Table of Contents

Appearance

The list box separates shared appearance — applied to every item through ItemsAppearance — from per-item overrides set on each TTMSFNCListBoxItem. Together with the Header bar and the control-level Fill/Stroke, these let you match the list to your application's visual style without owner-drawing. Reach for ItemsAppearance when the whole list should look consistent; use per-item colors (see Items) only for exceptions such as a highlighted or disabled row.

Item appearance

ItemsAppearance controls the default visual style for all items across their normal, selected, and disabled states:

Property Description
Fill Background fill in the normal state
Stroke Border in the normal state
SelectedFill Background fill when an item is selected
SelectedStroke Border when an item is selected
DisabledFill Background fill for disabled items
DisabledStroke Border for disabled items
Font Default item text font
HeightMode lihmFixed for uniform height; lihmVariable for per-item height
FixedHeight Item height when HeightMode is lihmFixed
ShowFocus Draw a focus rectangle around the focused item

Height modes

Value Description
lihmFixed All items use FixedHeight (default)
lihmVariable Each item sizes to its own Height / content

Use lihmFixed for dense, uniform lists; switch to lihmVariable when items wrap to multiple lines or carry differently-sized icons.

Header appearance

The Header bar sits above the list and shows a title, an optional sort indicator, and configurable text:

Property Description
Visible Show or hide the header
Text Header label (supports HTML)
Fill / Stroke Header background and border
Font Header text font
Size Header height in pixels
HorizontalTextAlign / VerticalTextAlign Header text alignment
WordWrapping / Trimming Header text overflow handling
SortIndicatorColor Color of the sort-direction triangle

Combining item appearance, height, and header

The setup below builds a compact, fixed-height list with a styled header, custom selection colors, and a focus rectangle — all inside one batched update:

procedure TForm1.StyleListBox;
begin
  ListBox1.BeginUpdate;
  try
    // Header
    ListBox1.Header.Visible := True;
    ListBox1.Header.Text := 'Connections';
    ListBox1.Header.Fill.Color := gcSteelblue;
    ListBox1.Header.Font.Color := gcWhite;
    ListBox1.Header.Size := 32;
    ListBox1.Header.HorizontalTextAlign := gtaLeading;
    ListBox1.Header.SortIndicatorColor := gcWhite;

    // Fixed-height rows
    ListBox1.ItemsAppearance.HeightMode := lihmFixed;
    ListBox1.ItemsAppearance.FixedHeight := 32;
    ListBox1.ItemsAppearance.ShowFocus := True;

    // Normal and selected state
    ListBox1.ItemsAppearance.Fill.Color := gcWhite;
    ListBox1.ItemsAppearance.Stroke.Color := gcGainsboro;
    ListBox1.ItemsAppearance.SelectedFill.Color := gcSteelblue;
    ListBox1.ItemsAppearance.SelectedStroke.Color := gcSteelblue;
    ListBox1.ItemsAppearance.Font.Size := 13;
  finally
    ListBox1.EndUpdate;
  end;
end;
A styled list box with a colored header, fixed-height rows, and a selected item A styled list box with a colored header, fixed-height rows, and a selected item

Control background and scrollbar

The control itself exposes Fill and Stroke for the list background and border, and VerticalScrollBarVisible toggles the scrollbar. GlobalFont applies one font across the whole control when you want a single typographic setting instead of separate item and header fonts.

{ Inside a method of your form: }
ListBox1.Fill.Color := gcWhitesmoke;
ListBox1.Stroke.Color := gcGainsboro;
ListBox1.VerticalScrollBarVisible := True;

Pitfalls

  • Setting FixedHeight has no visible effect while HeightMode is lihmVariable — set HeightMode := lihmFixed first.
  • A per-item TextColor overrides ItemsAppearance.Font color for that row; clear per-item colors if you want the shared appearance to win.
  • Apply multiple appearance changes inside BeginUpdate/EndUpdate to avoid intermediate repaints and flicker.
  • TTMSFNCListBox — ItemsAppearance, Header, Fill, Stroke, VerticalScrollBarVisible, GlobalFont

See also

  • Items — per-item color and layout overrides
  • Interaction — selection behavior that uses the selected-state colors
  • Custom drawing — go beyond appearance properties with owner drawing