Hi folks, especially Chris :-)
Does anyone know why the TextBkgnd cell requires that "+1" be added to RGB() in order to show the desired color? When no other color cell that I could find has that requirement?
So that "RGB(0,255,0)" produces Green everywhere but TextBkgnd, where it produces black. But in TextBkgnd, "RGB(0,255,0)+1" produces the desired green color.
Here's Help:
For Fill Bkgnd: "To enter a custom color, use the RGB or HSL function. The value of a custom color is its RGB color, and RGB(r, g, b), rather than a number, will be shown in the ShapeSheet window."
For TextBkgnd: "To enter a custom color, use the RGB or HSL function plus one—for example, RGB(255,127,255)+1. The value of a custom color is its RGB color, and RGB(r, g, b)+1, rather than a number, will be shown in the ShapeSheet window."
And perhaps needless to say, setting a formula in a sensible color cell to equal TextBkgnd picks some random unintended color. Though you can set:
SensibleColorCell = TextBkgnd -1
Awesome.
-- Graham
Because the text background, besides colour also indicates no background. So 0 seems to have been used for that, thus requiring colours to start from 1. It does seem strange they chose to combine whether or not there is a text background with its colour!
Quote from: AndyW on January 11, 2012, 11:53:02 AM
Because the text background, besides colour also indicates no background. So 0 seems to have been used for that, thus requiring colours to start from 1. It does seem strange they chose to combine whether or not there is a text background with its colour!
You may well have the answer there! This is a color setting where there's no corresonding fill pattern, so no other cell through which to specify "no fill". You'd think maybe the value "-1" would have occurred to someone :-).
-- Graham
For reference, check this link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms406518(v=office.12).aspx
Other observations: only "+1" gives the desired color.
Only negative numbers will alter the value, e.g., -3, -10.
As noted by Graham and AndyW, strange functionality, and why is this behavior different than all other fill functions??? :o
I think you guys have figured this all out already, but I'll restate for those who read from the bottom-up :), and add some technical history to the discussion.
Visio color cells hold an index to a color in the document's color table. Even if you enter RGB(255,0,0), Visio evaluates that to some integer, somewhere. You can demonstrate this for yourselves by doing this:
FillForegnd = RGB(255,0,0)
User.SillyColorIndexTest = 0 + FillForegnd
User.SillyColorIndexTest evaluates to 24 for a default, blank drawing in Visio Premium 2010. You'll also notice that Visio didn't detect that RGB(255,0,0) is the same as color #2. It added a new color to the color table. The reason for this is probably that color #2 can be changed if you edit the default colors and redefine colors 0-23 if you dig around in the color dialogs long enough.
To have no fill for a shape, you set FillPattern to 0. But there is no TextBkgndPattern cell, so the Creators doubled-up (ie: hacked) the TextBkgnd cell so that it is getting the color TextBkgnd-1 from the color table, unless the value is 0, whereupon a the text background is transparent.
Rhetorical question, or perhaps statement, but it seems it would have been less confusing, even more logical, to set the fill transparency to 100% rather than this "doubling up".
Wapperdude
Quote from: wapperdude on January 13, 2012, 03:15:18 PM
Rhetorical question, or perhaps statement, but it seems it would have been less confusing, even more logical, to set the fill transparency to 100% rather than this "doubling up".
Wapperdude
... except that I'm pretty sure the appearance of the TextBkgnd cell predates transparency. I'm still thinking TextBkgnd = -1 would have been the better choice for "no background fill", but maybe there was some reason that wasn't feasible.
-- Graham