Drop a Shadow under Controls (XP Style)

Category:

Forms and Controls

Type:

Snippets

Difficulty:

Intermediate

Author: Flavio Gonz lez V zquez

Version Compatibility: Visual Basic 6, Visual Basic 5

More information:

This code drops a shadow under controls like Windows XP does. You can drop the shadow to all controls in a form or drop the shadow to one or more controls.

Instructions: Copy the declarations and code below and paste directly into your VB project.

Declarations:
'none

Code:

'*************************************************
'*                                               *
'*  SHADOW CONTROLS FORM                         *
'*   by Flavio Gonzalez Vazquez                 *
'*                                               *
'*  First, configure the following               *
'*  parameters                                   *
'*                                               *
Const FirstLines = 15 'Top shadow roundless      *
Const EndLines = 15   'Bottom shadow roundless   *
Const Measure = 15    'Form measure (p.e. twips) *
Const Desp = 60       'Shadow desp               *
Const Band = 50       'Shadow brightness         *
'*                                               *
'*                                               *
'*  To shadow all controls in a form,            *
'*  call to ShadowControls() method.             *
'*                                               *
'*  To shadow a control in a form                *
'*  call DropShadow() method                     *
'*                                               *
'*  Visit me on the following websites:          *
'*                                               *
'*  www.flavio.6x.to                             *
'*  www.flavionet.6x.to                          *
'*                                               *
'*                                               *
'*                                               *
'*************************************************

Sub DropShadow(Control As Object, Formu As Form)
    Dim n
    For n = 0 To 120 Step Measure
        DrawRect Formu, Control.Left + Desp + n / 2, Control.Top + Desp + n / 2, Control.Width - n, Control.Height - n, RGB(256 - (n + Band), 256 - (n + Band), 256 - (n + Band))
    Next
End Sub

Sub DrawRect(Control As Form, l, t, w, h, color)
    Dim x, xx
    For x = t To t + h Step Measure
        xx = x - t
        
        Select Case xx
            Case Is < FirstLines
                Control.Line (l + (FirstLines - xx), xx + t)-(l + w + xx - FirstLines, xx + t), color
            Case Is > h - EndLines
                Control.Line (l - h + EndLines + xx, xx + t)-(l + w - (EndLines + xx - h), xx + t), color
            Case Else
                Control.Line (l, xx + t)-(l + w, xx + t), color
        End Select

Next
        
End Sub

Sub ShadowControls(Formu As Form)
    Dim n
    For n = 0 To Formu.Controls.Count - 1
        DropShadow Formu.Controls(n), Formu
    Next
End Sub