Question

I created a tab control and several tab items on it. I want my tab control (the region where no items ) background have a good appearence. So I used GradientFill to draw the tab control. But doing this, the tab items are disappeared. This is not the same situation for parent-child window. So am I supposed to draw the tab items also if I want to change the background of the tab control?

Here is the code:

switch(message) {
    case WM_PAINT:
        HDC hdc;
        PAINTSTRUCT ps;
        RECT rectTabControl;

        hdc = BeginPaint(hwnd, &ps);

        GetClientRect(hwnd, &rectTabControl);

        TRIVERTEX        vert[2] ;
        GRADIENT_RECT    gRect;

        vert [0] .x      = 0;
        vert [0] .y      = 0;
        vert [0] .Red    = 0x1000;
        vert [0] .Green  = 0x0000;
        vert [0] .Blue   = 0x0000;
        vert [0] .Alpha  = 0x0000;

        vert [1] .x      = rectTabControl.right;
        vert [1] .y      = rectTabControl.bottom; 
        vert [1] .Red    = 0xff00;
        vert [1] .Green  = 0x0000;
        vert [1] .Blue   = 0x0000;
        vert [1] .Alpha  = 0x0000;

        gRect.UpperLeft  = 0;
        gRect.LowerRight = 1;

        GradientFill(hdc,vert,2,&gRect,1,GRADIENT_FILL_RECT_H);

        EndPaint(hwnd, &ps);
        return 0;
}

Answer 1

“So am I supposed to draw the tab items also if I want to change the background of the tab control?”

Yes.