VB2005 Transparent Label in Menu area

Question

I've read many articles on how to create transparent labels but it seems to me that my particular case is not covered. Very simply I have a label placed in the upper right part of the form, which in fact is part of the menu strip. The label displays some info to the user but I wish it were transparent. Ive tried various methods including

        lblAct.Parent = mnuMain '(or Me)
        lblAct.BackColor = Color.Transparent
        lblAct.BringToFront()

but cant get it to work. Anyone have suggestions on how I can make that lable in that position transparent?

Thanks

AGP

Answer 1

Yes, you can't make this work. It's a Windows restriction, transparency effects are relative to the top-level window, stacking effects do not work. You'll see the form as the background, not the menu strip. Hacking a label that asks the menustrip to render itself to create the background is technically possible. But Windows won't generate a paint message when the strip repaints itself. Which will be starkly visible when the user resizes the form for example.