Control Templates

Abstract

In the past, Windows developers were forced to choose between convenience and flexibility. For maximum convenience, they could use prebuilt controls. These controls worked well enough, but they offered limited customization and almost always had a fixed visual appearance. Occasionally, some controls provided a less-than-intuitive “owner drawing” mode that allowed developers to paint a portion of the control by responding to a callback. But the basic controls—buttons, text boxes, check boxes, list boxes, and so on—were completely locked down.