Editor- Display- Colors. with Synedit area.

why bad? bottom part with 4 checkbuttons is nasty.

how to redo?

a) split "Priorities" controls (4 big listboxes with SpinEdits) to new sub-tab, under Colors.

b) split "Colors" part too? not sure. I don't see logic in this page.

c) replace 1st two checkbuttons to 2 radio buttons. (use global settings/ use local settings).

AlexeyT wrote

Editor- Display- Colors. with Synedit area.

Not that easily done....

The point is that if you change priorities, this usually happens together with changing colors.
E.g, if I set something to a higher prior and enable alpha (so lower prior can still be seen), then I would want to do that in one move.

Also If I set a color, that was previously unset (eg add a frame color to "current line", then I need to set the prior at that time (in fact enabling the color will add it into the prior list).

If this goes into a separate tab, then this becomes much more work. Currently selections in the prior boxes are synced with selection in the tree, which helps, that would be lost if it went to 2 tabs.

Also in a separate tab, you would still want the preview edit for priorities too. You might save the element tree, though it may be helpful to have it for priorities too. Then the separate page's only diff is the absence of 2 toolbuttons.
(priorities also exist in local and global)

b) split "Colors" part too? not sure. I don't see logic in this page.

Not sure what you mean.
But yes, the help needs updating
http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/IDE_Window:_Editor_Options_HighlightColors and F1 should get you to this page, instead of the general opitons.

c) replace 1st two checkbuttons to 2 radio buttons. (use global settings/ use local settings).

I am not sure, that might take more space. (vertical).

And anyway, this may work for the "use" part, but to me seems odd to the "edit" part.
Eg choosing "global" means the color for an element will be taken from the global default. But you also changed will edit the global default (affecting colors for all languages that can be highlighted).

The other option here would be, that if (maybe with radio btn) you choose global, then you can not directly edit the colors (because on the very top, you selected pascal, but if you use global instead of pascal, then you need to select global at the very top, instead of pascal) But this less convenient. (even though it makes it clearer what colors you are editing)

Another options would be real tabs (needing 2 pairs of them). Again that takes a lot more space, and other elements (preview / tree) need to shrink.