Features in Windows Forms TrackBar (TrackBarEx)

29 Apr 20215 minutes to read

The TrackBarEx is a new Office2007 control, which has a track bar or a pointer which slides between the minimum value and maximum value specified. The user can drag the track bar along the line and also, the pointer can be placed at a particular point by clicking a position inside this TrackBar.

Various Features and Customization options are discussed in the following topics.

Button, Slider and Channel Settings

The properties which controls the size of various components of the TrackBarEx are as follows.

Property	Description
IncreaseButtonSize	Gets or sets the size of Increase button. Default value is (18, 18)
DecreaseButtonSize	Gets or sets the size of Decrease button. Default value is (18, 18)
SliderSize	Gets or sets the size of the slider. Default value is (11, 14).
ChannelHeight	Gets or sets height of the channel. Default value is 4.

Button Appearance

The below properties will let you control the appearance of the Increase, Decrease and slider buttons.

Property	Description
ShowButton	Gets or sets a value indicating whether to show the Increase and Decrease buttons.
ButtonColor	Gets or sets the color for the Increase and Decrease buttons.
HighlightedButtonColor	Gets or sets the color for the buttons, when they are highlighted.
PushedButtonEndColor	Gets or sets the color of the buttons, when they are pushed.

C#

this.trackBarEx1.ShowButtons = true;

this.trackBarEx1.ButtonColor = System.Drawing.Color.DodgerBlue;

this.trackBarEx1.HighlightedButtonColor = System.Drawing.Color.AliceBlue;

this.trackBarEx1.PushedButtonEndColor = System.Drawing.Color.OrangeRed;

VBNET

Me.trackBarEx1.ShowButtons = True 

Me.trackBarEx1.ButtonColor = System.Drawing.Color.DodgerBlue 

Me.trackBarEx1.HighlightedButtonColor = System.Drawing.Color.AliceBlue

Me.trackBarEx1.PushedButtonEndColor = System.Drawing.Color.OrangeRed

TrackBar Appearance

FocusRectangle

A focus rectangle for the TrackBarEx control can be shown or hidden using ShowFocusRect property.

Gradient Start and End Color

By default, the TrackBarEx control has a gradient appearance. The start color and end color for this gradient appearance can be specified using TrackBarGradientStart and TrackBarGradientEnd properties.

C#

this.trackBarEx1.TrackBarGradientEnd = System.Drawing.Color.CadetBlue;

this.trackBarEx1.TrackBarGradientStart = System.Drawing.Color.MintCream;

VBNET

Me.trackBarEx1.TrackBarGradientEnd = System.Drawing.Color.CadetBlue

Me.trackBarEx1.TrackBarGradientStart = System.Drawing.Color.MintCream

The control can be given a transparent background by enabling the Transparent property.

C#

this.trackBarEx1.Transparent = true;

VBNET

Me.trackBarEx1.Transparent = True

TrackBarEx Orientation

This control has options for vertical and horizontal orientation.

C#

//To set the control to be vertically oriented

this.trackBarEx1.Orientation = Orientation.Vertical;

//To set the control to be horizontally oriented

this.trackBarEx1.Orientation = Orientation.Horizontal;

VBNET

'To set the control to be vertically oriented

Me.trackBarEx1.Orientation = Orientation.Vertical

'To set the control to be horizontally oriented

Me.trackBarEx1.Orientation = Orientation.Horizontal

TrackBar Value

The TrackBarEx control slides between the minimum and maximum values, which are specified in Minimum and Maximum properties. The properties with description are listed in the below table.

Property	Description
Minimum	Gets or sets minimum value of TrackBarEx. Default is 10.
Maximum	Gets or sets the maximum value of TrackBarEx. Default is 20.
Value	Gets or sets value of TrackBarEx position i.e. slider position. Default is 5.
SmallChange	Gets or sets small change of TrackBarEx value while changing. Default is 1.
LargeChange	Gets or sets large change of TrackBarEx value while changing. Default is 5.
TimerInterval	Gets or sets interval for timer while increasing/decreasing the value using Increase/Decrease button. Default is 100.

C#

this.trackBarEx1.Minimum = 10;

this.trackBarEx1.Maximum = 25;

this.trackBarEx1.Value = 5;

this.trackBarEx1.SmallChange = 5;

this.trackBarEx1.LargeChange = 15;

this.trackBarEx1.TimerInterval = 50;

VBNET

Me.trackBarEx1.Minimum = 10

Me.trackBarEx1.Maximum = 30

Me.trackBarEx1.Value = 5

Me.trackBarEx1.SmallChange = 5

Me.trackBarEx1.LargeChange = 15

Me.trackBarEx1.TimerInterval = 50

Following are the methods for the TrackBarEx control which gives the respective results based on SmallChange and LargeChange properties.

Methods	Description
LargeIncrease	Increases the value by large change specified in LargeChange property.
LargeDecrease	Decreases the value by large change specified in LargeChange property.
SmallDecrease	Decreases the value by small change specified in SmallChange property.
SmallIncrease	Increases the value by small change specified in SmallChange property.

TrackBarEx Event

Scroll event of the TrackBarEx will be handled whenever the user moves the slider.

C#

private void trackBarEx1_Scroll(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

    this.trackBarEx1.ButtonColor = System.Drawing.Color.OrangeRed;

}

VBNET

Private Sub trackBarEx1_Scroll(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)

    Me.trackBarEx1.ButtonColor = System.Drawing.Color.OrangeRed

End Sub