customizing control colors

[Devil Panther]

How can I customize the color of a control, like buttons and and text edit boxes; without using any classes or mfc, just plain api?


Thank you.

[Ken Fitlike]

This comes up a lot so a board search will give you lots of information.

Generally you handle WM_CTLCOLOR* messages which are sent to the control parent and return an HBRUSH that's used to paint the control background. This works for most controls, buttons being the notable exception. Some control message are:

WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC
WM_CTLCOLREDIT

[Devil Panther]

If I understand it right, with WM_CTLCOLOR I know when the control is going to be drawn, but how do I change it's colors?
Also why the button is an exception?


thanks

[Ken Fitlike]

>>how do I change its colors<<

For example:

From msdn for WM_CTLCOLOREDIT:
If an application processes this message, it must return the handle of a brush. The system uses the brush to paint the background of the edit control.

>>Also why the button is an exception?<<

board search

[Devil Panther]

.

[Devil Panther]

just a small problem with that... windows repaints over it, so the only thing in the edit box control that changes are the edges... so it's still white(default color)

[Ken Fitlike]

The WPARAM of the WM_CTLCOLOR* messages is the control HDC which you can use to, for example, SetBkMode or SetBkColor. You can also SetTextColor with that device context, too.

It may be that text you are adding to the control is being drawn with a default background colour. Use SetBkMode or SetTextColor to modify this if you need to, eg:

SetBkMode((HDC)wParam,TRANSPARENT);

[Devil Panther]

i see... thanks alot.

[Devil Panther]

Only one last problem with the edit boxes, if the control is empty and I focus on it, it returns to the default color, and then when I type something it changes to the chosen color. why? how do I fix it?