The answer is simple: the colour scheme.

Recently I’ve been experimenting with dark colour schemes and you will see some of these in the screenshots on the page introducing the Text Edition. We’ve bundled up a set of eight alternative colour schemes with the Text Edition. This is how to load one of them:

 Select the Visual Studio Tools menu, then Import and Export Settings.
 Select Import selected environment settings. Click Next.
 Optionally select ‘Yes, save my current settings’ and browse to a directory in which to save them. Select Next.
 Select a colour scheme from those listed (or Browse to find a settings file). Click Next.

 Verify the options you are about to import (should be Options->Environment->Fonts and Colors).
 Click Finish. Then click Close to exit the wizard.

The Text Edition already has some colour schemes installed so you shouldn’t need to browse to find them. We haven’t yet got around to installing extra schemes into the Developer Edition so you may need to browse to locate them (the default location is C:\Program Files\SapphireSteel Software\Ruby In Steel\v1.0\Extras\Color Schemes). You can also download copies of all the colour schemes provided with the Text Edition from this page: Customize the Colours of the Ruby In Steel IDE; here you will also find a step-by-step tutorial on creating and saving your own colour schemes.

Bear in mind that our default colour schemes use standard Windows fonts such as Courier New and Lucida Console (one of my personal favourites). You can select fonts in the Tools->Options->Environment->Fonts and Colors dialog.

Some people prefer the Monaco font which is used on the Mac and seems to be a particular favourite among users of the Mac-based TextMate editor. If you like Monaco, you can download a Windows version from the WebDev Kung Fu site.

So, in brief, now you know how to change the look of Ruby In Steel and Visual Studio, you can customize away to your heart’s content.

Have fun!