Tabs colour

[angelica]

Is it possible to have the Tabs of a Tab Control with a picture or colour?

[Deepak Sakpal]

You can have tab pages with icons besides the tab text. Drop a ImageList control from Toolbox and then add images to it. Then set ImageList property of TabControl to this ImageList control that you dropped on form. Now set the ImageIndex property of each tab page which will display the icons from ImageList control of that ImageIndex.

[angelica]

thanks Deepak,

How come we can change the colour of the TabPage but not the button also? Anyway I can do that?

[Deepak Sakpal]

Select the client area of a TabPage where you drop your controls and change the BackColor property to the desired color.

[angelica]

Hi Deepak,

It's the Tab button I need to change to be like the Tab Page. Have a look at the pic. Is it possible to have the button where I have L/A, L/ABook etc in light green also?

[Deepak Sakpal]

Angelica,

The Tab Control in .NET does not expose properties to change its back ground and foreground color. This can be achieved by overriding the DrawItem event of the control. Following are the steps involved to do the same.

1. Set the TabControl's DrawMode to OwnerDraw
2. Handle the DrawItem event to draw things yourself

Private Sub TabControl1_DrawItem( _
    ByVal sender As Object, _
    ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.DrawItemEventArgs _
) Handles TabControl1.DrawItem
 
    Dim g As Graphics = e.Graphics
    Dim tp As TabPage = TabControl1.TabPages(e.Index)
    Dim br As Brush
    Dim sf As New StringFormat
    Dim r As New RectangleF(e.Bounds.X, e.Bounds.Y + 2, e.Bounds.Width, e.Bounds.Height - 2)
 
    sf.Alignment = StringAlignment.Center
 
    Dim strTitle As String = tp.Text
 
    br = New SolidBrush(tp.BackColor)
    g.FillRectangle(br, e.Bounds)
    br = New SolidBrush(tp.ForeColor)
    g.DrawString(strTitle, TabControl1.Font, br, r, sf)
End Sub

[angelica]

ok Deepak, many thanks