Changing the Background Colors of Panes

Use background colors to make forms and panes more colorful, and to help users find their way through a complex form by visually grouping related controls. In this section, you learn to configure the background colors of the panes on the Capture Claim form.

1. Click the Customer Information pane of the Capture Claim form.
2. On the Layout tab of the pane’s Properties sheet, clear Inherit from Parent.
3. Click the BG Color field to open the color picker for this pane’s background color.

   The Color Picker pop-up window opens.

4. Click the Define Custom Colors button.

   The expanded color picker opens.

5. In the expanded color picker, click one of the undefined (black) squares in the Custom colors group, and type these values in the RGB definition fields: Red - 238, Green - 238, and Blue - 238.
6. Save the custom color by clicking the Add to Custom Colors button in the color picker. This will make it easier to reuse the color in the Interview Witness form.
   Tip: Be sure to save any custom background colors that you might want to reuse. A saved color will appear in the Custom Colors palette of the color picker, and will be available to panes in other forms in this business process, as well as other panes on the same form.

   The color picker saves each custom color to one of the 14 color boxes that are arranged in two rows beneath the Basic colors section. Each of these boxes is black until it is used to hold a custom color. Click one of the unused boxes to hold the custom color before you click Add to Custom Colors, or the color you add may overwrite a color you previously saved.

7. Click OK to set the Customer Information background to the new color.
8. Repeat step 1 through step 5 for the Accident Information pane to set its background color to light blue with these values: Red - 194, Green - 223, Blue - 254.
9. Again, save the custom color by clicking the Add to Custom Colors button in the color picker. You will reuse this color in the next two panes of this form, as well as in the Interview Witness form.
10. Click OK to set the Accident Information pane’s background to the new color.
11. Click the Third Party Information pane. Repeat the procedure, and set its color to the saved custom blue.
12. Click the Witness Information pane. Repeat the procedure, and set its color to the saved custom blue.
    Tip: Setting the background of the Third Party Information and Witness Information panes to the same pale blue as that of the Accident Information pane, suggests visually to the user that, although they are shown only when relevant to a particular claim, the two additional panes belong with the Accident Information pane in terms of content and function. Using background colors in this way helps users more quickly comprehend the layout and organization of a form.
13. Click the message pane to set the background color for this pane to pale red with these values: Red - 255, Green - 128, and Blue - 128.
14. Set the Margin property for the message pane to 20 to allow space between the pane and the buttons.
15. Now that your custom colors are defined, you can quickly set the background colors for the panes of the Interview Witness form.

    Set the color to pale gray for the Witness Contact Information pane, blue for the Accident Information pane, and red for the message pane.

16. Set the Margin property for the message pane of the Interview Witness form to 20, as you did with the Capture Claim form’s message pane.