Changing Side Pane Color in Caja (GTK2)

Support & Help Requests
#1

I just discovered Backgrounds and Emblems in Caja, and it's awesome! However, when I drag a new color or pattern into the Side Pane (rather than the main part of the Caja window), it is rejected.

It seems you can only change the background pattern/color of the main Caja window, not the side pane. Is there a way to change the side pane? It would be nice to get a darker side pane than the main window, like the file manager in Linux Mint (dark theme) has.

Thoughts?

1 Like
#2

You could try another tool.

Gnome-color-chooser

http://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial/gnome-color-chooser

#3

I'm with you on wanting a darker side pane. :slight_smile:

This is actually dependent by theme (the default being Ambiant-MATE). It wasn't until now when I've found the solution! :smile:

(Thanks to looking at how Linux Mint's mint-y theme does it ;))

To set this regardless of theme:

  • Press ALT+F2 and open Pluma as root to this file:

      gksudo pluma /etc/gtk-2.0/gtkrc

  • Copy and paste the code below.

  • Re-apply the theme from the Appearance dialog.

This will apply to all themes system-wide.

It can be set on a per-theme basis too...

  • Open Pluma as root pointing to your theme's gtk-2.0/apps/caja.rc.

    E.g. For Ambiant-MATE, you can press ALT+F2 then type:

      gksudo pluma /usr/share/themes/Ambiant-MATE/gtk-2.0/apps/caja.rc

This is the styling code that does the magic:

style "dark-sidebar" {
  GtkTreeView::odd_row_color = "#454545"
  GtkTreeView::even_row_color = "#454545"

  base[NORMAL] = "#454545"
  base[INSENSITIVE] = "#454545"

  text[NORMAL] = "#C3C3C3"
  text[ACTIVE] = "#000"
  text[SELECTED] = @selected_fg_color
}

widget_class "*CajaSidePane*" style "dark-sidebar"

Once saved, re-apply your theme from Appearance.

You can also change the colours too:

  • #454545 = Darker gray for background. (Like Linux Mint)
  • #C3C3C3 = Light gray for text.
  • #000 = Black.
  • @selected_fg_color = Theme's default foreground colour, usually white.

Ubuntu MATE has a colour tool pre-installed that you can choose for picking the colour, as these are hex colour codes.

End result:

In Ubuntu MATE 16.10, a dimmer side bar colour will be used by default.

Here's an early screenshot
5 Likes
#4

Unbelievably awesome!!! Thank you!!!:joy:

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#5

I noticed that when I log on, the sidebar was back to normal :frowning: Seems to be a bug when logging in ignores these changes (it worked again by re-applying the theme).

If that happens to you too, save to /etc/gtk-2.0/gtkrc instead. I’ve updated the instructions. :slight_smile:

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#6

Excellent! Thank you very much!

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#7

Thank you very much! I noticed it had gone back too!

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#8

A solution for Ubuntu Mate 17.04?

#9

Any way to make it so the main panel and side panel use alpha? Or would that require the whole window having alpha, which GTK3 might no support?

#10

Setting an alpha colour is rgba(255, 255, 255, 1) where 1 is a decimal between 0 and 1.

Presumably you'd set that on the background or background-color property but I haven't investigated the GTK3 equivalent.