Customizing the Appearance of a Toolbar Control

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Class CToolBarCtrl provides many styles that affect the appearance (and, occasionally, the behavior) of the toolbar object. Modify the toolbar object by setting the dwCtrlStyle parameter of the CToolBarCtrl::Create (or CToolBar::CreateEx) member function, when you first create the toolbar control.

The following styles affect the "3D" aspect of the toolbar buttons and the placement of the button text:

  • TBSTYLE_FLAT   Creates a flat toolbar where both the toolbar and the buttons are transparent. Button text appears under button bitmaps. When this style is used, the button underneath the cursor is automatically highlighted.

  • TBSTYLE_TRANSPARENT   Creates a transparent toolbar. In a transparent toolbar, the toolbar is transparent but the buttons are not. Button text appears under button bitmaps.

  • TBSTYLE_LIST   Places button text to the right of button bitmaps.

Note   To prevent repaint problems, the TBSTYLE_FLAT and TBSTYLE_TRANSPARENT styles should be set before the toolbar object is visible.

The following styles determine if the toolbar allows a user to reposition individual buttons within a toolbar object using drag and drop:

  • TBSTYLE_ALTDRAG   Allows users to change a toolbar button's position by dragging it while holding down ALT. If this style is not specified, the user must hold down SHIFT while dragging a button.

    Note   The CCS_ADJUSTABLE style must be specified to enable toolbar buttons to be dragged.

  • TBSTYLE_REGISTERDROP   Generates TBN_GETOBJECT notification messages to request drop target objects when the mouse pointer passes over toolbar buttons.

The remaining styles affect visual and nonvisual aspects of the toolbar object:

  • TBSTYLE_WRAPABLE   Creates a toolbar that can have multiple lines of buttons. Toolbar buttons can "wrap" to the next line when the toolbar becomes too narrow to include all buttons on the same line. Wrapping occurs on separation and nongroup boundaries.

  • TBSTYLE_CUSTOMERASE   Generates NM_CUSTOMDRAW notification messages when it processes WM_ERASEBKGND messages.

  • TBSTYLE_TOOLTIPS   Creates a tooltip control that an application can use to display descriptive text for the buttons in the toolbar.

For a complete listing of toolbar styles and extended styles, see and in the Platform SDK.

See Also   Windows Common Controls and MFC Classes,