Changing Image Properties

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You use the Properties window to change most resource properties. Exceptions are new icons or cursors for additional target devices.

Tip By default the Properties window is hidden whenever it does not have focus. To keep the Properties window in view when it does not have focus, click the Pushpin button in the upper-left corner of the Properties window.

To change an image’s properties

Open the image whose properties you want to change.
From the View menu, choose Properties.
Change any or all of these properties on the General tab:
- In the ID box, modify the resource’s identifier. For an image, Microsoft Visual C++, by default, assigns the next available identifier in a series: IDB_IMAGE1, IDB_IMAGE2, and so forth. Similar names are used for icons and cursors.
- In the Width and Height boxes, modify the image’s width and height (in pixels). The default value for each is 48.
  If you change the dimensions of an image using the property page, the image is cropped or blank space is added to the right of or below the existing image.
- In the Colors list box, select Monochrome, 16, or 256. If you have already drawn the image with a 16-color palette, selecting Monochrome causes substitutions of black and white for the colors in the image. Contrast is not always maintained: for example, adjacent areas of red and green are both converted to black.
- In the File Name box, modify the name of the file in which the image is to be stored. By default, Visual C++ assigns a base filename created by removing the first four characters (“IDB_”) from the default identifier and adding the appropriate extension.
- Select the Save Compressed check box to save the image in a compressed format.
Change any or all of the color properties on the Palette tab:
- Double-click to select a color and display the Custom Color Selector dialog box.
- Define the color by typing RGB or HSL values in the appropriate text boxes.