[RESOLVED] Transparent black overlay?

[DavesChillaxin]

So what I'm looking for help with is on how to create this transparency like black overlay I could use on forms.

This is the best way to describe it, but it would be similar to when Win7 needs administration permissions. When the dialog pops up, the screen dims down almost as if they overlapped the screen with a transparent black layer of some sort. This is easily accomplish able by creating a black form and having its opacity set to half and starting it maximized-which I'm already doing. The problem with this though is I need to do this within a form, so using a panel or anything is out of the questions since transparency really grabs the background image and not the actual controls underneath. Plus I feel if adding a form to another forms controls depletes it's ability to use it's opacity property.

The form I need this in is my cash register. It is full screen but if my menu auto hides it still resizes. It has two parts, the order(panel to the left) and the payments(panel to the right). As you could imagine I want the payments portion blacked out until the order is capable of accepting payments(the payment due is greater than 0). Or I'm thinking it fallows the mouse, you mouse over the payments and the orders panel blacks out, and vice verse.

Plus I have tried googling this but no one seems to have the answer on other forums.. Everyone gets confused and the thread ends short with no solution. Apparently though experts-exchange has the answer, but wants me to pay... so no. Wish their site would stop showing up in my google results.

But did have an idea of what I could do. My best guess was I could take a snap shot of just the panel I want to black out. Set it as the background image for that panel THEN use my overlay panel(back color sent to black) overlapping the appropriate section with it's transparency set to half.. But still I'm not sure how to take a snap shot of just a particular.control..


Thanks in advanced!