Ken I asked the following question and was told that it is called adding a skin to the app and that it cannot be done with VFP. I don't care if it is done through skins or any other way, but it would be nice to add visually compelling elements to our app. Any suggestions?

Alex

>Does somebody know how to jazz up VFP controls (buttons, pagetabs, form borders, etc.) with visually compelling graphics?
>
>Examples: The pagetabs at www.apple.com especially the one for QuickTime, and the brushed metal background in the .MAC tab in the same site. Also the 3D rounded formbar and buttons of Incredimail application.

>>>FYI you can't "skin" a VFP app.

>>It sounds like bad news, but please clarify. Thanks. Alex

>yeah it is bad news because there isnt a work-around.
>
>Let's say you want to "skin" an application - that is add some graphics and stuff to all the screens, buttons, etc. Not the most popular thing for a business application, but hey everyone's doing it.... http://www.softshape.com/activeskin/ is a good example.
>The problem? Can't do it with VFP. There are 2 reasons why you can't. 1) Unlike EVERY other Visual language (Delphi, VB, VC++ etc etc) VFP's controls on the screens are not really "windows" ...there is no "windows handle" for the controls...thus you cant skin the controls. So that sucks..now say ok just skin the screen itself not the controls on it...NOT! Won't work because the skins gizmo in an ActiveX - and guess what..ALL activeX controls in VFP are ALWAYS on top! ahhh! So this means if you put a skin on the form..then the only thing you can see the skin image! cant see the controls (like textboxes, comboboxes etc) on the from because the skin-activex is on top of all of it....well needless to say that makes the whole thing useless.