made some progress

>> (a) Openoffice updated. no joy. notice also the drop box menus don't
>> have clear borders.

this problem persists.

>> (b) had a problems with firefox: black background on toolbar items and
>> drop-down menus only appearing with mouse hover-over; fixed with a
>> work-around Slavek proposed some time ago: "create a symlink for files
>> from /usr/lib/gtk-3.0/3.0.0/theming-engines/ to
>> /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gtk-3.0/3.0.0/theming-engines/"
>>
>> (c) so now new issues with Pan. I can't use KDE_Classic since that
>> gives Pan's top toolbar a black background and squeezes all the icons
>> too close together. changing to Plastik fixes some of this though
>> the text runs together and also no distinct borders.

I think I've addressed the problems with FF and Pan. I believe (!) 
installing "kgtk-qt3-trinity" helped. is there a problem with this?

FF also didn't have a vertical scrollbar; now that's fixed.

>> I'd like to use KDE_Classic theme but I am forced to Plastik or
>> Redmond (seems best actually). GTK2 and GTK3 Styles set to "my TDE
>> style".

I am still on Redmond. I may dare KDE_Classic again but after I do 
some real work.

fjd

-- 
Felmon Davis