Question

I have a ToolStripButton that is used as a radio button. When it is checked, a blue outline surrounds the button, but there is no background color. It is not clear enough for the user that the button is checked, so I would like to change the background color to make the check state more visible.

How do I go about changing the highlight color when the Checked property is set to true?

Here is a code snippet:

this.hideInactiveVehiclesToolstripButton.CheckOnClick = true;
this.hideInactiveVehiclesToolstripButton.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue;
this.hideInactiveVehiclesToolstripButton.AutoSize = false;
this.hideInactiveVehiclesToolstripButton.DisplayStyle = System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItemDisplayStyle.Image;
this.hideInactiveVehiclesToolstripButton.Image = global::ClientUI.Properties.Resources.toggleInactive;
this.hideInactiveVehiclesToolstripButton.ImageTransparentColor = System.Drawing.Color.Black;
this.hideInactiveVehiclesToolstripButton.Name = "hideInactiveVehiclesToolstripButton";
this.hideInactiveVehiclesToolstripButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(48, 48);
this.hideInactiveVehiclesToolstripButton.Text = "Hide Inactive Vehicles";
this.hideInactiveVehiclesToolstripButton.Click +=new System.EventHandler(this.hideInactiveVehiclesToolstripButton_Click);

Answer 1

You can provide your own tool strip renderer to draw the button’s background the way you want them. This example code gives the checked button a very visible black background:

public partial class Form1 : Form {
    public Form1() {
        InitializeComponent();
        toolStrip1.Renderer = new MyRenderer();
    }
    private class MyRenderer : ToolStripProfessionalRenderer {
        protected override void OnRenderButtonBackground(ToolStripItemRenderEventArgs e) {
            var btn = e.Item as ToolStripButton;
            if (btn != null && btn.CheckOnClick && btn.Checked) {
                Rectangle bounds = new Rectangle(Point.Empty, e.Item.Size);
                e.Graphics.FillRectangle(Brushes.Black, bounds);
            }
            else base.OnRenderButtonBackground(e);
        }
    }
}