>What would be the best way to have XP style controls in VFP7 ?
>? Any OCX available ?
>? Using images to create false buttons ?
>? Patch from VFP ?
>Beuhh.. my applications look so old now !
>
>Thanks
>Eric

You have to use the ComCtl32.dll version 6 (shipped with XP) witch contains both the user controls and the common controls. If you want your application to use visual styles, you must add an application manifest that indicates that ComCtl32.dll version 6 should be used if it is available. A manifest is an XML file that must reside in the same directory as your application's executable file.

See this page for all infos http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnwxp/html/xptheming.asp?frame=true

Also, there is probably a bunch of active-x controls on the net to use in your apps. But active-x was not always reliable in VFP.

The alternative was to use your own classes to mimick the XP visual style.

I have already build a lot of controls with the XP style: textbox, checkbox, radio button, command button, progressbar (you can download my xpprogress bar here on UT) and a few others. These classes was not too hard to design using native vfp controls and a bit of imagination. The problem came from the controls containing scrollbars like editbox, grid, combo and listboxes. There is no easy way to control the scroling behaviour of them.