customizing CStatusBar

There doesn't appear to be a way to do this (SB_GETBORDERS and MFC's GetBorders function let you retrieve the border size).

The way around.
1. Create a dummy item between each real item in the status bar, using SetParts (in CStatusBarCtrl - which you can get use GetStatusBarCtrl())
2. Set dummy parts to have no text and no border (SBT_NOBORDERS) using SetText member of CStatusBarCtrl.
3. Control width of "pseudo" borders by changing the width of the dummy items

OR

1. Override DrawItem for the control
2. Paint each item as you like with the borders you want
3. This is more work, but will give you finer control

Could you please show me an example of how to override the
DrawItem to set the width?  Your answer doesn't provide me
with enough clues on how to do that.  Thanks!

1. You need to set up the pane of the status bar as owner draw (for whichever pane you want).

GetStatusBarCtrl().SetText( (LPCTSTR)1 /* Pass as data to the owner draw proc */,  0 /* index of pane */, SBT_OWNERDRAW /* Flag for owner draw */ ) ;

A good place to do this is when you set up the status bar

2. Derive a status bar class from CStatusBar.  The Class Wizard can do this for you.  Create one of these rather than the default status bar.

3. In your derived class override DrawItem for the Status Bar (if you look in the help you will see only a DrawItem for CStatusBarCtrl, but the same function exists for CStatusBar).  In this function you get an LPDRAWITEMSTRUCT (pointer to a draw item structure) which contains the data you need to draw the pane including it's rectangle. [note:if class wizard probably won't let you do it, so you need to manually override].  It should look like this

in a .h

class CMyStatusBar : public CStatusBar
{
 // various stuff
public:
 virtual void DrawItem(LPDRAWITEMSTRUCT lpDrawItemStruct);
} ;

in .cpp

virtual void CMyStatusBar::DrawItem(LPDRAWITEMSTRUCT lpDrawItemStruct)
{
 // <-- add you're code here
}

In the drawing code paint what ever you want.  The most important elements of lpDrawItemStruct are hDC (the DC to draw on) and rcItem (the rectangle of coordinates in pixels).

e.g.
virtual void CMyStatusBar::DrawItem(LPDRAWITEMSTRUCT lpDrawItemStruct)
{
   // fill the pane with red for example
   CDC::FromHandle(lpDrawItemStruct->hDC)->FillSolidRect( &(lpDrawItemStruct->rcItem), RGB(255,0,0) ) ;
}

Inside the brackets you can add as much drawing code as you need using the standard drawing functions like Rectangle, LineTo, MoveToEx/MoveTo, DrawText etc.  

Hopefully this is enough to get you going.

Answers2000:

Thanks for your help so far.  I'm still falling short,
though.

The default borders between panes in CStatusBar extend over
the shadows of the status pane.  They continue drawing one
pixel over and one pixel under the client area defined as
lpdrawitemstruct.rcItem.  I tried to do the same, but
Windows has probably set a clipping region so I don't draw
outside my little box.  In other words, I can't draw over
the bottom highlighted rectangle line, like the default
borders do.

The default borders, if they were thick enough, would line
up perfectly with splitter bars, which is what I'm trying to
do.  By drawing them myself, I'm left with a one pixel gap
in "no man's land" so to speak.

void MyStatusBar::DrawItem(LPDRAWITEMSTRUCT lpDrawItemStruct)
{
  CDC* pDC = CDC::FromHandle(lpDrawItemStruct->hDC);

  // arbitrarily chosen
  const int leftSide = 101;
  const int rightSide = 103;

  const int topSide = lpDrawItemStruct->rcItem.top - 1;
  const int bottomSide = lpDrawItemStruct->rcItem.bottom + 1;

  pDC->FillSolidRect(&(lpDrawItemStruct->rcItem), afxData.clrBtnFace);

  pDC->FillSolidRect(leftSide - 1,
                 topSide,
                 leftSide - 1,
                 bottomSide,
                 afxData.clrBtnHilite);


  pDC->FillSolidRect(leftSide,
                 topSide,
                 rightSide,
                 bottomSide,
                 afxData.clrBtnFace);
  pDC->FillSolidRect(rightSide + 1,
                 topSide,
                 rightSide + 1,
                 bottomSide,
                 afxData.clrBtnShadow);

  pDC->FillSolidRect(rightSide + 2,
                 lpDrawItemStruct->rcItem.top,
                 lpDrawItemStruct->rcItem.right,
                 lpDrawItemStruct->rcItem.bottom,
                 afxData.clrBtnFace);

}

Hmm didn't know Windows would set a clipping region (it doesn't for most other owner draw controls)

I'm Not working with a sample, but could you SelectClipRgn at the start of DrawItem to remove the Clipping region, and then paint where-ever ?

Answers2000:

Thanks for your help!  Adding to the region did the job.
Please re-answer so I can give you the points.  :)


  CRgn myRegion;
  myRegion.CreateRectRgn(leftSide-1,
                   topSide,
                   rightSide + 1,
                   bottomSide);

  pDC->SelectClipRgn(&myRegion, RGN_OR);

Thanks for your help and patience.  :)