Night mode tip for Streets & Trips

I find the default night mode of Streets & Trips leaves the background of the panes and toolbars in light grey. This leaves too much glare to drive safely at night for my liking. This can be changed by personalizing the windows display settings. I created a new user (named Night mode) in my laptop and selected my preferred colors in the display properties of windows. At night I simply login as "Night mode" to toggle from my regular settings to night settings in just a few seconds.

NEW!!! Toggle between night mode theme and your regular theme in display properties. It's even faster than having two user accounts
download the night mode theme zip file by clicking here
Thanks taoyue for this useful tip

My S&T 2006
went from:---------to: (much safer, almost no glare)

Attached Images

S&Tnightmode.jpg (71.4 KB)

mynightmode.jpg (67.6 KB)

I like your idea of using a different user account for this purpose. It's quick and easy to just switch to a different account. A different acct can also be used for a variety of other similar purposes.

A couple of years ago a Streets & Trips user brought to my attention another very good solution for Night Mode. Free software called “DarkAdapted” lets us change gamma settings of our screen just by a quick keyboard shortcut. Thus, we may in effect very conveniently change the brightness of our computer monitor from full to say 15%. Use the hotkey again to switch back to full brightness. See the attached demonstration picture bellow. Free download and more info here: DarkAdapted

Attached Images

streets-trips-night-mode-alternative-20071115.jpg (74.8 KB)

You could also just switch to full screen view instead of creating a spearate user account (see attached picture).

Attached Images

FS Night View.bmp (182.3 KB)

toyfountain,

Any chance you could share with us your settings for user 'Night mode'? I like how you configured the settings and would very much like to try this.

New to the forum and have found many interesting items about Streets & Trips. You folks keep up the good work...

Thanks and regards...

Are you using Win XP? This is what I used plus on a french version, so my terms might not be accurate. I'll try and figure out the english terms.

The red arrow is about where you should click or it points the selection you should click.

In display properties select modified theme.



Then select advanced setting in the appearance tab.


Then select text and modify the settings in the red rectangle.


Then select window and again modify the settings in the red rectangle.


Then select active window


Then lastly select inactive window

Attached Images

modified theme.jpg (50.1 KB)

display properties_advanced.jpg (49.2 KB)

text.jpg (51.1 KB)

window.jpg (47.7 KB)

active window.jpg (52.7 KB)

suite

Attached Images

inactive window.jpg (51.0 KB)

Yes, I'm using XP Pro. I figured you were making changes to the Active Window...tomorrow at work I'll hit a translator site and figure out which one. So, the colors you're using are Black and Green?

Thanks for your help...it's greatly appreciated...

Yes, black, green and burgundy in the inactive bar to black. You get the gist of it. Select the colours you like for your personal taste. I can say you can drive in total darkness with these settings an the glare will blend in with the car's controls.

That's great...exactly what I was looking for! I'll be making a 1500 mile trip to Viginia in a week or two and I'll be driving a lot at night, so this will be perfect!

Thanks again...you guys are great!

You can also adjust the brightness of your laptop screen. Dell makes it very easy with quick hotkeys. Just press on the Fn + Up or Fn + down key if you own a Dell.

You can actually upload your theme file so that people can import it directly, and don't have to recreate the settings manually from screenshots. See http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877-6124495.html. You should see a "Thème modifié.theme" file on your hard drive.

"Don't make a human do a computer's work."

Thanks taoyue

Would a french XP file work on the english XP?

I included it in a zip file below in case someone wants to try it.

Attached Files

night_mode_theme.zip (1.7 KB)

I'll try this when I get home this evening and let you know how it goes. If this works, no need to create a new user, just change themes when it's night and change back to normal during daylight hours.

Lots of good information here, glad I found this site and signed up...

tr

Windows XP is a multilingual operating system. There is no difference between the different language versions, except for UI elements. (Exception: the EU forced a version of Windows to be released in Europe without Windows Media Player. Hardly anyone uses this because it costs the same as Windows XP with Windows Media Player.)

The theme file works just fine in Windows Vista too. There's been no format change. Just double-click, "Save As" to get your own copy, and click OK. Good thing to have. Thanks, toyfountain.

I just tried it by toggling between themes. You're right. It even works faster than changing sessions.

Yes, this works great! no need to create a new user. Thanks toyfountain and taoyue!!

I've got it setup now that I can change between themes while I'm driving.

Thanks again guys, you're great!

tr

Sweet, I just tested it, too. It works as designed, and it's so simple to implement when you know how to use the THEME file. Perhaps a good idea would be to add a README file w/instructions or a web link.

Thanks toyfountain and taoyue! Now users could share here their personalized THEME files !

Guys, This is the cat's meow.

I always had to plan a route and have the full screen on at night to keep the glare from bothering me. I have a Dell and it does let you dim the screen but I like to have as little glare possible. I even keep my dash lights turned way down, especially in bad weather.

I tried creating a new user account but never could get the right combination of colors and still have things where I could read then if I had to.

Thanks so much!

Did you get it to work petetrucker379?

It works like a charm, I haven't had a chance to use it at night yet, I'll get the chance in the morning. I'm leaving out of Kentucky up to Michigan early in the morning and I'll have a few hours of dark to give it a good run through.
Thanks!

Alternatively, users could very easily switch between the two color schemes depicted on the above screenshots just by pressing Left Alt + Left Shift + Print Screen. There is no need for any change and/or theme file. This just switches on/off the Windows built-in high contrast mode for visually impaired users.

Marvin

Is it possible to have the Windows built-in high contrast mode for visually impaired users with a night mode map? I can only get it with a white map and it's bright while driving at night.

Yes, that's the problem .

Could also be a good opportunity/tip if a person needs to print a map in B&W for photocopying (party invitations etc), but not in grey scale. Photocopiers tend not to like scanning grey scale (at least ours at work). This would also save the printer ink. Considering a small amount of ink in each cartridge, I'd hate to see the price of that per litre like gas.

Manufacturer-branded inkjet ink generally works out around hundreds to thousands of dollars per liter/gallon. The third-party stuff is less expensive, but basically it has to be formulated precisely enough to meet the pizoelectric qualities required by the cartridge.

In the Print dialog, check the "Print faxable map" checkbox just above the "OK" button. This will print an outline map without any shading, which looks just like the high-contrast map above. This should save you a lot on yellow cartridges. You do not have to change your color theme to use this printing mode.

P.S. Yes, I agree that this is a poor label. It should be "Print outline map (suitable for faxing)" or something similar, so people realize it's not just for faxes.

Greetings,

How do i change the map itself from black and white to that black and green?

I did download the provided theme, and while it does look nice, i'm still rocking a white map.

Thanks!

At the right of the topmost toolbar, change the dropdown from "Road Map" to "Road Map (Night)". Notice this is what it says in the screenshot in the first post of this thread.

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for the reply! Mine are broken then(around 12 of them). Because all that does is change white text to green.

Other than the usual cure-all of "restart your computer and try it again", I don't have any good suggestions. Sometimes graphics glitches will clear up on a reboot. If it doesn't, perhaps you can post a screenshot, for the record. (Microsoft representatives are known to read this forum. They're in crunch mode now for S&T 2010, but they'll probably come back in a few months.)

I don't know if this describes you, but I find that some people nowadays go weeks without restarting their laptops, always placing them on standby instead. I've seen them have all sorts of weird issues with the filesystem and graphics, that magically clear up on a restart.

I'm actually an IT person for uncle sam and we are using Streets and Trips 09 until we get a (much more expensive) AVL solution in place. So we have 12 or 13 test subjects, they all have the same issue and i've done all the items I know of to get it changed. My next try is, to get a copy of 2008 and see what it does on Night Mode.

steeltwo, I'm not sure if this is going to help, but we did have a user here a while back who said his Streets & Trips map was black & white, just like yours: http://www.laptopgpsworld.com/381-my-map-display-black-white

What about Windows Vista? What can I do to have those settings in my laptop with WV?
Also, did someone knows if the Microsoft guys will ever think to to something about colors in Night Mode? Is awful. I cannot make differences between an Intersate and a rural road. All have the same color and the same thickness. And is only on Night Mode.
Somebody has to explain to Microsoft guys that Night Mode is for ....guess...Night. So who is driving at night a vehicle? Guess....truck drivers. If a car can mistake at night and turn on a wrong road is not a big deal. But if a truck gets into troubles the other guys who are using S&T but driving cars will have to wait until I can (if I can!) turn or back up my rig sometimes wait until the Police is comming to help me get out and give me a ticket.(I know I should post this at wish list but there are so many there and probably nobody will ever read wish list)

OK guys, I downloaded the dark mode and it works great. Problem is, once I turned it on, it's on all the time, in all programs. How do I toggle it off now?
Al

Right click your Desktop and select Properties or Personalize. Then switch the Windows theme to anything other than Windows classic. "Windows XP" or "Aero" or "Standard," depending on your version of Windows.

Thanks, that works except it changes my desktop picture, screensaver and settings. I guess I need to set up my usual desktop as the alternate theme. Thanks for the help.
Al

My laptop (lenovo thinkpad t42) has a function to change the screen brigthness by using the keyboard. It is very effective for night mode by keeping the original colors and dim them a lot so they can be used at night. May be your laptop has the same kind of feature?

Really like the night theme but the side bar (ie; GPS Pane) does not change color. Any idea why?

You can not dim the sidebar, just close the sidebar.

Thanks Al,

What I am talking about is the background color of the GPS pane. In the sample images it is black. Mine stays white. Why would that happen?