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[Colorizing Menu Items] [Default Button Outline]

How to colorize menu items?

We can use 'mctb' resources to colorize menu items statically. But is there any way to do at runtime?
I'll tell you how to do it.

Macintosh standard menu definition function ('MDEF') uses the Menu Color Information Table Record to handle menu item colors. These are commonly prepared in forms of 'mctb' resource by programmers.

But we can use colors by programs, not only by resources. This fact allows us to create runtime Color menus.

Here are sample codes (Header/Source) to colorize menu items.
The archive file is prepared.
You can modify them to colorize menu bar or menu title.

//##
//##    File:       SetColorToMenu.h
//##
//##    Author:     Takenori Kabeya
//##
//##    Version:    1.1 - Dec/29/1996
//##
//##    E-mail:     GBH06222@niftyserve.or.jp
//##
//##    NOTE:
//##        You can use this code freely.
//##
//##        See 'Inside Macintosh:Macintosh Toobox Essentials', page 3-98
//##        for more details.
//##
//  SetColorToMenu.c

#pragma once

#ifndef __QUICKDRAW__
    #include    <Quickdraw.h>
#endif

#ifdef  __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif

//
//  Set color to menu.
//
//  Input:
//      inMenuID        The menu ID. Not a resource ID.
//      inMenuItem      The index of the menu item to set the color.
//      inColorP        The Color to set.
//      inIsAutoBoldOn  Since too lite color is invisible,
//                      We should do something.
//                      This routine has two methods.
//                      One is setting the menu item style to bold,
//                      The other is reset the color to black.
//                      If inIsAutoBoldOn is true, the former method
//                      will be applied.
//                      If false, the latter.
//
void
SetColorToMenu(
    SInt16          inMenuID,
    SInt16          inMenuItem,
    const RGBColor* inColorP,
    Boolean         inIsAutoBoldOn );

#ifdef  __cplusplus
}
#endif

//##
//##    File:       SetColorToMenu.c
//##
//##    Author:     Takenori Kabeya
//##
//##    Version:    1.1 - Dec/29/1996
//##
//##    E-mail:     GBH06222@niftyserve.or.jp
//##
//##    NOTE:
//##        You can use this code freely.
//##
//##        See 'Inside Macintosh:Macintosh Toobox Essentials', page 3-98
//##        for more details.
//##
//  SetColorToMenu.h

#include    "SetColorToMenu.h"

#include    <Menus.h>



#define kAutoBoldStyle          ( bold + condense )
#define kLiteColorThreshold     0xC000



static Boolean
IsColorTooLite(
    const RGBColor* inColorP );



void
SetColorToMenu(
    SInt16          inMenuID,
    SInt16          inMenuItem,
    const RGBColor* inColorP,
    Boolean         inIsAutoBoldOn )
{
    RGBColor    theBlack = { 0x0000, 0x0000, 0x0000 };
    RGBColor    theWhite = { 0xFFFF, 0xFFFF, 0xFFFF };
    
    MCEntry theEntry[3];
    
    //  Entry for the menu title.
    theEntry[0].mctID   = inMenuID;
    theEntry[0].mctItem = 0;            //  means menu title.
    theEntry[0].mctRGB1 = theBlack;     //  means title color.
    theEntry[0].mctRGB2 = theBlack;     //  means bar color.
    theEntry[0].mctRGB3 = theBlack;     //  means default item color.
    theEntry[0].mctRGB4 = theWhite;     //  means background color of menu.
    
    //  Entry for the menu item.
    theEntry[1].mctID   = inMenuID;
    theEntry[1].mctItem = inMenuItem;
    theEntry[1].mctRGB1 = theBlack;     //  means mark color.
//  theEntry[1].mctRGB2 = *inColorP;    //  means item text color.
    theEntry[1].mctRGB3 = theBlack;     //  means shortcut color.
    theEntry[1].mctRGB4 = theWhite;     //  means background color of menu.
                                        //      this field is valid only when
                                        //      background color of menu in title
                                        //      entry or in menu bar entry is
                                        //      empty. Not everytime.
    
    if( inIsAutoBoldOn ) {
        if( IsColorTooLite( inColorP ) ) {  //  too lite color is invisible.
            SetItemStyle( GetMenuHandle( inMenuID ), inMenuItem, kAutoBoldStyle );
            
        }
        else {
            SetItemStyle( GetMenuHandle( inMenuID ), inMenuItem, normal );
        }
        theEntry[1].mctRGB2 = *inColorP;
    }
    else {
        if( IsColorTooLite( inColorP ) ) {
            theEntry[1].mctRGB2 = theBlack;
        }
        else {
            theEntry[1].mctRGB2 = *inColorP;
        }
    }
    
    //  Entry for the termination.
    theEntry[2].mctID = mctLastIDIndic;
    
    SetMCEntries( 3, theEntry );    //  3 means the number of entries.
}



static Boolean
IsColorTooLite(
    const RGBColor* inColorP )
{
    return( kLiteColorThreshold < inColorP->red   &&
            kLiteColorThreshold < inColorP->blue  &&
            kLiteColorThreshold < inColorP->green );
}

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