SOLVED Change apperance of the active window on the taskbar?

[CinnamonRoll]

Intuitively, an active window should appear darker than the other windows on the taskbar, as if it is "pressed in" (like a button would), not brighter, which makes it seem like it "pops out", as it currently is. As a result, when I have two windows that I keep switching between, I often click on the wrong window on the taskbar just because something gets messed up in my brain by this unintuitive appearance.

Is it possible to change the appearance of the active window on the taskbar so that it appears as if it is pushed in and not as if it pops out?

[Cosmo.]

Intuitively, an active window should appear darker than the other windows on the taskbar, as if it is "pressed in" (like a button would), not brighter, which makes it seem like it "pops out", as it currently is.

Hm, this is a matter of taste. But I agree, that the active window should easily be recognizable in the bar.

In principle such changes get done by selecting a different theme. Open the theme settings and select a different desktop theme. You can find a great number of additional themes, which you can easily download and install through the dialog. Note, that the desktop theme changes many things: e.g. the menu, the task-switcher (alt-tab), some fonts, tooltip-appearance or panel-transparency.

My personal favorite is Elementary Luna Mod.

[CinnamonRoll]

But I don't want to change the entire theme, I just want to change this little detail.

[Penn]

This is a theme issue, not a cinnamon issue (if I understand you correctly).

Switch to a temporary desktop theme you don't want to "fix". Go to the folder that contains the theme you most like (if it is a default installed theme /usr/share/themes/theme name , if one you installed using the theme installer it should be in ~/.themes). Look in the cinnamon folder and open cinnamon.css (after creating a backup). I'm pretty sure the area you mean is the window list (search the in the cinnamon.css file). Reverse the colors for background gradient (both start and end) in the section ".window-list-item-box" and ".window-list-item-box:active". Save that cinnamon.css file. Switch back to the theme you wanted to "fix".

Come back and let us know if that gives the desired result (just changing the title to include the word solved will do). If not restore with the backup you made and tell us what I'm misunderstanding.

[CinnamonRoll]

Here is what I did:

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cd /usr/share/themes/Linux\ Mint/ #This is the theme I use
cd cinnamon/
sudo cp cinnamon.css cinnamon.css.orig
sudo emacs cinnamon.css

and under

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.window-list-item-box:active,
.window-list-item-box:checked,
.window-list-item-box:focus  {

I only changed the row

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background-gradient-start: rgba(220,220,220,0.5);

to

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background-gradient-start: rgba(10,10,10,0.5);

and saved the file and closed emacs. Then I switched to another theme and then switched back again. And it worked. Thanks!

Now I like this appearance much better. Maybe the color could have been made even somewhat darker, but now at least it looks as if it is "pushed in". I kept ".window-list-item-box" as it was as I think that non-active windows look okay as they are, otherwise I think they would have looked as if they were pushed in as well.

But will this file ever be reset or overwritten, for example by some update to some specific package? In that case I will just have to do the same change again, which I guess is fine.

(By the way, how do I mark the thread as "solved"?)

[Penn]

The only way the new settings might change is if there is an update to the cinnamon.css file in the Mint theme you use.

If you want to be certain that won't happen you can create your own theme by creating a folder as yourthemename/cinnamon with a copy of the the entire cinnamon folder from your Mint theme. Then change the "name" line in theme.json to reflect "youthemename".

Choose edit on the first post in the thread and you can change the subject line above the main body of text. It's not important to change the title in my opinion since you already stated what fixed the issue in the previous post.

[Cosmo.]

Intuitively, an active window should appear darker than the other windows on the taskbar

The new CinnXP theme does that.

[CinnamonRoll]

The new CinnXP theme does that.

Lol, maybe I should install Linux Mint on my mothers computer along with this theme and see if she notices anything Joke aside, it actually looks a lot like Windows XP, and maybe it is from Windows I have got the idea that an active window should appear darker than the other windows on the taskbar (although this idea exists in Linux too, e.g. GNOME 2, or the "classic mode" in GNOME 3.8, which RHEL 7 and CentOS 7 use). Maybe a good theme if you just have come from Windows and feel a bit lost in Linux.

[Cosmo.]

Joke continued:
Mother wonders: Where is the Internet Explorer? Where is my AV-program? Why is my computer suddenly quicker than before?

No joke: If you say, that she still uses XP, it is urgently time to do something about it.