ApplicationSettings.DrawingBackgroundColor property (Visio)

Article
02/08/2022

Determines the background color of the Microsoft Visio drawing window for the current session. Read/write.

Syntax

expression.DrawingBackgroundColor

expression A variable that represents an ApplicationSettings object.

Return value

OLE_COLOR

Remarks

Valid values for an OLE_COLOR property within Visio can be one of the following:

&H00 bbggrr, where bb is the blue value between 0 and 0xFF (255), gg the green value, and rr the red value.
&H800000 xx , where xx is a valid GetSysColor index.

For details about the GetSysColor function, search for " GetSysColor " in the Microsoft Platform SDK on MSDN.

The OLE_COLOR data type is used for properties that return colors. When a property is declared as OLE_COLOR, the Properties window displays a color-picker dialog box that allows the user to select the color for the property visually, rather than having to remember the numeric equivalent.

In addition, you can use the following Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) color constants for OLE_COLOR.

Constant	Value	Description
vbBlack	0x0	Black
vbRed	0xFF	Red
vbGreen	0xFF00	Green
vbYellow	0xFFFF	Yellow
vbBlue	0xFF0000	Blue
vbMagenta	0xFF00FF	Magenta
vbCyan	0xFFFF00	Cyan
vbWhite	0xFFFFFF	White

Setting the BackgroundColor property of the active window to a value other than the default (-1) overrides the DrawingBackgroundColor setting for that window. To be able to reset the background color of the same active window by setting the DrawingBackgroundColor property, you must reset BackgroundColor to its default value, -1. If multiple windows are open, setting BackgroundColor for one window has no effect on the setting for other open windows.

Note

The ability to set drawing background color programmatically for users running in high-contrast mode is restricted.

Example

The following VBA macro shows how to use the DrawingBackgroundColor property to get and set the application background color. It also shows how to get an ApplicationSettings object from the Visio Application object, and it demonstrates the relationship between the DrawingBackgroundColor property and the Window.BackgroundColor property. This example assumes there is a drawing window open in Visio and that initially all background color properties are set to their default values.

Public Sub DrawingBackgroundColor_Example() 
 
 Dim vsoApplicationSettings As Visio.ApplicationSettings 
 Set vsoApplicationSettings = Visio.Application.Settings 
 
 'Get the current application background color. 
 Debug.Print vsoApplicationSettings.DrawingBackgroundColor 
 
 'Get the active window background color. 
 Debug.Print ActiveWindow.BackgroundColor 
 
 'Change the application background color. 
 'This will also change the active window color as 
 'well as the setting in the Color Settings dialog box 
 vsoApplicationSettings.DrawingBackgroundColor = vbRed 
 
 'Change the active window background color. 
 ActiveWindow.BackgroundColor = vbMagenta 
 
 'Change the application background color again. 
 'This time, there is no change in the current 
 'window color, but the dialog box setting changes. 
 vsoApplicationSettings.DrawingBackgroundColor = vbYellow 
 
 'Reset Window.BackgroundColor to its default value. 
 ActiveWindow.BackgroundColor = -1 
 
 'Change the application background color again. 
 'Now both the active window color 
 'and the dialog box setting change. 
 vsoApplicationSettings.DrawingBackgroundColor = vbBlue 
 
End Sub

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