[Werner_E]

I must confess that I actually never tried to change colors that way. But the section my screenshot shows is that of a text region in the file you linked to. This files used colors not available in Primes selection box, so I guess it should be able to change those colors in that xml file.

EDIT: I just gave it a try and the color change worked indeed.

See the attached worksheet - I changed the color of the text "MACHINE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS" by editing the worksheet.xml and succeeded in doing so.

[DJF]

Well, you did indeed change it - but I'm quite confused.  When I open your worksheet.xml file the only two hex codes I see anywhere are:

Foreground="#FF000000" Background="#00FFFFFF"  (Black and white, I think)

I also can't find any Time New Roman or Bold callouts, yet they are clearly displayed.  

Is the attached the same thing you see?

[LucMeekes]

You're looking in the wrong place.

Going from Prime 3.1(?) to 4 they've changed the location of (at least some types of) text items from the worksheet.xml file to \mathcad\xaml folder.

Now .XamlPackage files are (again) .zip files. You have to look there.

I guess this was all done for a better user experience: the user can look longer to an empty screen, waiting for the contents of the sheet when it is opened...

Success!
Luc

[Werner_E]

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Is the attached the same thing you see?

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No.

When you rename the file I posted to *.zip and unzip retaining the directory structure, there should be a subdirectory "mathcad" and there you find the file "worksheet.xml". Its the only file with this name in the whole archive so I wonder where the file you posted stems from.

I attach the file in question to this post.

EDIT: It looks to me that you did not simply renamed the file I posted but rather loaded it in Prime and resaved it, right. Because of the change in format Luc described the files gets much larger that way and the information you are looking for is now in "\mathcad\xaml\FlowDocument2.XamlPackage". As Luc described this is an archive file, too. So rename it to *.zip and unzip again. You will notice another subdirectory "Xaml" and in there the file "Document.xaml". This file now contains the information for the region I changed. I attach this file, too.

EDIT2. The forum software does not allow to attach a *.xaml file, so I had to zip it 😞

Conclusion: The new format makes changing colors that way even more uncomfortable and clumsy.

[DJF]

Yes, I had saved it in 5.0.  

Wow, that's pretty cumbersome.  Mathcad: fighting us every step of the way.

However, under \mathcad\settings\presentation.xml you can set the file's default fonts.  That should actually get me over my immediate color challenge.

[tslewis]

Prime is not a mess.

It is a much better piece of software to use than 15. Long term user who doesn’t have any legacy cavalry tied to 15. Use smath and see how bad the alternative is.

[Werner_E]

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@tslewis wrote:
Prime is not a mess.

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I tend to disagree, especially when you compare it to MC15.

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It is a much better piece of software to use than 15.

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I definitely disagree heavily! The few improvements in Prime do in no way outweigh the drawbacks and missing features. Prime is a big disgrace for PTC and either a sign of incompetence or unwillingness.

But its nice to see that we have at least one fan of Prime here in the forum and if you like it, then by all means pay for it and use it!

But of course you should not confuse MC15 with SMath.

[Fred_Kohlhepp]

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@tslewis wrote:
Prime is not a mess.

It is a much better piece of software to use than 15. Long term user who doesn’t have any legacy cavalry tied to 15. Use smath and see how bad the alternative is.

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I'm sorry!  I've tried not to respond to this--closed the thread three times--but it's too much.

It is a much better piece of software to use than 15. Long term user who doesn’t have any legacy cavalry tied to 15.

The second sentence above tells the tale:  You've never really used Mathcad's earlier versions, "doesn't have any legacy . . ."  Long term user . . ."  Your profile shows that you "registered" in 2011. 

Werner registered in 2009, Luc in 2007, I show registered 2006; but there was a forum, the Collaboratory (pause for a moment of reverent silence), before PTC bought Mathcad.  It's clear from their postings of Mathcad 15 in this forum that both Luc and Werner (and many others) were users and posters long before PTC bought Mathcad.  

If my conclusion is incorrect I apologize, but I don't think you've used Mathcad 15.  If all you've used is Prime, and you think 15 and Smath are either the same or similar then I can understand your confusion.  Mathcad 15 (if you're an active Prime owner then you have a full license for 15) has a different editor than Prime, so there is a fairly steep learning curve.  But as Werner said, Prime is still (five versions in) far short of the capabilities of the last original Mathcad.

[MikeArmstrong]

As Luc hinted at above. Prime does not have 'define custom colours' option.

Mike

[lkostorz]

A drawback then..

Ok, thanks.

[MikeArmstrong]

Just one of many