need help with color configuration on xfce4

[Peter Santoro]

I just installed xfce4 via source on slackware 8.1 (with updates). 
XFree86 is version 4.2.1.  I'm having trouble setting background and 
foreground color resources.  Most windows have a dark blue background 
with a black font - making it very hard to read.  Here's what I've tried 
so far:

settings manager:

I used the settings manager to set the background to blue with the XFce 
logo.


xterm:

Setting the resources in my .Xdefaults works using twm, but not with 
xfce4.  Setting the resources via "xrdb -merge" in xfce4's xinitrc does 
work.  After looking at twm's xinitrc file, this makes sense, because it 
checks for the presence of the ~/.Xdefaults file, but xfce4's xinitrc 
does not.

mozilla 1.5:

Windows and menus have a dark blue background with a black font and are 
difficult to read.  I tried adding resource definitions (as I did with 
xterm) to xfce4's xinitrc file with no luck.  Perhaps the definitions I 
tried were incorrect.

acrobat reader 5.08:

Pdfs have a dark blue background making them difficult to read.  I tried 
adding resource definitions (as I did with xterm) to xfce4's xinitrc 
file with no luck.  Perhaps the definitions I tried were incorrect.

Sometimes switching between mozilla and acrobat cause the dark blue 
background to change to a more pleasing color of white for the menus and 
pdf backgrounds and gray for mozilla's html page background.  Once this 
happens, it appears to stay this way.  It doesn't happen often and it's 
like voodoo magic when it does.

Obviously, I'm missing something here.  Where is xfce4 getting it's 
default colors (compiled in and/or a resource file)?  Is it the 
XtDefaultBackground and XtDefaultForeground resources that I need to 
change?  If so, where should I change these?  I have a copy of "XFree86 
for Linux", but it appears somewhat dated.  Is there a better resource I 
should use?

Thank you in advance for your help,

Peter