Color picking model

[startz]

Sometimes I want to match colors in different graph elements. It would be nice if there were some labelling method (mouseover shows RGB value?) that would make this easier.

[EViews Glenn]

The mouse-over is problematic since we'd need to distinguish between other cases where we mouse-over (as in observation identification) in graphs.

When you go into the color picker on a given graph element, however, you should be able to see the RGB or CMYK values for your color. You can even put it in the custom palette for later selection.

[startz]

I should have been more clear. I want to be able to do this in the graph options dialog where you get to set colors for lines, etc.

[EViews Glenn]

Right now you can select the line, then click on the color box, then on the Create Custom Color button, it'll show you the swatch with the RGB/CMYK. At that point you are where you'd be after the flyover. Even giving you the flyover (with say RGB/CMYK) won't make it easy to match the colors since you still have to go through the standard color control to set it and you'd have to type it the settings anyway. The flyover would be a bit of an improvement, but not much.

What would be nice would be a Photoshop style eyedropper where you could sample the color directly into the custom swatches, then you could apply as needed. But that's would require a custom color control which is much harder to do.

[startz]

I didn't know you could do that. It goes a long way toward what I want.

Would it be hard to put in context menu items for "copy color" and "paste color" in the appropriate Graph elements dialogs?

[EViews Glenn]

Maybe, but the context determination would have to know when you are in the appropriate color place. If you are in the color picker, does it use the position of the cursor? Does that differ from when you are not in the color picker, but in the graph element dialog?

Moreover, what does the copy copy? The RGB? the CMYK? What gets pasted? Into what?

[startz]

When it's in the color picker you get a context menu that let's you copy/paste relevant thingies. The word "context" implies that you know what's relevant in a given location. The word "thingies" implies that I don't.

[EViews Glenn]

Fine, but which there are multiple contexts in which colors are used in the picker. Is it the swatch that is currently active that you are trying to set, or is the color currently under the cursor?

And you haven't answered my question about pasting :)

[startz]

I checked with an expert and apparently the whole problem is that EViews is missing the letter "u" in "colour."

Past that, doesn't a context menu only show up after you click on something? In which case whatever I click on has some (or no) options that can be copied onto the clipboard and some or no options that can be pasted. Presumably, you only get context menu options for things relevant for the thingie you click on.

Anywho, if I'm off on the detailed suggestions let me step back a level. Take the case where I have one series that represents a mean and two series that represent quantiles. If I do a simple plot I get colors and line types that EViews suggests, which are probably the best choices is I have three really different lines. So what I really want to do is take whatever EViews picked for the first quantile series and use the same properties for the second quantile series.

That's just one example. The general point is I often want to copy EViews default choices and apply them to another object.

[EViews Glenn]

Ideally it sounds like you would like to copy all of the attributes from one thing and apply them to another, where thing could be a line, shade, etc. Fair enough. My only point is that I'm not sure what the best interface for that is and that this requires thought, even if one does decide that a context sensitive menu is the way to go.

[startz]

Well fine, but I still don't see how that's going to fix the misspelling of "colour."

[EViews Glenn]

Even if many around here misspell color we're not going to send them to gaol...

[NurfatimaD]

Good day to all!

I wonder if there is any way to set up the default palette for eviews from which it will pick when generating colors. The thing is that I have to construct multiple graphs (really a lot) and writing the individual code for each graph's lines is time consuming.

Thanks in advance! :)

[EViews Gareth]

Options->Graphics Defaults->Graph Elements.