Menus aren't all equally changed in a visual style – not possible?


  1. Posts : 14
    Windows 7 Professional x64
       #1

    Menus aren't all equally changed in a visual style – not possible?


    Look at the attachment...
    -different-menus.png
    Using a visual style, I can't get all menus to look the same. We all know this location in Windows Style Builder:
    Lists, Menus & Tabs > Menu > PopUpItem
    It affects the first menu in the picture, but not entirely the other two, which is why they look different. Is there some location in WSB that can change the menus that aren't being affected? I don't think so. It may not be possible. It really sucks. The theme used is a modified version of the Clearscreen Sharp visual style.
    Normally menus will look like the first one: bold selected text (Tools, Text Filters), #F5F5F5 background color, certain margins and padding... The second menu has no bold text (Angle Unit, Degree), a #F2F2F2 background color and different looking arrows (I updated the fossil arrows). The third menu has no bold text either, uses a #F7F7F7 background color and considerably different margins and padding. I wanted to change the font size, but it only works for the first one.
    Menus like the first one are everywhere, like the second one are in the programs Tiled (map editor) and SpeedCrunch (portable lightweight calculator) and the third is from Firefox.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 2,497
    Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
       #2

    Full consistency of menus is not possible and I don't see this happening anytime soon.

    There are generally 2 methods an application can display menus. The most basic method is to use Windows menus as is. This is easiest for the developer and is visually consistent with the current theme and any customizations that might be used. Windows Style Builder has a lot of control over this.

    But often an application developer wishes more control over the appearance of menus or to do things that are not directly supported. Windows has long provided facilities to do this, and many popular applications use them. It is possible, and many applications do this, to use what developers call "owner draw" menus. In this applications take over full responsibility for drawing the menu themselves. This gives the developer full control over the menu background and text colors, size, style, margins and padding. In short, virtually everything you see in a menu. Icons in menus are often displayed using this method.

    Usually, but not always, the developer will at least use the default menu font and menu colors. But being consistent with the details of whatever theme the user may be using, not to mention customizations, is a lot of work and many developers are not willing to go that far. The user will often have limited or no control over these menus.

    For compatibility reasons Windows provides no means of overriding "owner draw" menus. Applications often rely heavily on this and if it were removed such menus would typically not show properly or at all.

    Bottom line is that the user will have considerable control over some menus, and little or none over others.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 14
    Windows 7 Professional x64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Thanks for the answer, as it explains nicely what's going on and how it works.

    There are still locations on Windows Style Builder to be found.
    -icon-column-width.png
    The gray left side icons column has a consistent width in Aero. It was increased in the Clearscreen theme, which was made with Windows Style Builder. This theme can't have increased the Aero column width without changing any property whatsoever. Something was changed, otherwise it would have the same width as Aero. What was changed is something somewhere in WSB... Probably tied to changing something else at the same time. Very hard to locate. I don't know where to find the responsible property. I tried searching everywhere on the program. "Lists, Menus & Tabs > Menu" only appears to affect the left menu in the attachment, which is why its column was made smaller, but not the right one, still bigger than in Aero, because I don't know what controls it. It's not each program's rendering because they don't do it to Aero.
      My Computer


 

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