Tuesday, January 27, 2015

TUESDAY'S TIP - CHANGING THE BACKGROUND COLOR IN LEGACY 8

Legacy-change bkgrnd colors title pic
Maybe it’s just me, but I like to change the look of my Legacy file now and then.  I have my favorite color scheme, as I’m sure all of you do.  But, once in a while I like to change it.
 
Today I was trying to do just one simple change – the background color on the Family View.  Shouldn’t be difficult, right?  I’ve done it many times before.  HA!  I couldn’t get the correct selection to come up in the “Change Colors” part of the program.  After many many attempts, I finally asked a Facebook friend who also happens to work for Legacy, what am I doing wrong?
 
I knew it was operator error and I was obviously doing something wrong.  Sure enough it was, but not entirely.  Changing the background on the Family View is not one of the choices available in the “Change Colors” tab.  Here’s how to change your background in Legacy 8.

Step 1 – Select the Options tab and then select Change Colors.  When you do this you will see the pink box pop up.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)
 
Legacy-change bkgrnd colors step 1

Step 2 – Ignore the pink box and place your cursor in the right or left margin and click.  This will bring up a set of choices for your background, as shown here:

Legacy-change bkgrnd colors step 2

Step 3 – Select the type of background you are interested in using.  You have 3 choices – Color, pattern or gradient, as shown here:

Legacy-change bkgrnd colors step 3  Legacy-change bkgrnd colors step 3a   Legacy-change bkgrnd colors step 3b

Select the background of your choice and click on it.  Presto!  New background
.
TIP:  The color and gradient choices will come up automatically.  However, the Background choices are located in a different file.  Here is a direct quote from, Michele, the Legacy tech who assisted me “They are in C:\Program Files\Legacy8\BackGrnd.  If you have a 64 bit computer it will be C:\Program Files (x86)\Legacy8\BackGrnd.  The color schemes are in the documents folder but the backgrounds are not.”  Knowing where the background files are is very important and it was why I was having problems.

Whether you want a color a pattern or a gradient, it’s your choice to make.

This  Legacy-change bkgrnd colors title pic-4   or this  Legacy-change bkgrnd colors title pic-2   
or maybe even this                              Legacy-change bkgrnd colors title pic-3               It’s all up to you.

Have fun with it.
 
For more Legacy tips from Michele Simmons Lewis, who assisted me, please visit her blog Ancestoring and use her “search this blog” box.  Type in Legacy and you will see her great tips on many subjects.

If you are still using Legacy 7.5, I wrote a post about changing background colors in that version too.  Please click here to visit that post.

Here are some of the other posts I’ve written about Legacy.
Legacy 8 – A Quick Guide to Label & Tab Colors
Tuesday’s Tip – Using the Internet Search Option in Legacy 8
Adding a Record to Legacy from Ancestry – Step by Step Instructions

There are more tips about Legacy on my blog.  Just type “Legacy” in the “search this blog” box and you will find them all.

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2015   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

3 comments:

  1. I have a very bad sense of design and color. I was happy I hit on a color scheme I loved in 7.5. Then came 8.0. It took me forever to get what I wanted and if you ask me how I did it I couldn't tell you. I'll file this away in case I ever get brave enough to change.

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    Replies
    1. Mary. I know just what you mean. I had a color scheme that I really liked in 7.5. It took me some time to tweak 8 to be even close. But, I'm happy with it now and much more comfortable making color changes. Remember, you can save your color scheme. If you do that, then you can always go back to it and you won't lose it.
      Thanks for stopping by.

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    2. Oh, I saved it. It'll take me a while to figure out the restore part though.

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I look forward to reading your comments. If you have any connection to the people mentioned in this blog, please let me know. I write about mine and my husband's ancestors and would welcome new information or meeting a new cousin or two. Thanks for visiting and come back soon.