In this article, we'll describe how to create a new application in Visual Studio 2005-2015 environments. Run the Visual Studio developer environment. Choose "File | New | Project..." menu item. Open the "Visual C++ Projects" folder, and select the "BCGControlBar for MFC Application" item (on the right). Click the "Ok" button. This will start the regular MFC application wizard (with 2 additional pages) that creates the application. Specify the general MFC application settings (such as application type and document properties) and switch to the "BCGControlBar General" page. Please note that this page is not available for a dialog-based MFC application. Toolbars/menu interface. Choose this option if you wish to create an application with a "classic" (toolbar/menu-based) user interface. Ribbon-based interface. Choose this option if you wish to create an Office 2007-2024 style application with a ribbon bar. Backstage View. Select this item if you wish to create your ribbon bar with the backstage view. Use Ribbon Designer. If this item is checked, the project will be created with Ribbon Designer resources. Otherwise, the ribbon bar will be initialized in the source code. Ribbon Display Options. If this item is checked, the "Ribbon Display Options" button will be displayed instead of the "Minimize" button. You can specify the following options for this button: Ribbon Layout. Allows switching between the classic and simplified Ribbon modes. Auto-hide the ribbon. Allows switching the ribbon to full-screen mode. SVG icons: use SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) toolbar or ribbon bar icons. If this checkbox is unchecked, raster icons (PNG format) will be used. Font icons: when this option is checked, the application will be created with Windows 10/11 font icons. MDI Tabs. Your MDI application will be created with MDI Tabbed Groups or MDI Tabs in the frame's caption. If your application is SDI, this option will be disabled. Visual Style. Choose the visual theme (such as Office 2024 or Visual Studio 2026) that will be initially applied to your application. For most visual styles, you can choose the initial color theme. For the modern visual styles such as Office 2024 or Visual Studio 2026, you may choose the "System on startup" color option: if the Windows app mode is dark, the dark color theme will be used by default; otherwise, the application starts in the light color theme Add an "Application Look" menu. Check this option if you wish to allow the user to modify the application's look at run time. If your application is toolbar/menu-based, the "Application Look" menu item will appear under the "View" menu. In the ribbon bar, the "Style" menu will be placed on the right side. Themed file dialog. Replaces all standard (Windows) file dialogs with themed (visual manager-based) dialogs. Customize Ribbon: select this option if you want to enable the Ribbon Customization dialog. Alternative customization ("Alt+Drag"). Allows dragging and dropping toolbar/menu items without invocation of the customization dialog. User-defined toolbars. Adds an ability to create custom toolbars at run-time. User-defined images. Allows associating toolbar buttons with user-defined icons. The images can be either PNG or SVG. Keyboard customization. Allows customizing the keyboard shortcuts. Mouse customization. Adds the customization of mouse events to your project. Context menu customization. Adds the context menu customization to your project. Personalized menus. Allows displaying the most recently used menu items at the top, similar to the Office 2000 menus. If you do not choose this option, all menu items will be shown. User-defined tools. Adds an ability to customize user-defined (usually external) tools at run-time. Fixed menu bar: allows you to create a toolbar/menu bar-based application with a fixed (that cannot be moved) menu bar located on top. Frame menu bar: allows you to create a toolbar/menu bar-based application with a menu bar located in the frame's title area. "Windows..." dialog. Check this option if you wish to replace the standard "Windows..." dialog with an enhanced one (MDI applications only). Statically Linked Library. Your project will be linked with the BCGControlBar library statically. This option cannot be used in the evaluation version! Click "Next" button and switch to "BCGControlBar Advanced Settings" page: Shortcuts ("Outlook"-style) bar. Select this option if you want to add a shortcuts bar. Style: choose one of the following styles of the shortcuts bar: Office 2013: all page buttons are located on the bottom toolbar only. Office 2003: the page butons area is resizable and page buttons that don't fit the height are added to the bottom-located toolbar. Office XP: the active page button and all previous page buttons are located on top; the rest are on the bottom. Embedded control. a shortcuts bar will be created with an embedded control. Enable collapse/expand: select this option if you want to add a "Minimize" button to the shortcuts bar. Caption bar. Select this option if you want to add a caption bar (the static information pane located below the toolbars or ribbon bar). Docking workspace bar. Adds an example of a workspace bar with detachable tabs. Docking output bar. Adds an example of an output bar. Docking property grid. Adds a Visual Studio-style property grid. Create Property Manager: if this option is checked, the application will be created with a built-in property manager. Docking Task Pane. Adds a Microsoft Office-style tasks pane. Docking Toolbox Pane. Adds a Visual Studio-style toolbox. Enable AutoHide. Enables the "Auto Hide Window" feature for all docking panes. Docking Type. Choose the control bars' docking style. You can select: Standard Docking Smart (Visual Studio-like) Docking Graphics manager. Select this option if you want to use a graphics manager (Direct2D or GDI+) to draw the content of your CView-derived class. By default, this option is unchecked. Automatically hide scroll bars: enables auto-hidden scrollbars. By default, this option is unchecked. Frame and dialog rounded corners: enables the frame and dialog windows' rounded corners in all visual themes (Windows 11 or newer versions only). Back to the Developer Area