[BobLewiston]

Can anybody tell me how to change WinForm controls' text color programatically? I have no problem finding the fields to assign colors to, but the compiler doesn't recognize any color I mention, whether it's something like WindowText, or something like Red.

BTW, I'm using VC# Express 2008.

[jaeusm]

When you are setting a property on any object, you need to pay attention to the property's type. For instance, a Label has a property called "ForeColor" of type System.Drawing.Color. Thus, to specify the label's text color, you need to choose one of the colors in the System.Drawing.Color structure.

[BobLewiston]

attention, jaeusm:

Yes, that answers my question about how to get the compiler to recognize the color I want: by saying

this.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Red

instead of

this.ForeColor = Red;

but it doesn't change the color of the text already displayed, even when I reassign the string displayed to the text field of the control. Can you tell me how to make the control redisplay the text in the new color?

[jaeusm]

There is no "text field" control that I'm aware of, so I'll have to assume you mean TextBox. If you want to set the ForeColor on a TextBox, then you need to simply set the ForeColor property on the TextBox object in question. The code you posted above is setting the color on the form.

[BobLewiston]

jaeusm:

Sorry, what I meant was:

using System; 
using System.Windows.Forms; 
  
namespace ChangeTextColor
{ 
    public partial class TestForm : Form
    { 
        public TestForm () 
        { 
            InitializeComponent (); 
            textBox1.Text = "This is the original text."; 
        } 
  
        private void btn_Click (object sender, EventArgs e) 
        { 
            textBox1.Text = "Now the text is red."; 
            textBox1.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Red; 
        } 
    } 
}

The "text field of the control" I was referring to is textBox1.Text.

Anyway, it turns out that changing (or just reassigning an unchanged value to) the TextBox's BackColor property when also changing the ForeColor property somehow magically makes it work; don't ask me why.

[jaeusm]

it turns out that changing (or just reassigning an unchanged value to) the TextBox's BackColor property when also changing the ForeColor property somehow magically makes it work;

Actually, the code you posted works fine for me without setting the BackColor property.