Windows common color dialog box

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I want to write a WINDOWS program which changes the background of its client area with the help of common color dialog box. i Can't seem to get it right. Please Help. I Want the background of the Client Area be painted with the color i select from the common color Dialog Box. Sorry if i couldn't make it clear enough i am a newbie to window API.

Posted 28-Jan-12 7:20am

iamrohitsingh

Updated 30-Jan-12 0:04am

v3

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theanil 28-Jan-12 13:33pm

desktop background or forms?

iamrohitsingh 28-Jan-12 14:04pm

The background of a client area - wndclass.hbrBackground ...

2 solutions

Solution 1

You will need to capture the WM_ERASEBKGND[^] message and do your own painting of the client area.

Posted 29-Jan-12 7:56am

Richard MacCutchan

Comments

iamrohitsingh 29-Jan-12 16:45pm

What i am not being able to understand is that how do i use the brush which is returned from choosecolor structure to paint the client area of the owner window

Richard MacCutchan 30-Jan-12 5:47am

See my alternative solution.

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Richard MacCutchan · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-29T23:47:00

Solution 2

A little sample to demonstrate how to paint the background instead of allowing Windows to erase it. This paints different system colours across the window - see the colour list starting at COLOR_SCROLLBAR in WinUser.h.

C++

BOOL Cls_OnEraseBkgnd(HWND hWnd,
                      HDC  hDC
                      )
{
    HBRUSH  hBrush;
    RECT    rectClient;
    int     nWidth;
    
    GetClientRect(hWnd, &rectClient);
    nWidth = rectClient.right / 30;
    rectClient.right = 1;
    for (int nBrush = 0; nBrush <= 30; ++nBrush)
    {
        hBrush = GetSysColorBrush(nBrush);
        rectClient.right += nWidth;
        FillRect(hDC, &rectClient, hBrush);
        rectClient.left += nWidth;
    }
    
    return TRUE;
}

Posted 29-Jan-12 23:47pm

Richard MacCutchan

Updated 29-Jan-12 23:49pm

v2

Comments

iamrohitsingh 30-Jan-12 5:56am

Thats not what i was asking .....i was just asking how do i save the brush returned from common color dialog box and use it to paint the client area of the owner window of that Common color dialog box

#include <windows.h>
#include <commdlg.h>

int WINAPI WinMain (HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
PSTR szCmdLine, int iCmdShow)
{
static CHOOSECOLOR cc ;
static COLORREF crCustColors[16] ;

cc.lStructSize = sizeof (CHOOSECOLOR) ;
cc.hwndOwner = NULL ;
cc.hInstance = NULL ;
cc.rgbResult = RGB (0x80, 0x80, 0x80) ;
cc.lpCustColors = crCustColors ;
cc.Flags = CC_RGBINIT | CC_FULLOPEN ;
cc.lCustData = 0 ;
cc.lpfnHook = NULL ;
cc.lpTemplateName = NULL ;

return ChooseColor (&cc) ;
}

How do i save cc.RgbResult to paint the client area of owner window..

Richard MacCutchan 30-Jan-12 6:35am

What do you mean? The value is already saved in the CHOOSECOLOR structure when the dialog closes. Use this value to create a custom brush which you can then use to paint the window.

iamrohitsingh 30-Jan-12 9:45am

Sorry if i couldn't make anything clear...i am just a newbie to WINDOWS programming..
It would be so nice of you if you can provide me an Example ...using Only WINDOWS API NO MFC ....

Richard MacCutchan 30-Jan-12 9:56am

That's what I gave you above, it's the code that gets invoked when you capture the WM_ERASEBKGND message. If you need a full sample of a Win32 program there are thousands around, just check the articles here on CodeProject or use the sample project in Visual studio.

iamrohitsingh 30-Jan-12 10:08am

Ok i will.....Thanks for the help...