Old 08-31-2014, 11:01 PM   #1
Arnaud G
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Default How to change top menu bar's color

Hello everyone,

One thing that's always bothered me with Reaper, aesthetically speaking, is that white menu bar (File Edit View Insert etc) at the top.

Is there a way I can change its background color? Or can I hide it?
If not, has there been a feature request related to that matter?

Thanks,
Arnaud

Last edited by Arnaud G; 08-31-2014 at 11:29 PM.
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Old 08-31-2014, 11:07 PM   #2
loo
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I don't think Reaper has any control over that. That's up to your OS.
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Old 08-31-2014, 11:10 PM   #3
serenityjazz
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I think this belong to Windows and you can't change it... I know there is a "hack" that can install a non official Windows theme who can change this color but never try it yet... Let us know if you find something
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Old 08-31-2014, 11:19 PM   #4
Arnaud G
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Okay I finally found what I was looking for, I need to tweak the registry, these values are what I'm looking at right now:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Colors
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

I'll let you know what I find out !


ps: I'm running Windows 8.1, this also applies to Windows 7 and Vista
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Old 08-31-2014, 11:26 PM   #5
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Could you pls post a screenshot? Not really sure what bar are you talking about, because if its title bar you can change its color from Personalize menu in Windows itself without registry.
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Old 09-01-2014, 01:04 AM   #6
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http://s27.postimg.org/s0ruxj783/menu.jpg

I messed around with the registry but most values have been blocked by Microsoft in Windows 8 (was working fine in windows 7)

I hope Reaper's developers could consider making their own shell for the menu (just like Adobe and other software developers did)
I think Reaper's looks, themes, would greatly benefit from it.


Or.. simply adding a shortcut that would show/hide the menu.
Even beyond the aesthetic aspect, it'd save a bit of screen space.
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Old 09-01-2014, 01:24 AM   #7
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Yeah, one of the big advantage of Reaper UI is responsiveness. Everything is so fast compared to other DAWs! But i would like to get all the Reaper power under the hood and pack it to new slick modern interface if it still will be fast and responsive.
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Old 03-26-2024, 02:46 AM   #8
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Clarification: it's how Reaper implemented it which makes it dependent on the OS. And I doubt it has anything to do with performance. Shouldn't matter whether the OS paints the menu or Reaper.

Suggestion to the devs: if you don't want to implement the menu painting yourselves (and make it skinnable in the process), then please move the entire system menu control code to a separate open-source plugin dll such that the community is able to fix that. TY!

Or simply add an option to make the menu bar invisible as a quick fix.

What I'm doing right now is having a C program find the reaper window and resize/move it such that the menu bar is out of screen bounds.

Last edited by Gruust; 03-26-2024 at 02:56 AM.
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Old 03-26-2024, 04:20 AM   #9
Pink Wool
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gruust View Post
Suggestion to the devs: if you don't want to implement the menu painting yourselves (and make it skinnable in the process), then please move the entire system menu control code to a separate open-source plugin dll such that the community is able to fix that. TY!

Or simply add an option to make the menu bar invisible as a quick fix.
This has been suggested many times (seeing as the original post too is from 2014! - and this goes WAY further back) and it's highly doubtful it's going to change anytime soon. I mean, I hope it does but don't get your hopes up...
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Old 03-26-2024, 01:51 PM   #10
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With this Autohotkey script you can toggle the menu invisible (and visible again) via the F3 function key. Rename it from .txt to .ahk, then run it with Autohotkey


F3::
{
IfWinActive, ahk_exe reaper.exe
ToggleMenu()
return
}

ToggleMenu()
{
;static associative array for keeping track of all windows that have had their menus hidden
static MenuArray := {}

;find active window handle in array / add to array if not found
hWin := WinExist("A")
hMenu := null
hMenu := MenuArray.Remove(hWin)
if (hMenu = null)
{
;store a reference to the window's menu in the array
hMenu := (DllCall("GetMenu", "uint", hWin))
MenuArray[hWin] := hMenu

;hide the menu by uncoupling it from the parent window
DllCall("SetMenu", "uint", hWin, "uint", 0)
}
else
{
;show menu by recoupling it to the parent window
DllCall("SetMenu", "uint", hWin, "uint", hMenu)
}
}
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Old 03-26-2024, 02:44 PM   #11
permeke
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gruust View Post
Clarification: it's how Reaper implemented it which makes it dependent on the OS. And I doubt it has anything to do with performance. Shouldn't matter whether the OS paints the menu or Reaper.

Suggestion to the devs: if you don't want to implement the menu painting yourselves (and make it skinnable in the process), then please move the entire system menu control code to a separate open-source plugin dll such that the community is able to fix that. TY!

Or simply add an option to make the menu bar invisible as a quick fix.

What I'm doing right now is having a C program find the reaper window and resize/move it such that the menu bar is out of screen bounds.
easy to hide the menu bar in OSX.
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Old 03-26-2024, 08:17 PM   #12
Gruust
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I'd 'simply' switch to OpenGL/Direct3D/Metal rendering in a decoration-less window. Would also make playback animation much smoother and give skinning control to the community over everything. Really not worth using stock widgets just to get kicked in the ba**s. I mean the system isn't really doing much there...
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