If the 'Avoid Area' is too bright in Night mode - change its color

The avoid area in Microsoft Streets and Trips is too bright at night, but it is possible to change its color by first selecting it (by clicking on it), and then choose any color you like from the Drawing toolbar => Fill Color, as illustrated bellow.

Does it make it permanent, or do you have to do it every time you add an avoid route?

That's a very good question! Unfortunately the answer is a 'no'. And that really limits the practicality of this 'trick' .

From another thread:

That's a very good point, too.

So as nice as this 'trick' may seem at first, I doubt users will bother using it. However, if Microsoft could make the color of 'Avoid Area' to change in the Night mode to green, it would solve the problem.

Marvin...long time no see. I've been a very busy man!

Anyway, you can always make any changes made pemanent by saving Microsoft Streets & Trips as a template (.stt) file. Just like you can remove any changes you previously made permanent also by first removing them and then again saving Microsoft Streets & Trips as a template (.stt) file again.

If S&T is the same as it used to be saving as New North American Map.stt will change the default file that opens with the program. Of course, you have to find where this file lives so you can put the modified replacement in the same folder location.

Terry

Customizing the default map template is also a good idea for persisting changes to the variables on the "More route options" dialog such as fuel cost, fuel consumption, etc. If you do most of your driving in Wisconsin you can also zoom in get a nice best zoom view of that state before you save your template and it can save you from having to zoom to your state each launch.

There is a detailed "how to customize your default map template" post on the S&T blog.