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

ID: Q98201

The information in this article applies to:

The Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), used with:
- Microsoft Visual C++ for Windows, 16-bit edition, versions 1.0, 1.5, 1.51, 1.52
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions, versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 4.0

SUMMARY

An application developed with the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) version 2.0 or later can change the background color of its dialog boxes by calling the SetDialogBkColor() member function in the CWinApp class.

MORE INFORMATION

SetDialogBkColor() requires two COLORREF values as parameters. The first parameter specifies the dialog box background color; the second specifies the text color for a control in a dialog box. The application calls SetDialogBkColor() in the InitInstance() member function of the CWinApp class. For more information on the SetDialogBkColor() function, please refer to the "Class Library Reference Guide, Volume 1," or to the online Help file.

The application can use the RGB macro to supply the requested colors. The following sample code demonstrates this technique:


   BOOL CTheApp::InitInstance()
   {
      TRACE("HELLO WORLD\n");

      // Change colors to red and green.
      SetDialogBkColor(RGB(192, 0, 19), RGB(19, 192, 0));

      m_pMainWnd = new CMainWindow();
      m_pMainWnd->ShowWindow(m_nCmdShow);
      m_pMainWnd->UpdateWindow();

      return TRUE;
   }

The SetDialogBkColor() function changes the colors of all dialog boxes in an application. If each dialog box requires a different background color, process the WM_CTLCOLOR message and return a brush that Windows can use to paint the dialog box background.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbDlg kbMFC KbUIDesign kbVC100 kbVC150 kbVC200 kbVC400 kbGrpMFCATL
Version : winnt:1.0,2.0,2.1,2.2,4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbhowto