Gnome 2.3: change background color for buttons / active window in tray bar separately?

Question

I recently tuned Debian to look more like Ubuntu by switching to Ubuntu fonts and installing the dark Ambiance theme. However, the color for the active window is way to light and makes the title barely readable. I can change this color by tweaking

Appearance > Theme > Customize > Colors > Selected item > Background

But unfortunately, this appears to be the same color as for window elements like buttons that contain black text and are fine with background that light.

Now, my question is: is there a way to tune those two background colors separately? I'd like to keep the buttons as is and have the window list somewhat darker.

Answer 1

Go to

sudo vim /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/gtkrc

and change

style "panel"
{
...
        bg[PRELIGHT] = shade(.8, @selected_bg_color)

to

style "panel"
{
...
        bg[PRELIGHT] = "#494843"
        bg[ACTIVE] = "#494843"

Restart X. Done!