How to: Access the Built-in Fonts and Color Scheme

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The Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE) has a scheme of fonts and colors that is associated with the editor window. You can access this scheme through the IVsTextView interface.

To use the built-in fonts and colors scheme, a VSPackage must:

• Define a category to use with the default fonts and colors service.

• Register the category with the default fonts and colors server.

• Advise the IDE that a specific window uses the built-in display items and categories by using the T:Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextManager.Interop.IVsTextEditorPropertyCategoryContainer and T:Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextManager.Interop.IVsTextEditorPropertyContainer interfaces.

The IDE uses the resulting category as a handle to the window. The category's name is displayed in the Show settings for: drop-down box in the Fonts and Colors property page.

To define a category using built-in fonts and colors

1. Create an arbitrary GUID.

   This GUID is used to uniquely identify a category. This category reuses the IDE's default fonts and colors specification.

   Note
   When retrieving font and color data with the IVsFontAndColorEvents or other interfaces, VSPackages use this GUID to reference built-in information.

2. The category's name must be added to a string table inside the VSPackage's resources (.rc) file, so that it can be localized as needed when displayed in the IDE.

   For more information, see Adding or Deleting a String.

To register a category using built-in fonts and colors

1. Construct a special type of category registry entry in the following location:

   [HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft \Visual Studio\<Visual Studio version>\FontAndColors\<Category>]

   <Category> is the non-localized name of the category.

2. Populate the registry to use the stock fonts and color scheme with four values:

   Name	Type	Data	Description
   Category	REG_SZ	GUID	An arbitrary GUID that identifies a category that contains the stock font and color scheme.
   Package	REG_SZ	GUID	{F5E7E71D-1401-11D1-883B-0000F87579D2} This GUID is used by all VSPackages that use the default font and color configurations.
   NameID	REG_DWORD	ID	The resource ID of a localizable category name in the VSPackage.
   ToolWindowPackage	REG_SZ	GUID	The GUID of the VSPackage implementing the IVsTextView interface.

To initiate the use of system-provided fonts and colors

1. Create an instance of the T:Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextManager.Interop.IVsTextEditorPropertyCategoryContainer interface as part of the window's implementation and initialization.

2. Call the GetPropertyCategory method to obtain an instance of the T:Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextManager.Interop.IVsTextEditorPropertyContainer interface corresponding to the current IVsTextView instance.

3. Call SetProperty twice.

   • Call once with VSEDITPROPID_ViewGeneral_ColorCategoryas an argument.

   • Call once with VSEDITPROPID_ViewGeneral_FontCategory as an argument.

   This sets and exposes the default fonts and colors services as a property of the window.

The following example initiates the use of built-in fonts and colors.

CComVariant vt;  
CComQIPtr<IVsTextEditorPropertyCategoryContainer> spPropCatContainer(m_spView);  
if (spPropCatContainer != NULL){  
    CComPtr<IVsTextEditorPropertyContainer> spPropContainer;  
    if (SUCCEEDED(spPropCatContainer->GetPropertyCategory(GUID_EditPropCategory_View_MasterSettings,   
                                                          &spPropContainer))){  
        CComVariant vt;CComVariant VariantGUID(bstrGuidText);  
        spPropContainer->SetProperty(VSEDITPROPID_ViewGeneral_FontCategory, VariantGUID);  
        spPropContainer->SetProperty(VSEDITPROPID_ViewGeneral_ColorCategory, VariantGUID);  
    }  
}  

Using Fonts and Colors
Getting Font and Color Information for Text Colorization
Accessing Stored Font and Color Settings
Font and Color Overview