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### 9.9 Highlighting and Menus

The `gnus-visual` variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying aspects. If `nil`, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the `gnus-vis.el` file.

This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The following elements are valid, and are all included by default:

`group-highlight`
  Do highlights in the group buffer.
`summary-highlight`
  Do highlights in the summary buffer.
`article-highlight`
  Do highlights in the article buffer.
`highlight`
  Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
`group-menu`
  Create menus in the group buffer.
`summary-menu`
  Create menus in the summary buffers.
`article-menu`
  Create menus in the article buffer.
`browse-menu`
  Create menus in the browse buffer.
`server-menu`
  Create menus in the server buffer.
`score-menu`
  Create menus in the score buffers.
`menu`
  Create menus in all buffers.

So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all buffers, you could say something like:

         (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))

If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:

         (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))

If `gnus-visual` is `t`, highlighting and menus will be used in all Gnus buffers.

Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:

`gnus-mouse-face`
  This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No mouse highlights will be done if `gnus-visual` is `nil`.

There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:

`gnus-article-menu-hook`
  Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
`gnus-group-menu-hook`
  Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
`gnus-summary-menu-hook`
  Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
`gnus-server-menu-hook`
  Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
`gnus-browse-menu-hook`
  Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
`gnus-score-menu-hook`
  Hook called after creating the score mode menu.