Dialog Header

• Download demo project - 15 Kb
• Download source - 53 Kb

Introduction

If you want to give your users some feedback and make your apps look more professional, than just use these simple classes. This code was inspired by Mustafa Demirhan's article about hacking the CPropertySheet.

The CDialogHeader class will add a header area to your dialogs that will display an icon, a title, and some description text.

Below is an image of a standard dialog with a header control added.
The header can display an icon, a title, and description text with a custom font size, alignment, and background color.

The CMyPropertySheet class incorporates the dialog header into a property sheet control.

Below are two tabs of a property sheet control with the header control built in. Each tab can have it's own individual icon and text associated with it.

How to Use the CDialogHeader Class

1. Include the files DialogHeader.h and DialogHeader.cpp in your project.

2. Add the include statement to your dialog header file:

   #include 'DialogHeader.h'             //For the header ctrl area

3. Add a member variable of type CDialogHeader to your dialog class

   CDialogHeader m_HeaderCtrl;        //Dialogheader 

   In your dialogs OnInit function do the following:

   1. Set the headers display data:

      m_HeaderCtrl.SetHeaderData(hIcon,"Title","Description");

      Or you can set/change each member individually using:

      m_HeaderCtrl.SetIconHandle(hIcon);
      m_HeaderCtrl.SetTitleText("Title");
      m_HeaderCtrl.SetDescText("Description.");

   2. The above functions will be the most commonly used, however you can set all of the following options:
      

      Font sizes	m_HeaderCtrl.SetFontSizes(TitleSize,DescSize);
      Text alignment	m_HeaderCtrl.SetTextAlign(DT_LEFT); //Options are {DT_LEFT,DT_CENTER,DT_RIGHT}
      Background color	m_HeaderCtrl.SetBackgroundColor(RGB(255,255,255));
      Blank icon mode	m_HeaderCtrl.SetBlankIcon(TRUE); //TRUE=space always allocated for icon
      Icon offsets	m_HeaderCtrl.SetIconOffset(5); //Defines top left corner of icon and border
      Title offset	m_HeaderCtrl.SetTitleOffset(10); //Defines space between icon and title text
      Description offset	m_HeaderCtrl.SetDescOffset(10); //Defines the amount of indent for desc text when align is DT_LEFT or DT_RIGHT
      Header height	m_HeaderCtrl.SetHeaderHeight(x); //If x=0, automatically sets height

      Note: Font sizes and offset must be set before setting header height with x=0. See the header file for a more complete description of all functions.

   3. Display the header and resize the dialog window by calling:

      m_HeaderCtrl.Init(this);

   4. Move dialog controls down to accommodate the header area by calling:

      m_HeaderCtrl.MoveCtrls(this);

That’s it! The code below shows a typical example of how to initialize and display the dialog header:

//Example of using CDialogHeader
BOOL CDlgFileTypes::OnInitDialog()
{
    CDialog::OnInitDialog();


    // TODO: Add extra initialization here

    //Set initial header data
    m_HeaderCtrl.SetTitleText("Title");
    m_HeaderCtrl.SetDescText("Description text.");
    m_HeaderCtrl.SetIconHandle(AfxGetApp()->LoadIcon(IDI_HARDDRIVE));

    //Create the header ctrl
    m_HeaderCtrl.Init(this);

    //Move all dialog ctrls down to accommodate header area
    m_HeaderCtrl.MoveCtrls(this);

    return TRUE;
    // return TRUE unless you set the focus to a control
    // EXCEPTION: OCX Property Pages should return FALSE
}

How to Use the MyPropertySheet Class:

1. Include the files DialogHeader.h, DialogHeader.cpp,

   MyPropertySheet.h
   

   , and MyPropertyShett.cpp in your project.
2. Add the include statement in every header file where you want to replace the standard CPropertySheet

   #include "MyPropertySheet.h"        //For the custom Propertysheet ctrl

3. Add a new CMyPropertySheet member variable/local variable or replace CPropertySheet with CMyPropertySheet.
4. Add the property pages to the property sheet using a PSHEETITEM variable.

Note: See the header file for a more complete description of all the functions and options.

The example below creates a property sheet with two tabs each with different icon, text, and layout:

void CDialogHeaderDemoDlg::OnButton1()
{
    //Variables
    CMyPropertySheet sheet("Options");
    PropPage1 page1;
    CPropPage2 page2;
    PSHEETITEM pItem;
    
    //Get a default header item
    pItem=sheet.GetDefaultPSItem;
    
    //Add tab 1 to sheet
    pItem.sTitle="Title 1";
    pItem.sDesc="Propertypage number 1 options.";
    pItem.hIcon=AfxGetApp()->LoadIcon(IDR_MAINFRAME);
    sheet.AddPage(&page1,pItem);
    
    //Add tab 2 to sheet
    pItem.sTitle="Title 2";
    pItem.sDesc="Propertypage number 2 options.";
    pItem.hIcon=AfxGetApp()->LoadIcon(IDI_HARDDRIVE);
    
    //Change the alignment for tab 2
    pItem.uAlign=DT_CENTER;
    
    //Add page two to the propertysheet
    sheet.AddPage(&page2,pItem);
    
    //Display the propertysheet ctrl
    sheet.DoModal();
}

I hope you enjoy the code and find it useful.