Making controls semi-transparent? Not having much luck..

I have searched up and down and could not find what I need. Several post on these forums have revealed themselves but nothing of use.

What I am trying to do is make a specific control have an adjust opacity value. I have tried using the technique for forms but it does not work with controls.

Code:

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    Call SetWindowLong(theControl.hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, GetWindowLong(theControl.hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE) Or WS_EX_LAYERED)
    Call SetLayeredWindowAttributes(theControl.hwnd, 0, bytOpacity, LWA_ALPHA)

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I've been able to make the background completely transparent but I only need partial, or a way to fill behind the object with another transparent color.

The control I am trying to work with is an RichTextBox.

In order to set a window as layered, you have to add the ws_ex_layered attribute, as your code shows.
But reading the msdn documentation for that attribute, you will see it does NOT apply to child windows

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MSDN

WS_EX_LAYERED

The window is a layered window. Note that this cannot be used for child windows. Also, this cannot be used if the window has a class style of either CS_OWNDC or CS_CLASSDC.

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There is no easy solution and a couple have been discussed on this forum several times. You may want to try searching on this forum for: SetLayeredWindowAttributes child

Hmm, I guess what would actually work is to have a look at how vbAccelerator's RichEdit control manages it's background image drawing and then take LaVolpe's hacked method to draw transparency in some controls, then simply apply a custom drawing routine that'll handle the semitransparent drawing (I guess easiest would be the AlphaBlend API).

So this should sound like a possible project, but it'll be complex, it would use advanced techniques and it is unlikely anyone would do it for you.

Thank you for the suggestions, I however am not interested in adding additional components to my application. I have discovered that making a control have a completely transparent background, while painting a picture-box beneath it can have an equally as appealing look.