Advanced MFC Programming

Chapter 1. Tool Bar and Dialog Bar
Figure 1-7. Fixing the layout this way will let a tool bar with
fixed size take less area when it is docked to any border
We can call function CToolBar::SetButtonStyle(…) to implement the wrapping. This function has
been discussed in section 1.3. However, there we didn’t discuss the flag that can be used to wrap the tool
bar from a specific button. This style is TBBS_WRAPPED, which is not documented in MFC.
Sample 1.5\Bar is based on sample 1.4\Bar that demonstrates this feature. The following shows the
changes made to the original CMainFrame::OnCreate(…) function:
1) Replace CBRS_SIZE_DYNAMIC with CBRS_SIZE_FIXED when setting the tool bar style. The following
statement shows this change:
m_wndColorButton.SetBarStyle
(
m_wndColorButton.GetBarStyle() | CBRS_TOOLTIPS | CBRS_FLYBY | CBRS_SIZE_FIXED
);
1) Add the following statement after this:
m_wndColorButton.SetButtonStyle
(
1, m_wndColorButton.GetButtonStyle(1) | TBBS_WRAPPED
);
To avoid losing default styles, in the second step, function CToolBar::GetButtonStyle(…) is first
called to retrieve the original styles, which are bit-wise ORed with the new style before calling function
CToolBar::SetButtonStyle(…).
1.6. Adding Combo Box to Tool Bar
By default, a tool bar can have only buttons and separators, and all the buttons must have the same
size. This prevents us from adding other types of controls to the tool bar. However, by using some special
properties of tool bar, we can still manage to add other types of common controls such as combo box to it.
Remember that all controls are actually different type of windows in essence. When we design a dialog
template and add different common controls, we are given an impression that these controls are
implemented “Statically”. In fact, we can create any type of common controls by calling function
CWnd::Create(…) at any time. This member function is supported by all the classes that are derived from
CWnd. We can use it to create a control and put it anywhere on the tool bar.
Dynamically creating window is rarely used in normal programming because in this case the
programmer has to calculate the size and position of the window carefully. If we implement this from a
dialog template, we can see the visual effect immediately after a new control is added. If we implement this
through function calling, we have to compile the project before we can see the final result.
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