Section color no longer an option in 2021b?
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Cory Dinkle
on 19 Oct 2021
Commented: Mengnan Wu
on 27 Apr 2023
Prior to the changeover (versions 2021a and older), the current section in the Editor would be highlighted a yellowish color. Now with 2021b, there is a blue bar on the left to indicate the current section. I'd like the yellow-highlighted color back. Looking at the forum, there was an option in Preferences -> Colors -> Programming Tools that would allow the user to customize this section color, but unfortunately this has been removed. Or am I not seeing it somewhere?
3 Comments
Simeon Yurek
on 21 Jan 2022
Edited: Simeon Yurek
on 21 Jan 2022
Is it possible to turn off the section highlight/blue line feature in 2021b while still keeping section breaks? Thanks!
Accepted Answer
Arthi Sathyamurthi
on 26 Oct 2021
Hi,
Starting in R2021b, sections in the Editor have an improve appearance. The new section is highlighted with a blue border, indicating that it is selected. Hence, "section display option" to highlight section is not available in R2021b.

38 Comments
More Answers (20)
Andrew Marshall
on 28 Jan 2022
Yes. I would also like the yellow-ish highlighted cell mode to return. I don't like the current default.
0 Comments
Zhaoran Zhang
on 18 Feb 2022
Yeah, I also like the yellow backgroud much better. I think the yellow helps me to focus on the current section better and give me more peace. I've been working with the same yellow background for years, feeling sad to not have it anymore.
1 Comment
Richard
on 15 Mar 2022
Agreed. I think the yellow background that I had R2021a is great.... now I'm on R2022a I'm ticked off its gone.
John Brewer
on 27 Jun 2022
Edited: John Brewer
on 27 Jun 2022
"Starting in R2021b, sections in the Editor have an improve appearance."
What if nobody thinks this is "an improve appearance"? I think comment point to problem.
0 Comments
Marcel
on 10 Nov 2021
@Arthi Sathyamurthi why does the Blue bar on the left side sometimes not appear?
It seems that the section bar is not available, if a .m file is a function instead of a script?
Personally I agree with @Cory Dinkle, that "improved appearance" is very subjetive and I feel a big downside on the new layout...
3 Comments
Bob
on 16 Feb 2022
In MATLAB, I exclusively program with only functions and classes. I find scripts limiting because they junk up the base workspace with variables. If I want to work with these variables at the command line, I simply use breakpoints to enter the debugger. So, this new design restriction on section highlighting artificially limits the section highlighting capability for me.
I vastly prefer the old style in which the background is highlighted in a color to the new blue bar. One way that I enjoyed using section highlighting was to help visually break up multiple local functions and nested functions within a single m-file. In fact, for GUIs with more than a handful of controls, I would say this highlighting capability is almost critical for me. If the old style was brought back to the Editor, or added as a new feature for the use case that I described, it would be greatly appreciated!
(Also, where is the capability in the MATLAB Editor to group multiple files under projects whose contents can be collapsed and expanded? I develop code for multiple tasks, and this feature would enormously aid in helping to organize my work. I have been waiting over 20 years for this capability to be added to the Editor...)
Marcel
on 28 Jan 2022
It is not possible to see where the line start, where is character 1. The current editor looks like there are 3-4 free space before the first letter, so the entire line looks intended, even if it's not. With the (yellow) highlight in the picutre below from 2021a it was clearly visibly where the first character of this line is.
MATLAB 2021b

MATLAB 2021a

0 Comments
Martin Brand
on 9 May 2022
I would also greatly appreciate to have the yellow highlighting back, please!
0 Comments
Marcel
on 20 Jan 2022
I was checking out the 2022a pre-release, and found that there is still no option to highlight the current code section. Can you please address this user request before launching the official 2022a.
1 Comment
David Rosenbaum
on 20 Jan 2022
Much appreciated, folks. That will help and I (we) appreciate your responsiveness ... Two more suggestions for MATLAB: (1) Provide a feature whereby all the section headers (distinguishing strings after %%) are shown as a kind of table of contents in the program and not just in the Publish version; (2) Allow for subsections down to some arbitrary number of levels as in standard hierarchicies.
Ian Townend
on 22 Mar 2022
I have just migrated from 2020b to 2022a. All I can see on my screen to denote the current section are two horizontal blue lines. The side bar blue strip is so thin it is almost invisible. I will try adapting but may well revert to using 2020b for editing. As already stated there is a high degree of subjectivity in the statement that this change has improved the appearane. For me the ability to clearly identify the current section with a pale colored background was one of the strengths of the Matlab editor.
0 Comments
Shyam Kishor Sharma
on 20 Apr 2022
Yes, Recently I updated my version from 2018 to 2022a , and there is no option for yellow color in section after %% sign .I used to that features .Please bring back the previous display settings.
Thanks.
0 Comments
Michael Drew
on 17 Jun 2022
+1 vote from me. This is a horrible "improvement"! Please bring back the old formatting as an option.
0 Comments
Naor
on 4 May 2022
+1 that request, and also requesting the option to remove the horizontal line between sections.
Sections are valuable to me in functions (as opposed to scripts or live scripts) as a way to visually organize code, perhaps like paragraphs or chapters in prose. A subtle visuale distinction between sections is very helpful, while a strong visual distinction is more distracting than helpful.
0 Comments
Liang Hu
on 6 May 2022
Please give this option back I am so used to it. Have to downgrade to 2021a after upgrading to 2022a. It is just a waste of time.
0 Comments
Matthew McMahon
on 21 Oct 2022
+1 for the suggestion to change it back. I, too, much prefer the yellow highlight.
0 Comments
Paul Hoffrichter
on 21 Oct 2022
Edited: Paul Hoffrichter
on 21 Oct 2022
When I called MathWorks about coloring of the call stack lines (above the current function) when stepping through the r2021b debugger, the agent checked and saw another similar complaint. They fixed this problem in r2022a but did not fix it for r2021b.
If they get many complaints on the technical support line, maybe they will add the yellow color section background. So call!
Technical Support: 508-647-7000 Access to technical support requires a valid license number and a Software Maintenance Service subscription.
Enter ver to get the license number.
Not sure how this works for students. However, they are acutely aware that students become their future customers, so call and find out how to complain about their bad feature.
When calling be very specific about this one missing yellow background issue. Don't combine multiple issues in one call.
0 Comments
Xingwang Yong
on 28 Jan 2023
Improved appearance? The default color scheme in R2022a is already a mess. Not to mention the missing section highlight, which can not be adjusted anymore.
0 Comments
André A
on 20 Sep 2022
I also agree the highlight should be back. And also an option to change the color if this blue line, because it is awkward in my dark background.
0 Comments
Alan Peters
on 3 Oct 2022
The blue line thing is not only a worse indicator of the current selection but it is also, to put it nicely, an annoyance. If I accidently click on it the section runs. That is actually more than an annoyance because it completely disrupts my flow. That makes me angry in a time when I do not need one more source of anger. Some people may like the new live blue line. But I most decidedly do not. Please make it an option so I can get rid of it!
2 Comments
Alan Peters
on 26 Oct 2022
Thank you very much, Amy! That does solve my problem -- accidently clicking on the blue line causes the whole script to run when I did not want it to and thereby dissrupted my work flow. Now I'm back to where I was and that is good.
I do wonder why, when introducing a GUI element that supplants a current one, the current one is not kept as an option. I understand that it some cases that is not possible. But having either a blue line next to, or a yellow highlight over the current section seems rather a trivial option to implement. I have been using matlab for 35 years(! Time flies.) first on Sun Workstations, later on windoze PCs. The changes in the program over that time have been dramatic, amazing, and largely very welcome. One that threw me was when the keyboard shortcuts changed from the unix/vi set to a windows set. But I soon found that the previous set still worked, it just had to be installed. No problem at all! I still install those with every new release and continue on. So Mathworks knows how to provide alternatives. I am surprised that the yellow highlight was not retained as an option. Perhaps an unintended oversight?
Adam Golinski
on 3 Mar 2023
Edited: Adam Golinski
on 8 Mar 2023
Please bring back the yellow highlight! It was much more eye-friendly before.
0 Comments
Nicolae Moise
on 27 Mar 2023
Can you please bring back the old section highlights, at least as an option in the preferences?
0 Comments
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