Information Center

Understanding session colors

The Color window allows you customize the colors of different parts of the host session window. It allows you to select different foreground and background colors when displaying information in a field having a particular attribute. Available attributes depend on what type of host session you are using.

Each host screen is made up of fields (rectangular areas determined by your host application). Fields are of different types. For example, in a 3270 Display session, a Normal, Unprotected field is an area where the user can enter information. A host application might use such a field as an input field for the user. In contrast, a Normal, Protected field is an area where a user cannot enter information. A host application might use such a field for instructions or a menu.

The type of a field is called its attribute. Each attribute has a default foreground color and a background color associated with it. For example, in a 3270 Display session, the default color for a Normal, Unprotected field are a green foreground and a black background. Changing a session color is called remapping the attribute, or sometimes remapping the color, because a particular attribute is associated with (mapped to) a different color.

When you click inside the host session window, the left navigation bar shows you the type of field on which your cursor is located. For example, for the 3270 Display session, when you click inside the host session window, the corresponding attribute is highlighted in the left navigation bar and the current color settings for that attribute are shown in the sample box on the right.

You do not have to click inside the session window to change certain attributes. For example, in a 3270 Display session, you may decide to remap the Blue Extended Attribute to mean a yellow foreground on a blue background. Once you select these new color settings from the foreground and background options and click OK, the changes are immediate.

When you change color settings, you may notice that other fields throughout your host applications change to the new color. This is because fields of the same type (or the same attribute) as the field for which you remapped the color are affected. Fields that are of a different type (a different attribute) as the field for which you remapped the color are not affected.

The OIA color refers to the operator information area (OIA) that may be enabled to display at the bottom row of the host session window. There are several types of information that might appear on this row, and you can change the color for each. The OIA attributes are the same for all session types.

The only attribute in the Other category is Screen Background. It allows you to change the background color of the screen in one operation, without having to change the background color of each field individually.

This operation does not affect the operator information line nor does it affect attributes in which you have specifically set the background color to some color other than the default color. For example, if you use this function to set the background color to dark gray, then the entire background of the screen will be changed to dark gray. However, if also you have previously set the background color for one element to be light gray, then fields associated with this element will still have their backgrounds set to light gray.

Related tasks

  • Changing the current host session colors
  • Using the host session default colors