Changing Background Colours

[FiniteInfinity]

Is it at all possible to change the background colour of the TreeView control provided in the mscomctl library?
I have read about and tried to implement various API calls to do this, but I can't seem to get them to work. Is there a trick that I am missing, or can this simply not be done?
Cheers in advance.

[Thread1]

Not possible.. It is a windows common control..

[rxbagain]

You can change it simply by sending a message TVM_SETBKCOLOR

Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" _
   (ByVal hwnd&, ByVal wMsg&, ByVal wParam&, lParam As Any) As Long
Const TVM_SETBKCOLOR = 4381

Private Sub Form_Load()
   Dim newColor As Long
   newColor = RGB(255, 0, 0)
   Call SendMessage(Me.TreeView1.hwnd, TVM_SETBKCOLOR, 0, ByVal newColor&)
End Sub

Hope it will help you

[Thread1]

Excellent rxbagain!! Can you share that TreeView WMessages?

[rxbagain]

There are many messages. In my MSDN, they are located in
Platform SDK ->
User Interface Services ->
Windows Common Controls ->
Tree View Controls ->
Tree View Control Messages

You can also find other common controls there.

[Thread1]

How about the message values??

[rxbagain]

They are in COMMCTRL.H. They are defined for example as

#define TVM_SETBKCOLOR              (TV_FIRST + 29)

So you have to add the value 29 to the value of TV_FIRST. But to simplify your job. Just make a simple win32 or console application in C++ and return the value.

#include "commctrl.h"

int main(void) {
  return TVM_SETBKCOLOR;
}

It will place the process's return value in the Debug output window.

Hope it will help you

[Thread1]

Thanks to rxbagain.. We have now the windows messages which are not included in the VB api viewer..

Cheers!

[FiniteInfinity]

Ok, thats great, nearly perfect.
Do you know how I change the color of the text as well? I can't get it to work using the same method, nothing happens.

[urs]

Private Sub Form_Load()
Const PBM_SETBARCOLOR = 4381
Dim NEWCOLOR As Long
NEWCOLOR = RGB(250, 0, 0)
Call SendMessage(Me.ProgressBar1.hwnd, PBM_SETBARCOLOR, 0, ByVal NEWCOLOR)
ProgressBar1.Value = 55
End Sub


hi rxbagain
this is how i am trying to change color of progressbar's bar
but it is not working

Const TVM_SETBKCOLOR = 4381
can u explain me this line, i mean y r u using this line

[doofusboy]

What is meant by:

In my MSDN, they are located in
Platform SDK ->
User Interface Services ->
Windows Common Controls ->
Tree View Controls ->
Tree View Control Messages

[rxbagain]

Do you know how I change the color of the text as well? I can't get it to work using the same method, nothing happens.

You can simply change the ForeColor using the node's ForeColor property. Here is my sample that adds 2 nodes and set the forecolor to red

With Me.TreeView1
   .Nodes.Add(Text:="Node1").ForeColor = RGB(255, 0, 0)
   .Nodes.Add(Text:="Node2").ForeColor = RGB(255, 0, 0)
End With

Const PBM_SETBARCOLOR = 4381
this is how i am trying to change color of progressbar's bar
but it is not working

PBM_SETBARCOLOR should be 1033, not 4381. If you want to know the values of the constants for common controls. U can use your VC6 to make just a simple console project. and add this code

#include "stdio.h"
#include "conio.h"
#include "commctrl.h"

void main(void) {
   printf("%d", PBM_SETBARCOLOR); //to get the value of PBM_SETBARCOLOR
   getch();
}

Run your program and you can see in the console window the value of the constant.

Const TVM_SETBKCOLOR = 4381
can u explain me this line, i mean y r u using this line

The value 4381 is the constant value that is recognized by the TreeView control as a command of setting its backcolor. You cannot just use the value to any other controls. You can get the values of constants as I showed above.

What is meant by:In my MSDN, they are located in
Platform SDK ->
User Interface Services ->
Windows Common Controls ->
Tree View Controls ->
Tree View Control Messages

This are the nodes hierarchy in the Contents Tab of the MSDN

Hope this will help you all

[WizBang]

Does this mean we can also set the color for highlighted text in a textbox?

[rxbagain]

Does this mean we can also set the color for highlighted text in a textbox?

I don't know how to change the color of the higlited text in individual windows. To change the color of the selected text in an textbox, I have to change the system color. The effect of this is system wide and it will affect not only textboxes but all highlighted text). Be be sure to set the color back when your done. If you want to try, you can use this code.

Option Explicit
Private Declare Function GetSysColor Lib "user32" (ByVal nIndex&) As Long
Private Declare Sub SetSysColors Lib "user32" (ByVal nChanges&, lpSysColor&, lpColorValues&)
Const COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT = 14

Dim oldsysColor As Long

Private Sub Form_Load()
   Dim colorIndex As Long, colorvalue As Long
   colorIndex = COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT
   colorvalue = RGB(255, 0, 0)
   oldsysColor = GetSysColor(COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT)
   Call SetSysColors(1, colorIndex, colorvalue)
End Sub
Private Sub Form_QueryUnload(Cancel As Integer, UnloadMode As Integer)
   Dim colorIndex As Long, colorvalue As Long
   colorIndex = COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT
   colorvalue = oldsysColor
   Call SetSysColors(1, colorIndex, colorvalue)
End Sub

Hope this will help you

[WizBang]

rxbagain
Yes, I know that, but I just want to do it with one textbox. However, this gives me an idea. Suppose we change the windows color, and capture the window messages going to the textbox? Won't that tell us what the correct message is?

I tried all message values up to 65535 and it never worked

I found a few interesting ones though.