I had problems using the "Styler" settings with NotePad++.  I tried to set the inactive tab colors.  Each time after clicking SAVE the colors would revert.  Thus I resorted to googling and found a manual method to set the values in an XML file.

Interestingly enough the article about the low readability of NotePad++ tabs has very low readability with a complicated background image that makes the head hurt to read it.  Thus I am cutting and pasting here.


If you use Notepad++ as your primary source code editor, you might share my annoyance with the background color of inactive tabs. (The default color makes the inactive tab titles very hard to read.) Even more annoying is that when a person tries to edit the colors by going to Settings / Style Configurator, the changes don't stick. Here's a handy fix:

The file you need to alter is stylers.xml, which in Windows 7 is found in: C:\\Users\[your user file]\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++\stylers.xml.

Right at the bottom of the document, the very last WidgetStyle, is the following:

WidgetStyle name="Inactive tabs" styleID="0" fgColor="555555" bgColor="f0f0f0"

I've already changed the hex colors to what I like. The fgColor controls the text color ("foreground"), and the bgColor controls the background color. Set those however you like, restart your code editor, and you should be in business!

Categories: Computing

2 Comments

Robert Walker MonsterID Icon Robert Walker · April 29, 2015 at 6:45 am

Just to say thanks, that sorted it out! Been an issue for some time. I just set the background to FFFFFF for the inactive tabs, they are all white now, easy to read, but the foreground tab stands out with shaded background. After all you need ti read the inactive tabs more than you need to read the foreground, generally you know what it is :).

Luigi MonsterID Icon Luigi · August 9, 2015 at 9:09 am

Wow, many thanks for this! It's been really annoying,,,cheers mate

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