ToolStripInlineColorPicker

• Download demo project - 19.8 KB

Introduction

There are a lot of color picker controls for Windows form app. This tip describes how to use an in-line color picker control that allows you to more easily select a color in MenuStrip or ContextMenuStrip. This control is called ToolStripInlineColorPicker control. The ToolStripInlineColorPicker class provides a color picker of color tile style like below:

Reference of ToolStripInlineColorPicker Class

The ToolStripInlineColorPicker class has inherited the ToolStripControlHost class that hosts the color tile panel control (ColorTilePanel class).

Constructors

Properties

Events

How to Use the Class

Case 1. Use in MenuStrip

Use the Designer. Adding the MenuStrip control to your form. then, add InlineColorPicker to the menu item.

Using the properties window, set the properties and event handlers. Event handler that must be implemented is ColorSelected event handler only.

// ColorSelected event handler
void colorPicker_ColorSelected(object sender, ColorSelectedEventArgs e)
{
    currentColor = e.SelectedColor;
    contextMenuStrip1.Close();

    var item = menuStrip1.Items.Find("toolStripInlineColorPicker1", false);
    (item[0] as ToolStripInlineColorPicker).CurrentColor = currentColor;

    Text = currentColor.ToString();
    Invalidate();
}

Case 2. Use in ContextMenuStrip

First, create the ContextMenuStrip control. Adding the ToolStripInlineColorPicker class. Then, set the properties and event handlers in code.

// CreateContextMenuStrip
private void CreateContextMenuStrip()
{
    contextMenuStrip1.Items.Add(new ToolStripMenuItem() { Text = "item1" });
    contextMenuStrip1.Items.Add(new ToolStripSeparator());

    var colorPicker = new ToolStripInlineColorPicker()
    {
        Name = "colorPicker",
        BackColor = Color.White,
        ColorList = colorList,
        CurrentColor = currentColor,
        Columns = 10,
        Rows = 5
    };
    colorPicker.ColorSelected += colorPicker_ColorSelected;
    contextMenuStrip1.Items.Add(colorPicker);

    contextMenuStrip1.Items.Add(new ToolStripSeparator());
    contextMenuStrip1.Items.Add(new ToolStripMenuItem() { Text = "item2" });
}

Next, implement event handlers.

// ContextMenuStrip Opening event handler
private void contextMenuStrip1_Opening(object sender, CancelEventArgs e)
{
    var item = contextMenuStrip1.Items.Find("colorPicker", false);
    (item[0] as ToolStripInlineColorPicker).CurrentColor = currentColor;
}

// ColorSelected event handler
void colorPicker_ColorSelected(object sender, ColorSelectedEventArgs e)
{
    currentColor = e.SelectedColor;
    contextMenuStrip1.Close();

    var item = menuStrip1.Items.Find("toolStripInlineColorPicker1", false);
    (item[0] as ToolStripInlineColorPicker).CurrentColor = currentColor;

    Text = currentColor.ToString();
    Invalidate();
}

That's all. It's very easy to use.

Known Issues of the Class

In the case of the ContextMenuStrip control, you can't access properties and events of the ToolStripInlineColorPicker class in designer.

The demo project uses VS 2015.