Problem with dark mode

[dumiya]

Very simply, can I turn it off in Nisus only. The white on black is difficult to see and copying and pasting ends up on other documents as white on white. If not is it possible to download the previous version.
Help would be appreciated.

[useeger]

Yes, you can turn it off. Go to Preferences > Appearance. The first drop-down menu allows you to switch between Dark Mode and Light Mode.

I personally love Dark Mode für menus but prefer Text in Light Mode. This is possible in the chex box under the drop-down menu. But in this configuration there is a little problem: The find/replace window is completely in Dark Mode and the cursor there is unvisible. That should be corrected. I would prefer that the Text-area in the find/replace window would also be in Light Mode.

[adryan]

Re: Problem with dark mode

G'day, dumiya et al

I don't use System-wide Dark Mode, and I take it from your comments that you don't either.

If I use Nisus Writer's Dark Mode, text is displayed in the color I choose, with the exception that text is displayed as white when I choose either white or black. I don't like the fact that text is displayed as white when I want it to be black. It removes the ability to hide text by coloring it the same as the background, which can be useful on occasions. And it goes against the spirit of WYSIWYG.

If I copy a slab of multi-colored text from a NWP Dark Mode document and paste it into a Pages document, all the colors appear as I chose them, with the exception that "black" text that displayed as white in NWP now appears as black in Pages. In fact, this message appeared as white in NWP where I composed it, but it now appears as black when posted here.

If you are "seeing" white pasted text as white somewhere else, I think it is because you have chosen the text in Dark Mode to be white. If instead you choose it to be black, it will display as white there but as black when pasted in a non-Dark-Mode document.

I'm not sure how much of this is intended behavior and how much is a bug.

As useeger says, you can easily turn off Dark Mode in NWP:–

Preferences > Appearance > Appearance (sic)

Cheers,
Adrian

[martin]

I personally love Dark Mode für menus but prefer Text in Light Mode. This is possible in the chex box under the drop-down menu. But in this configuration there is a little problem: The find/replace window is completely in Dark Mode and the cursor there is unvisible. That should be corrected. I would prefer that the Text-area in the find/replace window would also be in Light Mode.

Thank you for letting us know about this bug. You are right, the find window's text insertion point should be visible in Dark Mode when text editing areas are set to use Light Mode. I'll file this as something that should be fixed. As you said, the text editing areas in the find panel should also use Light Mode when that preference has been chosen.

[martin]

If I use Nisus Writer's Dark Mode, text is displayed in the color I choose, with the exception that text is displayed as white when I choose either white or black. I don't like the fact that text is displayed as white when I want it to be black. It removes the ability to hide text by coloring it the same as the background, which can be useful on occasions. And it goes against the spirit of WYSIWYG.

That is true, using Dark Mode breaks WYSIWYG (that's What You See is What You Get for those that don't know). But that's unavoidable. You can't have WYSIWYG when the text background is black, unless you're printing on black paper with white ink

If I copy a slab of multi-colored text from a NWP Dark Mode document and paste it into a Pages document, all the colors appear as I chose them, with the exception that "black" text that displayed as white in NWP now appears as black in Pages. In fact, this message appeared as white in NWP where I composed it, but it now appears as black when posted here.

This is the intended behavior. Dark Mode is a display option, and thus its color shifting is only a temporary display phenomenon. The true underlying color of your text should always be preserved. When you turn off Dark Mode, or otherwise see your text in a normal Light Mode context, you should see your text's true colors again.

One minor correction: Nisus Writer may change how other colors are shown in Dark Mode, not just black. For example, if your text was formatted to be a very dark grey color, Dark Mode will show it as an off white color. Basically Nisus Writer is going to try to make all your text visible in Dark Mode, not just text that's pure black.

If you are "seeing" white pasted text as white somewhere else, I think it is because you have chosen the text in Dark Mode to be white. If instead you choose it to be black, it will display as white there but as black when pasted in a non-Dark-Mode document.

I'm not sure how much of this is intended behavior and how much is a bug.

What you said above is also the intended behavior. White text that's copied from Nisus Writer running in Dark Mode should only paste as white if:

1. The paste destination is also using Dark Mode.
2. The text was explicitly colored as white, eg: using the menu Format > Text Color

The fundamental principle here is that Nisus Writer should always preserve the true color of your text. That's the color you designate using formatting tools like the Format menu. Any other automatic color changes are only temporary; turning on Dark Mode does not actually change your text's true color to white. Only a user should be able to do that by applying formatting.

[adryan]

G’day, Martin et al

Thanks for explaining the situation, Martin. I’m glad it’s not a Nisus bug!

Cheers,
Adrian

[dumiya]

Thank you for the replies.
The next question can I download and install the previous version?
I generally like dark mode but I like my pages to be black on white so they are looking the way they will be printed.
Hopefully

[martin]

We make all prior versions of Nisus Writer Pro available via our version archives.

But you don't need to go back to an old version of Nisus Writer to turn off Dark Mode. As Adrian said earlier, you can disable Dark Mode in Nisus Writer's Appearance Preferences. Even easier, you can toggle it using the menu View > Dark Mode to quickly switch between Light/Dark modes.

[dumiya]

Wow, that is so good
Thank you

[David Sharp]

Having just graduated to Big Sur, on an Intel-equipped Mac, I've been taking a look at dark mode. It hasn't taken me long to decide that it's not for me, but I can imagine some people find it useful.

Thanks to this thread, I've suddenly realised that Nisus is offering an in-app switcher to dark mode, in addition to the system-wide switcher provided by Apple. That seems like a cool option, for people who might want to use dark mode in specific places.

I've just checked the other applications I use regularly—Mail and Photos in the Apple universe, and Bookends and MS Excel outside it—and I'm intrigued to see that none of them have so far thought fit to allow their users to similarly switch between dark and light modes.

I wonder why not?