New dark mode

[seasidepb]

What have you done? I have worked enough with typography and design to know that having reversed out text against a dark background is a complete no no for long texts, so I've never had any sympathy with the crudity of so many dark modes. Yes I understand the argument about screen glare, particularly at night but there are ways through that. I've routinely used Softmaker's dark mode exactly because the working page remained white. But now it's unusable.

[martin-k]

When the service pack was installed, there was a button that showed you the changes. Clicking it explains the feature and how to change it back:

https://www.softmaker.com/en/download/s ... -changelog

[seasidepb]

I'm glad, but the update installed itself automatically and all I saw was a newly dark text background, and then looking through the usual options for changing the UI there was nothing obvious (why would anyone think to look at the options on the quick menu, or even notice that a new rectangle had appeared?) As I say I'm glad that the white background is still available, and it really matters. The arrogant inflexibility of the Word UI was one of the main reasons I stopped using MS 365, along with its general flakiness.

[Woody44]

I don't understand how anyone can work in dark mode. It's one thing to offer a subdued background for the menus and toolbars, but the actual work area should be white (or nearly white). I'm old enough to have started out in personal computing with an IBM PC with the original 12-inch monochrome screen. It was pretty awful, but that's all we had back then.

And then one fine day someone came out with WYSIWYG screens and black type on a white screen -- just like your document would print -- and it was universally hailed as wonderful. And now, as with so many other things, people who weren't there when the decision was made to move away from something to something infinitely better are going backward to what was abandoned several decades ago in favor of something better. And somehow we are being told that going backward is an "improvement."

Memo to SoftMaker: Do whatever you want with your dark modes, because I won't be using it. Whatever you do, please do NOT discontinue the option for a WYSIWYG, black text on white page work area. And also please do NOT drop the option for classic menus. That's another "improvement" that doesn't make anything easier, it's just different for the sake of being different. I can't help but laugh when I read reviews written by [essentially] children in which they mention that such-and-such program offers a "classic" ribbon menu. There's nothing "classic" about the ribbon menu, but that statement tells readers that the author hasn't been around very long.

[Jossi]

I'm right there with you, Woody. The first computer I bought was an Atari ST, because at the time it was the only computer (other than the prohibitively expensive Mac) that had a decent black-on-white display.

[Hook]

I don't understand how anyone can work in dark mode. It's one thing to offer a subdued background for the menus and toolbars, but the actual work area should be white (or nearly white). I'm old enough to have started out in personal computing with an IBM PC with the original 12-inch monochrome screen. It was pretty awful, but that's all we had back then.

And then one fine day someone came out with WYSIWYG screens and black type on a white screen -- just like your document would print -- and it was universally hailed as wonderful. And now, as with so many other things, people who weren't there when the decision was made to move away from something to something infinitely better are going backward to what was abandoned several decades ago in favor of something better. And somehow we are being told that going backward is an "improvement."

Memo to SoftMaker: Do whatever you want with your dark modes, because I won't be using it. Whatever you do, please do NOT discontinue the option for a WYSIWYG, black text on white page work area. And also please do NOT drop the option for classic menus. That's another "improvement" that doesn't make anything easier, it's just different for the sake of being different. I can't help but laugh when I read reviews written by [essentially] children in which they mention that such-and-such program offers a "classic" ribbon menu. There's nothing "classic" about the ribbon menu, but that statement tells readers that the author hasn't been around very long.

Haha Well, Woody, being also old enough to have started on an IBM-PC in 1981 (I was 29 that year), I feel like the point of WYSIWYG was that you could work with print formatting... really, was about fonts and spacing and margins, not really about the color of the paper. A computer screen is not paper and my old eyes really appreciate the dark mode, and typesetter taboos aside, I love the new black background for the paper. We all have differing preferences. So let's have options. Thank you, Softmaker!