Why do Sublime Text 3 Themes not affect the sidebar?

Question

I generally only use dark themes for coding, so it\'s really annoying that Sublime Text 3\'s sidebar stays light themed whatever theme you apply.

Does anyone know ho

Answer 1

I thought I would put a note here that explains a basic misconception for a lot of people who are using these Text Editors... Sublime Text in particular (or at least that's the one I use, so I don't know how it works for other editors):

There are "Themes" and there are "Color Schemes". They are similar but affect different things. "Themes" actively change the entire UI, and can include a Color Scheme if you set it up that way. This typically includes the sidebar, and can also include options for the file tabs, and some even include icons for the sidebar as well. And then we have "Color Schemes" which only change the coding windows and nothing else... not the Sidebar, nor the File tabs, etc.

The confusion happens because some people call Color Schemes "Themes" which makes folks think that their "Theme" is going to change everything.... when technically, it's just a color scheme.

And an additional note: Themes don't automatically install for all users. When I install a Theme, I have to open my User preferences (under "preferences > Settings - User"), and then you have to add the line which says something like:

"theme": "Theme-Name.sublime-theme" 

(where "Theme-Name" is the name of your theme).

This is different than just activating a color scheme. If you've chosen a color scheme via the dropdown menus in Sublime Text, you will see a line in there like this:

"color_scheme": "Packages/Color-Scheme-Name.tmTheme"

(where "Color-Scheme-Name" is the name of your color scheme).