Text highlighting not working in Stata 15 do file

[Tommie Thompson]

Hey, I just bought Stata 15 and I'm unable to highlight text in the do file (e.g. when I drag my mouse across text so I can copy it). To clarify, the highlighting itself works, but there is no visual feedback on what has been highlighted. Highlighting works in the console. Thoughts?

[Sergiy Radyakin]

Tommie, you wrote

highlighting not working

and then you wrote:

To clarify, the highlighting itself works

please explain.

Sergiy

[Tommie Thompson]

If I hold my mouse down and scroll over [text], I do not see a blue overlay that should come with highlighting. However, if I push "delete" on my keyboard, [text] deletes. This tells me that highlighting works, but the visual aspect isn't there.

As a tangential side comment, I really hate Stata 15's theme. What's with this crazy new design trend where everyone feels a need to reduce contrast! I like black on white, not grey on darker grey.

[Red Owl]

You can change the colors of the graphic user interface with Stata's preferences.

If you want to do this, go to Edit/Preferences/General Preferences from the menu bar.

[Tommie Thompson]

Could you elaborate? I went to General Preferences, but there is no GUI color/contrast options. I can change font, then there are a few checkboxes for different things irrelevant color/contrast scheme.

[William Lisowski]

This is what the dialog box in question looks like on Stata for Mac, the red oval is my highlight of the relevant control. Clicking on it brings up the color selection dialog. Perhaps something similar appears in Stata for Windows.

[Tommie Thompson]

Oh hmm, it doesn't even look close to that on the PC. Any PC users here?

[Red Owl]

It looks pretty similar to me on Windows 10.

Red Owl
Stata/IC 15.1, Windows 10 (64-bit)

[Sergiy Radyakin]

Tommie Thompson,

it is not clear why you are so reluctant to give details. What operating system are you using? Which color scheme is applied to OS? Would posting a screenshot absolutely put your project at risk?

My view on this is that there is no problem with Stata itself, but your computer is somehow configured to conflict with Stata's default settings, which is by default black on white (exactly what you wanted) at least for my OS. But since you've mentioned grey on darker grey, you may have other settings, other OS.

Stata borrows some of the colors (denoted "automatic color"). Hence may be affected by the OS.

There is a button "Restore factory defaults" which you have clicked already, right?

If you are using Windows 10, start Stata in Windows XP mode. If it works fine, contact Microsoft for support with this issue.

Red Owl , I think the topic starter is talking specifically about the do-files editor, not the output window. So the menu should be MENU IN THE DO-FILE EDITOR: Edit->Preferences...->Syntax Highlighting.

@StataDevs, while Stata seems to take the font color from the system, the highlight color does not correspond to the color utilized in other programs in Win7 + Stata 14, see screenshot below. In a weird twist of fate the topic starter may have that color set to white. Resetting color palettes for both Stata and OS may help restore the proper color highlighting.

[Tommie Thompson]

Actually, I think I figured it out. Thanks for the help. Your pictures did guide me to the proper place.

[William Lisowski]

Prior to editing your post, you had written

I'm trying to post a screenshot but the image function for this forum keeps asking me to enter a URL.

In the dialog box that opens, click on the Upload tab to be presented with a dialog box for uploading image files, preferably in png format.

[Tommie Thompson]

William: yup I tried that, but it still prompted an error saying I didn't add a URL

[William Lisowski]

After you chose your file, you neglected to click the Send it to the Server button underneath the Choose File button, but instead hit OK at the bottom of the dialog box.