I just want to change the highlight color. How do I do that?

[davemg]

I’ve just been down a rabbit hole with no end. I just want to change the highlight color.

My real goal is that I want to turn off the highlight color in the gutter while in focus mode, but apparently it is not possibly to simply switch that off. The only way to do that is to make the highlight color match the background color.

And to change the highlight color, you have to open a install a package manager? Find a package, open it, and edit it? I’ve tried to follow instructions for finding something called a “Package Resource Viewer”, and I thought I installed it, but I can’t find any interface for it anywhere.

I thought this would be a simple matter of editing a settings file or something, but it’s turned out to be wildly complex with multiple steps.

I am using the Monokai theme, and I just want to change the background color of the highlight to be the same as the background color so that it is effectively invisible in the gutter.

Can someone please provide the steps to do that in a way a beginner can understand without having to earn a PhD in package management?

Would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[bschaaf]

Sublime Text has two things that determine what color things are: themes and color schemes. Themes apply to the whole application whereas color schemes apply to the editing area per-tab. What specifically are you referring to when you say “highlight color”?

[davemg]

I want to get rid of this:

[bschaaf]

Use the setting "highlight_gutter": false, to do that.

[davemg]

Wow! Thanks! That worked perfectly.

Is there somewhere with a complete list of settings options, because searching on Google made it seem like this would be a very complex matter of editing themes and installing packages.

[bschaaf]

When you open settings all the documented settings are in the left pane. You can use the find panel (ctrl+f) to search through them.

[davemg]

Gotcha, thanks.

Note to anyone else who might be seeing this, that list of settings is not in the left pane if you’re editing “Settings - Distraction Free”. It’s only visible in the other settings options.

[ctesmer]

I’m in the main settings—not distraction free— right now, and contrary to what @bschaaf said, I do not see all the settings. E.g. highlight_gutter is not listed, although I realize I can add it.

Am I missing something? (I’m on version 3.2.2, build 3211 on macOS)

I too want to see all the settings, so I can tweak to my eye’s delight.

[OdatNurd]

The general reason for not seeing all of the settings in the left hand pane when you use Preferences > Settings is that you might have inadvertently created an override for the default settings (i.e. in the Packages folder you can see a folder named Default and a Preferences.sublime-settings inside). In such a case you’re masking the defaults with what is probably an older version of the file.

In this particular case, the reason you don’t see highlight_gutter is that it’s a setting that was added in build 4050, which is still in a semi-closed beta and not currently widely available (download links for it are currently distributed in the Sublime Text Discord only, though it is available to any licensed user who wants to use it).

[jwortmann]

it’s a setting that was added in build 4050

The interesting thing is, this setting does work on ST 3 as well, even though it’s not mentioned in the default Preferences file. I wonder whether there are any more undocumented settings…

[OdatNurd]

Interesting; I guess it became officially public in the change log for that build.

There are indeed other settings that are not documented in the settings file (update_check, for example); from what I’ve seen sometimes that seems to be because someone just forgot to add it to the defaults and sometimes they tweak things internally that are escoteric enough to only be needed in very specific circumstances (and so having them public invites people to break things inadvertently).