Andy Piper <andy(a)xemacs.org&gt; writes: I hadn't ever tried to customize the gutter tabs, so I just did precisely that in a fresh XEmacs. I don't think I'll do that again. My overall setup starts with (set-face-background 'default "grey90") (set-face-foreground 'default "black") (set-face-background 'modeline "grey80") I was just experimenting here, so I invoked customize, and after expanding a couple of the arrows, I got Face: * [select face] default: (sample) * [State]: this face has not been changed with customize. default face Comment: Attributes: * Foreground: (sample) * Background: (sample) * Size: * Font Family: * Background pixmap: * Dim: off * Bold: off * Italic: off * Underline: off * Strikethru: off * Inverse Video: off [State]: this option is unchanged from its standard setting. Face to use for displaying the buffers tab. So far, so good. I toggled Foreground and Background to the "enabled" state, then hit RET in their color spaces, gave "black" for Foreground and "wheat" for Background; by now the [State] indicator says, "you have edited the value as text, but you have not set the option." So I hit the Set button at the top -- and my whole XEmacs, *EXCEPT* the ＠#$% gutter tabs, became black-on-wheat, exactly the *OPPOSITE* of what I wanted, and what I had asked for. kill -9, lest the uncontrolled beastie find some way of scribbling in my .emacs via any normal means of exit... --karl