Q243480: HOWTO: Changing Background Color of a Dialog Box Using ATL

Article: Q243480
Product(s): Microsoft C Compiler
Version(s): 3.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbATLWC kbDlg KbUIDesign kbVC600 kbATL300 kbDSupport kbGrpDSMFCATL
Last Modified: 12-JUN-2002

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The information in this article applies to:

- The Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) 3.0 
- Microsoft Visual C++.NET (2002) 
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NOTE: Microsoft Visual C++ NET (2002) supported both the managed code model that is provided by the .NET Framework and the unmanaged native Windows code model. The information in this article applies to unmanaged Visual C++ code only.

SUMMARY
=======

When creating dialog boxes in ATL 3.0, you can change the background color that
is used without much effort. This article shows you how to change the background
color for dialog boxes in ATL 3.0.

Basically, you need to handle the WM_CTLCOLORDLG message for the dialog box. You
can do this by adding an entry for this message in the message map and returning
the handle to new brush with desired color from this handler.

MORE INFORMATION
================

Here are the steps for changing the color of a dialog box in ATL.

1. Add a member variable m_hDialogBrush of type HBRUSH to your dialog box class.

      HBRUSH m_hDialogBrush;

2. Create brush with the desired color in dialog boxes constructor, and destroy
  it in the destructor.

      CColorDlg()
      {
        //this will create a blue brush 
        //could use GetSysColorBrush() instead if want to use a system brush
        m_hDialogBrush = CreateSolidBrush(RGB(0, 0, 255));
      }

      ~CColorDlg()
      {
          DeleteObject(m_hDialogBrush);
      }

3. Add a message map entry for WM_CTLCOLORDLG as shown in the following.

  BEGIN_MSG_MAP(CColorDlg)
      MESSAGE_HANDLER(WM_INITDIALOG, OnInitDialog)
      MESSAGE_HANDLER(WM_CTLCOLORDLG, OnCtlColorDlg) //Add this macro.
      COMMAND_ID_HANDLER(IDOK, OnOK)
      COMMAND_ID_HANDLER(IDCANCEL, OnCancel)
  END_MSG_MAP()

4. Add a OnCtlDialog member function to your dialog class like the code below.
  OnCtlDialog is handler for the WM_CTLCOLORDLG message.

      LRESULT OnCtlColorDlg(UINT uMsg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam, BOOL& bHandled)
      {
          return (long) m_hDialogBrush;
      }

When the dialog box appears, it will have a blue background.

REFERENCES
==========

For additional information, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:

  Q74043 HOWTO: Change the Color of an Edit Control

  Q98201 HOWTO: Change Dialog Box Background Color in MFC 2.0 or Later

  Q103786 HOWTO: Change Window Background Color with Foundation Classes

  Q117778 HOWTO: Change the Background Color of an MFC Edit Control

  Q132080 HOWTO: Change the Color of an MFC Child Control Class

(c) Microsoft Corporation 1999, All Rights Reserved.
Contributions by Sreedhar Pelluru, Microsoft Corporation


Additional query words: ATL color dialog howto

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbATLWC kbDlg KbUIDesign kbVC600 kbATL300 kbDSupport kbGrpDSMFCATL 
Technology        : kbVCsearch kbAudDeveloper kbATLsearch kbATL300 kbVCNET
Version           : :3.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

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