Inactive Tabs - can one "undim" them?

[Ian.W]

We are encountering a usability problem where people do not realize that they can choose other tabs in a tab control. 

The problem is that the tabs not currently being viewed appear to be dimmed. This seems to be non-standard behavior, at least when I compare it to Microsoft's interfaces in Windows and Office.  Compare the tabs in the two attachments to see what I mean.

I have filed a feature request (please "second" it, if you see its merits) , but in the meantime, how can I make the other tabs seem more available for use? 

Thanks,

Ian

[Jon_M]

Ian,

I have seconded your feature request as there is not a way to control whether or not the non-focused tabs' text is greyed out or not. A couple options would be to bold and underline all text on the tabs, or you could create JPGs or PNGs of text and use the images instead of text itself on the tab. The super-hack workaround would be to use multiple tab controls, hide the non-focused ones, and space the active one to make it appear that there is a single tab control.

[Ian.W]

Thanks for your support, Jon.  I'm not up your "super-hack workaround", but I like your image-based idea. I'll give it a try.

--Ian