Text Color for Dialog Box

[nyjil]

Wanting to be able to change the color of the text appearing within a edit box that is in a dialog box. I want to be able to change it both at run time and design time. The whole idea is that the edit box has a number in it, and when the number gets too low, I want to change the number red so that the user is warned. Not exactly sure how to do this. If anyone has an idea, it sure would be appricated. Sample code would be wonderful if you have the time.

Many Thanks,
Nyjil

 

[ZakiMaksyutov]

Hi!

This is example from MSDN:
-------------------------------------------------
This simple example creates a reusable control called CYellowEdit. The control works the same as a regular edit control except that it displays black text on a yellow background. It would be easy to add member functions that would allow the CYellowEdit control to display different colors.

To try this example, do the following steps:

Create a new dialog box in an existing application. For more information seedialog editor in the Visual C++ User’s Guide.
You must have an application in which to develop the reusable control. If you don’t have an existing application to use, create a dialog-based application using AppWizard.

With your project loaded into Visual C++, use ClassWizard to create a new class called CYellowEdit based on CEdit. Leave the “Add to Component Gallery” box checked.


Add three member variables to your CYellowEdit class. The first two will be COLORREF variables to hold the text color and the background color. The third will be a CBrush object which will hold the brush for painting the background. The CBrush object allows you to create the brush once, merely referencing it after that, and to destroy the brush automatically when the CYellowEdit control is destroyed.


Initialize the member variables by writing the constructor as follows:
CYellowEdit::CYellowEdit()
{
m_clrText = RGB( 0, 0, 0 );
m_clrBkgnd = RGB( 255, 255, 0 );
m_brBkgnd.CreateSolidBrush( m_clrBkgnd );
}

Using ClassWizard, add a handler for the reflected WM_CTLCOLOR message to your CYellowEdit class. Note that the equal sign in front of the message name in the list of messages you can handle indicates that the message is reflected. This is described inDefining a Message Handler for a Reflected Message in the Visual C++ Programmer's Guide.
ClassWizard adds the following message-map macro and skeleton function for you:

ON_WM_CTLCOLOR_REFLECT()

// Note: other code will be in between....

HBRUSH CYellowEdit::CtlColor(CDC* pDC, UINT nCtlColor)
{
// TODO: Change any attributes of the DC here

// TODO: Return a non-NULL brush if the
// parent's handler should not be called
return NULL;
}

Replace the body of the function with the following code. The code specifies the text color, the text background color, and the background color for rest of the control.
pDC->SetTextColor( m_clrText ); // text
pDC->SetBkColor( m_clrBkgnd ); // text bkgnd
return m_brBkgnd; // ctl bkgnd

Create an edit control in your dialog box, then attach it to a member variable by double-clicking the edit control while holding a control key down. In the Add Member Variable dialog box, finish the variable name and choose “Control” for the category, then “CYellowEdit” for the variable type. Don’t forget to set the tab order in the dialog box. Also, be sure to include the header file for the CYellowEdit control in your dialog box’s header file.


Build and run your application. The edit control will have a yellow background.


You can now use Component Gallery to add your CYellowEdit control class to other projects.
-------------------------------------------

I think that this exaple will be very useful for you.

With best regards,
Zaki
zaki-maksyutov@yandex.ru

 

[nyjil]

Thanks a ton, Zaki. It works beautifully.

s-)
Nyjil