SftTabs/OCX 6.5 - Tab Control for VB6

Using Themes

With Windows XP, Windows themes were introduced. Windows themes can be selected by the user using the Control Panel.

If a theme is selected, the display of user interface controls, such as SftTabs/OCX, adapts to the current display theme. Themes can provide various display styles for the same control. With themes active, Windows renders (paints) the control:

Windows Without Themes Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000	Windows With Themes

By setting UseThemes to True, SftTabs/OCX adapts to the current theme used. If set to False, themes are not honored and the control is rendered using the built-in style.

Because Windows renders controls when themes are active and because Windows offers only one themed tab style, themes are only supported by the tab styles styleSftTabsModernTop and styleSftTabsButtonsTop through styleSftTabsButtonsDualLeftRightV.

SftTabs/OCX makes it easy to use the same application across all supported platforms. If Windows themes are not available, the control will simply use its built-in display style, otherwise it will fully exploit Windows themes.

To prepare an application for proper themes support, the tab control should be designed using SftTabs/OCX under Windows XP (and above). It should be viewed both with and without themes to make sure that the defined tab control is visually satisfactory in both cases.

Tab controls designed using SftTabs/OCX for use on Windows XP (and above) with themes will work identically on all other platforms, even when themes support is not available.

Keep in mind that numerous tab definitions, particularly relating to colors, have no effect when themes are active. You can find out if a specific tab setting has any effect with themes active by consulting the tab setting's detail information in this online help.