>It's quite a dilema isn't it!!! I suppose at the end of the day you ain't gonna please everybody!!!
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>I just want to push out the boundaries a bit and get a little more creative with my GUI's.
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>I mean let's face it life is full of choices cos were all different! I hate pink lava lamps! Something's need to remain consistent - ie. Red means STOP! but I want to open up the possiblities - if someone HAS to sit in front of my application five days a week I want them to LEAST have some options available. I agree that a global colour change to achieve a colour change in my app is missing it.

I take the view that I am producing a tool to enable someoneelse to do their job. If I can help them be more productive be using techniques that do not fit the MS/Windows standard then I that is the way I should go, I should not tell them that they can't do it another way, because it's not the standard.

If changing colours helps, then do it - you can always give them the option to use the standard Windows colours.

Another thread yesterday was on how to disable tabs moving from field to field when in an edit box which requires tabs to be entered, again moving away from the Windows standard to make the operation intuitive to a "normal" user. Just because MS say it's how something should work does not make it the best in all circumstances.

I get intensely annoyed by the attitude that all s/w must operate the same way, if that were the case then we wouldn't be where we are now with Windows - it takes people to go against the grain & do something different & every now & again, something works right & we get a new standard. It's called innovation.