How To Add Text to Toolbar Buttons (232017)

MORE INFORMATION

A toolbar can display text labels in two different ways: below the button icon or to the right of the icon. In order to display it at the right of the icon the style bit TBSTYLE_LIST needs to be specified when creating the toolbar.

The following steps show how to add button labels and resize the standard toolbar for an AppWizard generated MFC SDI or MDI application. The code handles the case of a regular toolbar or a toolbar with the list style set. TBSTYLE_LIST raises one problem that you need to be aware of: when hiding the text labels you need to remove this style bit in order for the button icons to be drawn correctly.

1. Create an SDI or MDI MFC AppWizard project.
2. Add a class derived from CToolBar to the project; in the code below, this is CMyToolBar.
3. Copy the following code to the .cpp file for the CMyToolBar class.

      struct tbblabel
      {
         UINT id;
         char *label;
      };
   
      static tbblabel standardBarLabels[] = 
      {
         { ID_FILE_NEW, "File New" },
         { ID_FILE_OPEN, "File Open" },
         { ID_FILE_SAVE, "File Save" },
         { ID_EDIT_CUT, "Cut" },
         { ID_EDIT_COPY, "Copy" },
         { ID_EDIT_PASTE, "Paste" },
         { ID_FILE_PRINT, "Print" },
         { ID_APP_ABOUT, "About" }
      };
   
      void CMyToolBar::SetLabels(BOOL bShow /*= TRUE*/)
      {
         if (m_rBigBtn.Size() != CSize(0, 0))
            return;
   
         // Get the first button size before adding the labels.
         GetItemRect(0, &m_rSmallBtn);
   
         int cButtons = sizeof(standardBarLabels) / sizeof(standardBarLabels[0]);
         for( int nButton = 0; nButton < cButtons; nButton++ )
         {
            int nButtonIndex = CommandToIndex( standardBarLabels[nButton].id );
            if (!SetButtonText( nButtonIndex, standardBarLabels[nButton].label ))
               TRACE("failed SetButtonText(%d, \"%s\").\n",
                      nButtonIndex, standardBarLabels[nButton].label);
         }
   
         // Get the first button size after adding the labels.
         GetItemRect(0, &m_rBigBtn);
   
         ShowLabels(bShow);
      } 
   
      void CMyToolBar::ShowLabels(BOOL bShow /*= TRUE*/)
      {
         // Remember that if the toolbar had the TBSTYLE_LIST set 
         //    the first time ShowLabels() was called.
         static BOOL bIsList = GetStyle() & TBSTYLE_LIST;
         // Set the toolbar button sizes.
         if (bShow)
         {
            if (bIsList)
               ModifyStyle(0, TBSTYLE_LIST);
            SetSizes(m_rBigBtn.Size(), m_sizeImage);
         }
         else
         {
            if (bIsList)
               ModifyStyle(TBSTYLE_LIST, 0);
            SetSizes(m_rSmallBtn.Size(), m_sizeImage);
         }
      }
   					

   Note that the last statement in CMyToolBar::ShowLabels() uses the protected member variable of CToolBar, m_sizeImage. As this is an undocumented member variable of CToolBar, this variable may not exist in future implementations of CToolBar.
   
   
4. Add a declaration for the SetLabels() and ShowLabels() functions to the CMyToolBar class. Also add two protected data members of type CRect as shown below:

   public:
   	void SetLabels(BOOL bShow /*= TRUE*/);
   	void ShowLabels(BOOL bShow /*= TRUE*/);
   protected:
   	CRect	m_rBigBtn;
   	CRect	m_rSmallBtn;

5. Change the type of the CMainFrame::m_wndToolBar member to CMyToolBar. The file where CMyToolBar is defined must be #included in the MainFrm.h file.
6. After the toolbar has been created in CMainFrame::OnCreate() call SetLabels() like this:

   m_wndToolBar.SetLabels(m_wndToolBar.GetStyle() & TBSTYLE_LIST);

   This call ensures that the toolbar is initially displayed with the text labels if the toolbar has the TBSTYLE_LIST style or without, if the toolbar does not have this style.
7. You can now add a message handler to your main frame class that toggles the toolbar labels on/off by calling CMyToolBar::ShowLabels() and RecalcLayout().

   m_wndToolBar.ShowLabels(TRUE);
   RecalcLayout(TRUE);