When did BevelButton highlighting changed in macOS

Targets macOS
1

I 'm updating an app which has been around a long time – since 2009. t’s been on the Mac App Store since 2013.
In one area it uses BevelButtons, and the way these appear when “pressed” (Value - True) has changed over the years. One computer where the app runs full time is running Mojave (macOS 10.14 and the last one to support 32-bit apps) and here the button changes to a delicate shade of grey when pressed. It’s almost imperceptible.
On the development machine, running Ventura (macOS 13.5) the button is bright blue when “pressed”.
I need to use different methods of highlighting the button in the 2 cases, but obviously this should be reliable across all the intervening OS versions.

So the question is: with which version of macOS did this behaviour change?

Thanks,
Richard

2

Found one old forum entries about Bevelbuttons:

https://forum.xojo.com/t/mac-bevelbuttons-turning-blue/66488/3

The hint of interest can be found on archive.org now:
“Archive_org/Apple Developer/Human Interface Guidelines/Bevel Buttons”
https://web.archive.org/web/20211019072439/https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/macos/buttons/bevel-buttons/

Mainly, this link says: “Avoid Bevel buttons”

1 Like
3

Thanks for this. So the answer seems to be Monterey. And the answer to the unasked question is: change to different control for the next version.

OK, received loud and clear! Thanks!

Richard

4

You should aim for switching to PushButton, but if you absolutely need the icon ability Norman has an open source BevelButton Replacement.

5

Thanks, I’ll look at that. I actually have these things grouped in twos. The first has a text label and easily be switched. The second has an icon, which changes according to the state. It would be nice to keep that, but i can imagine a situation where the icon is displayed separately from the button. I’‘’ look into the replacement. Thanks!

6

Canvas is a good replacement if you need graphics inside.

7

If you need / want icons in Buttons, the macOS natively supports this. It’s just Xojo doesn’t. You can use declares or a plugin to bypass this Xojo limitation.

In other languages it is as simple as below.

Button( "Hello World", systemImage: "wave" ) {
    // --- Do cool things here.
}
8

Yeah, still missing this feature. :wink:

9

At this point, don’t expect it to happen. If icons in buttons is really important to you, either use a plugin or a different development tool.

10

Canvas.Paint is a good workaround. :wink: