How to customize a face? (Docs don't help)

How to customize a face? (Docs don't help)

[Da Witch]

When it comes to the question of how to customize a font face, I find
the Emacs documentation not helpful at...  I remember that in the
past, customizing faces has taken me hours of trial-and-error and
fruitless scanning of the docs.  I see now that this confusing
situation has not changed...  For example, I've spent about 1 hour
this morning trying in vain to find out how to determine the name of a
face I have on the screen (so that I can customize it).  If I do M-x
customize-face, and I'm prompted for the name of the face to
customize, the default answer is "all", which is much less helpful a
default answer than the name of the face the point is currently on.
The mode I'm currently using has about one dozen faces, and I can't
tell from their names what most of them correspond to.

Thanks in advance,

h

Re: How to customize a face? (Docs don't help)

[Jesper Harder]

Da Witch <heather710101@yahoo.com> writes:

> The mode I'm currently using has about one dozen faces, and I can't
> tell from their names what most of them correspond to.

Do `M-x list-text-properties-at' or <C-mouse-2> to find the face of
the text at point.

Re: How to customize a face? (Docs don't help)

[Da Witch]

In <m3lm4gklgx.fsf@defun.localdomain> Jesper Harder <harder@myrealbox.com> writes:

>Da Witch <heather710101@yahoo.com> writes:

>> The mode I'm currently using has about one dozen faces, and I can't
>> tell from their names what most of them correspond to.

>Do `M-x list-text-properties-at' or <C-mouse-2> to find the face of
>the text at point.

Thanks!  That's immensely helpful.

h

Re: How to customize a face? (Docs don't help)

[bc]

Da Witch wrote:
> 
> When it comes to the question of how to customize a font face, I find
> the Emacs documentation not helpful at...  I remember that in the
> past, customizing faces has taken me hours of trial-and-error and
> fruitless scanning of the docs.  I see now that this confusing
> situation has not changed...  For example, I've spent about 1 hour
> this morning trying in vain to find out how to determine the name of a
> face I have on the screen (so that I can customize it).  If I do M-x
> customize-face, and I'm prompted for the name of the face to
> customize, the default answer is "all", which is much less helpful a
> default answer than the name of the face the point is currently on.
> The mode I'm currently using has about one dozen faces, and I can't
> tell from their names what most of them correspond to.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> h

I agree, this could be a lot simpler.  Does list-faces-display
help any?

Re: How to customize a face? (Docs don't help)

[Da Witch]

In <3DBFFDDD.78832967@example.net> bc <bc@example.net> writes:
>Does list-faces-display help any?

Yes, thanks, that's a good one to know.

hk

Re: How to customize a face? (Docs don't help)

[Miles Bader]

Da Witch <heather710101@yahoo.com> writes:
> If I do M-x customize-face, and I'm prompted for the name of the face
> to customize, the default answer is "all", which is much less helpful
> a default answer than the name of the face the point is currently on.
> The mode I'm currently using has about one dozen faces, and I can't
> tell from their names what most of them correspond to.

FWIW, the CVS version of emacs has changed the `customize-face' command
so that the default is whatever face is underneath point...  So I guess
other people had the same problem.

-Miles

-- 
`Cars give people wonderful freedom and increase their opportunities.
 But they also destroy the environment, to an extent so drastic that
 they kill all social life' (from _A Pattern Language_)