Different colors for different types of links

[starwatcher]

Title:
Different colors for different types of links

Area:
Links in Styles

Summary:
When customizing, we can select a color for links, but I'd love to select different colors for 'name-links' on my reading page, links in the message, and the 'go-to' links at the bottom of the post. (Edit, reply, etc).

Description:
Problem to be solved - I don't think there is 'a problem'; it's just an aesthetic I'd like to see.

When playing with colors, I'd like to be able to choose one color for title links (the ones at the head of our post), a different color for linked names (the people who have commented), another color for links in my post, and a separate color for the tiny 'go-to' links at the bottom of the post.

I'd also like a 'visited link' color for each of those options. I *don't* want my title-links to change color when I've clicked on them. If we had choices of colors for each type of link, we could select the same color for visited links in the areas we choose. As it is, when I select a 'visited link' color, I have to choose between all my links always remaining the same color, or my title links changing color when visited. Neither of those solutions make me completely happy.

Drawbacks to implementation - I can tell it's a helluva lot of coding. My coding expertise ends at italics, bold, and <a href, so I don't even know if it's possible. But it would be nice if it could be considered, somewhere down the line.
.

Poll #1192 Different colors for different types of links

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 30

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This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
3 (10.0%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
1 (3.3%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
13 (43.3%)

(I have no opinion)
11 (36.7%)

(Other: please comment)
2 (6.7%)

Comments

[cesy]

I think most of these should be possible with Custom CSS. My gut instinct is that it's rare enough to want to change all of those that putting it in the wizard would be confusing for newbies, as the wizard is kind of full already.

For instance, you could do .entry-title .a:visited {color: black;}. Then swap .entry-title for .entry-management-links and .entry-interaction-links to get the ones at the bottom of each entry, and .comment-poster is the person who posted a comment.

Do reply if I've done something silly there that makes it not work, or if that doesn't make sense - I've typed that from memory without checking it properly.

[zvi]

Wizards already too full. style_system can help people who want fiddly implementations.

[ninetydegrees]

+1

[melannen]

+1

I wouldn't mind some styles having this option, but I get so confused setting colors already that I wouldn't want it added to the wizard for most styles.

[instantramen]

+1

[miang]

I'll go ahead and say this should be really low priority if it gets done at all, but would it be possible (eventually) to do this in the wizard in a hierarchical way? I'm thinking of how mood themes operate as an example -- if you specify a mood icon for "happy" it will auto-populate to "pleased," "content," etc, but you can also choose to specify different icons for those moods.

Likewise, it seems that it would be possible to have a sort of "default wizard" with the most basic color options selectable (i.e. "color for visited and unvisited links"), and only if people want to click the button and expand the fields would the additional options clutter up their page.

Just a thought...I'm sympathetic to complaints that the wizard is cluttered and there are communities, etc. for style/CSS help, but style coding has a pretty steep learning curve if you've never done it before, and I do think there's a population out there that would be served well by having as much as possible available to them via the "Customize Style" section.

[zvi]

Yes, you can write the code so that everything uses the page wide colors unless you change it specifically, but the way the wizard is currently structured, it's hard to indicate inheritance. Right now, more options are just a scary long line of more options.

Changing the wizard to reflect hierarchy would be a separate suggestion *nudge nudge*