Is it possible to color the whole page of a profile?

Question

We constantly strive to make WikiTree more accurate, and from that perspective, profiles that we judge to be "Disproven Existence", or even ones that we must label "Uncertain Existence" are a constant irritant to those who care most about the quality of our site.

I have the fantasy that somehow a background color could be linked to the Disproven Existence Project template so that if it is placed on a profile, the whole profile page turns a light red in color -- red enough to be clear, but not enough to obscure any of the information on the page.  Similarly, simply placing the Uncertain Existence template on a profile would turn the whole profile a light yellow in color, warning viewers to be cautious.

So, two questions.  (1)  Is something like this technically possible?  And if so, the more important question (2) Would this be a good idea?

Comments

It would require the use of HTML which is not approved for use on WikiTree.

Answer 1

That would probably make it impossible for someone with color blindness to read.

Answer 2

Jack, I realize this sounds strange, but it's technically SORT OF possible.  Explanation:

The way I immediately think of doing it is by use of an image, but this could not be a background image, so could not be a small box of a color that would then automatically repeat.  You would have to create an image that would occupy the full width and full length of the space occupied by the profile - in other words, a VERY large image.  You would then link to that image on the first line in the biography space, and use the wrap parameter in the image template, specifing:  wrap=y

As to your second question, there are several reasons (all technical, not aesthetic) why I do not think that is a good idea.

While writing the above, I thought of another way to accomplish your goal, with less negative technical impact.  If you create a table, you could then use color background for specific cells.  In this case, you would create a table to start with, then put the entire page content in a single cell of it, making that cell whatever color you want.

EDITED:  I realize this isn't what you're looking for, but just a suggestion you might want to consider because it would be extremely easy to implement.  How about creating an image, perhaps with yellow background and repeats of a question mark logo, that you would use as a page background.  This, of course, would only appear on left and right sides of the page in whatever excess screen width is available, so some users would not ever see it.

Answer 3

Sounds a good idea to me, provided that the colours are transparent and subtle, not glaring.

As a start, you could make or find an image consisting only of the chosen colour, then set it as background image. This would at least give page margins of the warning colour. (Compare clan tartans.) That wouldn't require any programming changes.

To change the background behind the main text from white to another colour would be a technical challenge I fear. It sounds easy in principle; the difficulty would be to get the software to know when to apply it.

Answer 4

Well, this is one area where I unashamedly have no interest in doing any work at all!  So my fantasy is that if I put {{Uncertain Existence}} at the top of a profile, it would do everything it already does PLUS automatically color the profile yellow!

There is a lifetime's work of profiles of real people and they should get the priority of our efforts!

Comments

A template is never going to be able to include that (I suppose it might be set up to be possible, but the way they're now set up it is not possible).

Jack, I (obviously, by lack of participation in the project) have less interest in these profiles than you do!  That said, if you want the easiest and most WikiTree-welcomed solution, that would be to use a project-designated background for all project profiles - I mean the one that would be in the excess horizontal space outside the page limit.  If you want to do that, I will make you the image and upload it to a free space page.  All you'd need to do is to go to that page and add the WikiTree ID of all project profiles to that image, then add new ones to it as they are created.  One click would be needed to designate the image as page background and presto - done-o !  Just let me know if you want me to do it.

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You could use background colour for the text (along with the background image for the profile). 

The problem with that is - I've only found two colours that work - pale orange and pale green.

{{Pale Orange|text goes here}} (an approximation of the template's colour on a profile)

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Red and blue also work, and I'm sure a few others do as well.  The problem is that is not background color - it's the text color.  And the background image for the profile isn't the background of the page space - it's the wallpaper that's to right and left of page space, if the user's screen is wide enough.

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Pale Orange and Pale Green are text-highlight  (aka background to the text) colours.  All the others that work (and they are limited) are for colouring the  text, not background-highlighting it.

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An example can now be seen on this profile.

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THANX, Melanie - I didn't know that.  So this means that the color template doesn't even specify what the color will be used on????  That's terrible!!!  In addition, it's not really background color - it's highlight that is only behind the included text.  If you used it for the whole profile, there would be white between the lines and in the margins.

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I believe the two colours designated as "Pale" are for text-background aka highlight - and any of the others are for text colour.

And, yes, because it is a text highlight, that would mean white spaces between the lines.  (I discuss the allowed colours here.)

I haven't done much with tables, but have to wonder if it is possible to background colour a cell, and have the table be large enough to "fit" the bio space.

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About the table - you could just have the entire content be one cell of a table - start with the table, then create the row 1 column 1 cell.  After that put the entire profile content, then at the end, add the stuff to end the cell and end the table.  Everything in that cell would be fine - all codes work to format content in a table cell - you can have new-lines, indents, headings, whatever.

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Sounds as if this could achieve the desired goal, but might it not have side effects? How would the various apps that check the biography text react if the whole content was enclosed in a table cell?