How can I make Office 2003 Desktop & Toolbar icons brighter & sharper?

In Office 97 the Desktop and Toolbar icons for WORD and EXCEL are brightly
colored and sharp.

In Office 2003 the Desktop and Toolbar icons' colors are soft and pastel and
the icon images have a matte finish (having little or no contrast).

Since there are now 37 of us that use Office 2003 that are over 55 and our
vision is not what it was when we were 18, it would be nice to have icons and
other visual artifacts in Office that are easy to discern. (Or did I miss
the point that this is really an eye test?)

So, are there options and/or settings that I can use to get Office 2003, and
ONLY Office 2003, Desktop and Toolbar icons more brightly colored and sharper?

I dont think there is anything in Office 'only'
How things are shown on your monitor may also depend on the monitor that is
used.
eg I find a tft monitor much clearer than crt, and I wear glasses for
reading.

"unhappycamper" <unhappycamper@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B85688AB-C632-4505-96EE-506E077D398C@microsoft.com...
> How can I make Office 2003 Desktop & Toolbar icons brighter & sharper?
>
> In Office 97 the Desktop and Toolbar icons for WORD and EXCEL are brightly
> colored and sharp.
>
> In Office 2003 the Desktop and Toolbar icons' colors are soft and pastel
and
> the icon images have a matte finish (having little or no contrast).
>
> Since there are now 37 of us that use Office 2003 that are over 55 and our
> vision is not what it was when we were 18, it would be nice to have icons
and
> other visual artifacts in Office that are easy to discern. (Or did I miss
> the point that this is really an eye test?)
>
> So, are there options and/or settings that I can use to get Office 2003,
and
> ONLY Office 2003, Desktop and Toolbar icons more brightly colored and
sharper?
>

DL:

I use a Sony 19" Trinitron set to 800 x 600 resolution and wear perscription
computer glasses set to focus at 20", the distance my monitor is from my
eyeball.

If Sony still made them I would buy a 21" Trinitron.

I have stayed away from the TFT and LCD monitors because I don't think they
have yet reached the display quality of a Trinitron. They will though.

However, thanks for the reponse. If I had not yet considered the monitor
issue, it would have been well worth pursuing.

"DL" wrote:

> I dont think there is anything in Office 'only'
> How things are shown on your monitor may also depend on the monitor that is
> used.
> eg I find a tft monitor much clearer than crt, and I wear glasses for
> reading.
>
> "unhappycamper" <unhappycamper@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:B85688AB-C632-4505-96EE-506E077D398C@microsoft.com...
> > How can I make Office 2003 Desktop & Toolbar icons brighter & sharper?
> >
> > In Office 97 the Desktop and Toolbar icons for WORD and EXCEL are brightly
> > colored and sharp.
> >
> > In Office 2003 the Desktop and Toolbar icons' colors are soft and pastel
> and
> > the icon images have a matte finish (having little or no contrast).
> >
> > Since there are now 37 of us that use Office 2003 that are over 55 and our
> > vision is not what it was when we were 18, it would be nice to have icons
> and
> > other visual artifacts in Office that are easy to discern. (Or did I miss
> > the point that this is really an eye test?)
> >
> > So, are there options and/or settings that I can use to get Office 2003,
> and
> > ONLY Office 2003, Desktop and Toolbar icons more brightly colored and
> sharper?
> >
>
>
>

I prev.used 1024*768 on various 17" crt monitors, when I changed to 17" tft
I use the default 1280*1024, small fonts, and I find the display much
clearer. My wife uses same setting, but large fonts.
When I look at crt with lower resolution I generally find the display
'charactors' undefined, thus harder to read.
I guess also the graphics card might have some imput on all this.
However none of this detracts from the Office2003 toolbars being, I agree,
somewhat 'pastel'
I believe Office2007 has the ability to alter toolbar colours.
You might want to see if you could test/trial a tft monitor, or even view
Office2003 on someones tft display.


"unhappycamper" <unhappycamper@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B0FAA034-3025-4333-B1C0-4B3AB3814B58@microsoft.com...
> DL:
>
> I use a Sony 19" Trinitron set to 800 x 600 resolution and wear
perscription
> computer glasses set to focus at 20", the distance my monitor is from my
> eyeball.
>
> If Sony still made them I would buy a 21" Trinitron.
>
> I have stayed away from the TFT and LCD monitors because I don't think
they
> have yet reached the display quality of a Trinitron. They will though.
>
> However, thanks for the reponse. If I had not yet considered the monitor
> issue, it would have been well worth pursuing.
>
> "DL" wrote:
>
> > I dont think there is anything in Office 'only'
> > How things are shown on your monitor may also depend on the monitor that
is
> > used.
> > eg I find a tft monitor much clearer than crt, and I wear glasses for
> > reading.
> >
> > "unhappycamper" <unhappycamper@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message
> > news:B85688AB-C632-4505-96EE-506E077D398C@microsoft.com...
> > > How can I make Office 2003 Desktop & Toolbar icons brighter & sharper?
> > >
> > > In Office 97 the Desktop and Toolbar icons for WORD and EXCEL are
brightly
> > > colored and sharp.
> > >
> > > In Office 2003 the Desktop and Toolbar icons' colors are soft and
pastel
> > and
> > > the icon images have a matte finish (having little or no contrast).
> > >
> > > Since there are now 37 of us that use Office 2003 that are over 55 and
our
> > > vision is not what it was when we were 18, it would be nice to have
icons
> > and
> > > other visual artifacts in Office that are easy to discern. (Or did I
miss
> > > the point that this is really an eye test?)
> > >
> > > So, are there options and/or settings that I can use to get Office
2003,
> > and
> > > ONLY Office 2003, Desktop and Toolbar icons more brightly colored and
> > sharper?
> > >
> >
> >
> >