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

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)
 


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:



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

    

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     or this     
or maybe even this                                            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

TUESDAY TIPS–HOW TO CHANGE THE BACKGROUND COLORS IN LEGACY 7.5

 

HOW TO CHANGE THE BACKGROUND IMAGE IN LEGACY 7.5

THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO LEGACY 8

This may not be important to some users.  But, if you’re like me, you want the screen that you look at every single day to be set up just how you like it.  Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to change the background image in Legacy.

• Go to the file menu at the top of your Legacy screen and select Options – Customize
• Click on Colors tab then click on “Click here to change the user interface colors”
• Next - click on the text box that says "background" under the Colors column on the left.

This screen will pop up next

• Click on the Box on the far right, second one up, that says “set”

Now this screen pops up

• Look at the small box at the bottom with the “down” arrow.  Be sure to select your “C” drive, then Legacy, then Background
• Now you should click on one of the backgrounds in the list on the far left. I picked BERRIES2.bmp

The next screen will look like this

• Click OK at the bottom of that screen and the next screen will look like this

• Now click “SET” right next to the background we just selected, which you can see as the red berries on the bottom right.

Your next screen will look like this

• You can do one of two things next.  Either click "SAVE" in the right corner just underneath tags, and when prompted save the setup as anything you want such as “berries background” or
• You can just click on “Close” at the bottom left of the screen.

You will be taken back to this screen

• Click “SAVE” at the bottom left of your screen and now you have a new background.  Here is how it looks.

I used that particular sample because it shows up so well here.  However, I’m more of a subtle kind of background gal so here is what mine looks like with another background.
 


TIP:  You don’t have to use the backgrounds that come with Legacy.  I’ve gone online and found some very pretty backgrounds that I saved to my computer and commonly use for my own background.  I’ve found them just by using a search engine such as Google or Bing.  These were all on public sites with permission to use them granted.
 
    
Or you could use any one of your own pictures as a background.  Here are some I could use from our trip to Amsterdam or from a cemetery where my ancestors are buried, or just a scenic view.  You can decide for yourself what kind of background you might want.  Some of them may or may not look just right or show up very much. 
       

Another note:  If you want more Legacy tips from another blogger who is a member of the Legacy Technical support team, please visit http://ancestoring.blogspot.com/

Have fun playing around with your color scheme.
 
Bye for now,
Michigan Girl


 
 
Copyright © Diane Gould Hall 2013