>Hi Anton.
>I'm giving the first step after take a look at XP Visual Styles in MSDN (that you suggested) and GDIPlusX sample VFP Theme Explorer, but I can't find in which object Outlook 2003 shortcut bar buttons are based (to inherit the colors)...
>Could you help me?

After spending 3 hours playing with StyleBuilder I found that Outlook 2003 bar doesn't actually based on Theme API. So, I digged in wrong direction and you was right - it's based on system colors available via GetSysColor().

I found that Outlook bar's button is always vertical gradient from COLOR_3DHILIGHT to COLOR_BTNFACE. As for selected and hilighted buttons - it looks like it uses flat fill with some mixtures of system colors COLOR_BTNFACE, COLOR_3DHILIGHT, COLOR_HIGHLIGHT and maybe others in various proportions. I guess this is also right for Office menus - while selected item border color is COLOR_HIGHLIGHT, item background color is actually mixture of COLOR_HIGHLIGHT and COLOR_MENU.