What's the proper way of changing the color of SetDlgItemText?

Question

Question is pretty straight forward, I'm using SetDlgItemText to display text, but I want to change the text color from black to grey so it appears grey on the screen. I tried settextcolor, knowing that was a long shot and it didn't work.

EDIT: Here is the code I have that creates the box

SetDlgItemText(hDlg, IDC_EDIT2, password_string);

And SetDialogItemText is part of... what? Could you at least write the name of the library or framework you're using? — José Tomás Tocino, Aug 07 '15 at 23:32
@WakkaDroid - no,it isn't. Perhaps you actually mean `SetDlgItemText`? — enhzflep, Aug 07 '15 at 23:41
`SetDialogItemText` changes the .. text. It changes the string. It doesn't change the color. To change the text color of a control requires different approaches for different types of control. Sometimes it's not possible at all. It's impossible to help further without you telling us what type of control you're talking about. — Jonathan Potter, Aug 07 '15 at 23:44
*What's the proper way of changing the color of SetDlgItemText?* `SetDlgItemText` is a function and functions don't have color. It pays to be more studied and precise in use of language. — David Heffernan, Aug 08 '15 at 07:09

Edward Clements · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-11T05:26:39.607

2

You don't mention whether the control is a static or an edit control.

Use code like the following in your dialog proc; For Edit controls: under case WM_CTLCOLOREDIT: and for Static controls under case WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC:

case WM_CTLCOLOREDIT:
    if (::GetDlgCtrlID((HWND) lParam) == IDC_MY_CONTROL)
    {   HBRUSH hbr = (HBRUSH) DefWindowProc(hDlg, iMessage, wParam, lParam);
        SetTextColor((HDC) wParam, RGB(192, 192, 192));
        return (BOOL) hbr;
    }
    return FALSE;

edited Aug 11 '15 at 05:26

answered Aug 08 '15 at 06:39

Edward Clements

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Sorry it's edit, so what I have is this line SetDlgItemText(hDlg, IDC_EDIT2, password_string); and I want the text to be gray before, and after this one line – WakkaDroid Aug 10 '15 at 22:49
edited the code in my answer for edit controls -- you need to place this code in your dialog proc function – Edward Clements Aug 11 '15 at 05:27
says that I needed an expression before ::GetDlgCtrlID – WakkaDroid Aug 11 '15 at 18:17
sorry, I didn't understand your comment `says that I needed an expression before ::GetDlgCtrlID` -- could you please elaborate? – Edward Clements Aug 11 '15 at 20:30
It was because I was working in C, so i edited it to work with C, Thanks for the help!! – WakkaDroid Aug 11 '15 at 23:45

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 08 '15 at 00:35

Cannot do that with Stock dialogs.

Option #1 - use WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC

Option #2 - USE RTF by swapping/switching to a Rich Edit Control

What's the proper way of changing the color of SetDlgItemText?

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