Choosing your Preferred Colours in Windows 7
When using a computer it can be more comfortable for some people’s eyes to change the background colours to something other than bright white.
Some people have sensitivity to bright white backgrounds (called scotopic sensitivity or Irlen syndrome), so find it less difficult to read text off a duller background.
People who don’t have this sensitivity can also find it beneficial to change the background colour as most people find it more comfortable to read off a background that is not bright white.
It is easy to change the colour of this on your own computer, and this setting will stay on your computer until you choose to turn it off.
To Choose Your Preferred Colours
1. Right click with the mouse on the desktop background (anywhere on the screen).
2. Left click with the mouse on the bottom item in the list, which is ‘personalize’. The following menu should appear.
3. Left click with the mouse on the bottom option which is ‘Advanced appearance settings’. The following box should appear.
4. Left click with the mouse on the drop-down menu below where it says ‘Item’ (where it says Desktop in the above diagram). Here you can choose several different options, but to change the colours in Windows 7 then you need to choose the bottom one which says ‘Window’.
5. Once you have selected ‘Windows’ then the colour of the background will appear in the ‘color 1’ box next to it. If you click colour box then a drop-down menu will appear where you can choose a new colour which will replace the white inside of the windows and in programs like Microsoft Word. If there is not a colour there that you like then you can select ‘other’ at the bottom and you can choose your own colour. The box should look similar to the following.
6. The colour is chosen by moving the crosshatch in the square rainbow screen in the middle till you find a colour that you feel comfortable looking at, you can then make it lighter or darker by moving the arrow up and down the colour on the far right hand side. The crosshatch and the arrow are both moved by dragging them, by holding down the left mouse button.
7. Once you have chosen the colour you want you can add it to your custom colours by clicking at the bottom right of this dialogue box, ‘Add to custom colors’. Then click Ok to return to the advance appearance box, and then click Ok again to return to appearance settings. You can then click ‘Apply’ followed by ‘Ok’ to save your settings.
8. You can then open a window or a program like Microsoft Office to see the changes you have made.