Get Highlight Selected Items on CListCtrl when there is no Focus

• Download demo EXE - 856.1 KB
• Download demo project - 89.2 KB

Introduction

I created an MDI application with CListCtrl and needed to see the selected items when focus was on another control. Standard behavior of CListCtrl changes the highlighted color to a no visible color when focus is not on the CListCtrl. I found nothing on the web giving a quick solution. So here is my own solution.

Background

As I use most of the time CListCtrlEx from Sanjay1982, 24 Jul 2008 (see his article "An Extended MFC CListCtrl to edit individual cells, sort headers, and more"), I modified his code with additional options.

So this tip will treat only the additional parts for highlight. For all other features, see Sanjay's article.

Using the Code

Add the following files in your project:

• ListCtrlEx.h & .cpp
• MsgHook.h & .cpp

Here is the main settings parts with comments:

//
//Your_DialogDlg.h
//
#pragma once
#include "ListCtrlEx.h"
public:
    CListCtrlEx m_cListCtrl1;
//

//
//Your_DialogDlg.cpp 

BOOL Your_DialogDlg::OnInitDialog()
{ 

//........
    //Set Multi-Select at start
    m_bMultiSelect = TRUE;
    m_cListCtrl1.ModifyStyle(LVS_SINGLESEL,NULL,0);    

    //Change Backcolor and Textcolor when unfocus : 
    //Default is ::GetSysColor(COLOR_HIGHLIGHT) and ::GetSysColor(COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT)
    m_cListCtrl1.SetUnFocusColors(RGB(0, 250, 0),  
    RGB(255, 0, 255));    //COLORREF clrBackUnfocus, COLORREF clrTextUnfocus

    //Activate colors when unfocus
    m_bShowWhenUnfocus = TRUE;
    m_cListCtrl1.SetShowSelectedItemUnFocus 
    (m_bShowWhenUnfocus);    //True: Show selected item without focus

    //Activate border
    m_bDrawBordure = TRUE;
    m_cListCtrl1.SetBordureActive(m_bDrawBordure);

    //Define type of border (default is PS_DOT : not necessary to setup if you need PS_DOT)
    m_iRadio1 = PS_DOT;
    m_cListCtrl1.SetPenStyle(m_iRadio1);    //PS_SOLID PS_DASH PS_DOT
// 
//.....  
}

Functions

void SetUnFocusColors
( COLORREF clrBackUnfocus, COLORREF clrTextUnfocus)

void SetRowColors
(int nItem, COLORREF clrBk, 
COLORREF clrText, COLORREF clrBackUnfocus, 
COLORREF clrTextUnfocus)

void SetRowColorsUnfocus
(int nItem, COLORREF clrBackUnfocus, COLORREF clrTextUnfocus

void SetShowSelectedItemUnFocus (BOOL bEtat)

BOOL GetShowSelectedItemUnFocus ()

void SetPenStyle (int iStyle)

void SetPenStyleColor (COLORREF clrPenStyle)

void SetBordureActive (BOOL bBordure)

History

• 2016-02-02 :Filling correction as proposed by Alessandro Di Martino
• 2013-10-17 : First published