Why does my ColumnHeadersDefaultCellStyle keep being reset in Visual Studio designer?

Question

I am trying to make the column headers of my DataGridView bold, in Visual Studio 2008.

Every time I change my ColumnHeadersDefaultCellStyle to Calibri 9.75pt bold, using the properties box, the next time I reopen the saved form, the ColumnHeadersDefaultCellStyle has reverted to Calibri 9.75 without bold.

My form's font is Calibri 9.75 without bold, as is my default cell style, but I should be able to override the default cell style with my ColumnHeader style right?

I can solve this problem programmatically by setting the style when the form is shown, but we would like to have the Visual Studio designer show the bolded headers, so we can layout the columns appropriately for the space taken up by bold header text.

In addition, the actual designer file specifies that the ColumnHeadersDefaultCellStyle is bold, even though the designer interface says it is not bold.

dataGridViewCellStyle1.Font = new System.Drawing.Font("Calibri", 9.75F,  
    System.Drawing.FontStyle.Bold, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, ((byte)(0)));
dataGridViewCellStyle1.ForeColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.WindowText;
dataGridViewCellStyle1.SelectionBackColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Highlight;
dataGridViewCellStyle1.SelectionForeColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.HighlightText;
dataGridViewCellStyle1.WrapMode = System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewTriState.True;

this.receiptDetailView.ColumnHeadersDefaultCellStyle = dataGridViewCellStyle1;

Answer 1

Have you tried check EnableHeadersVisualStyles value?

According to MSDN:

If visual styles are enabled and EnableHeadersVisualStyles is set to true, all header cells except the TopLeftHeaderCell are painted using the current theme and the ColumnHeadersDefaultCellStyle values are ignored.

Answer 2

It is a bug, although Microsoft would probably try to call it a feature. The DataGridView header cells are supposed to inherit the current theme only if EnableHeadersVisualStyles is set to TRUE, and use the settings in ColumnHeaderDefaultCellStyles if it is false. But the DGV ignores EnableHeadersVisualStyles and always inherits the font of the parent container it resides in.

Both rutlean's and Nico Engler suggestions will work. Here is what I always do as a standard practice: Put your DGV in a panel (depending on your application, you might want to set the Dock property to fill. Then set the Panel's font to your desired settings. Your DGV will now always inherit that setting.

Answer 3

I found a workaround where just editing the XXXX.Designer.cs with following code does the trick.

this.receiptDetailView.ColumnHeadersDefaultCellStyle = dataGridViewCellStyle1;
this.receiptDetailView.ColumnHeadersDefaultCellStyle.Font = new System.Drawing.Font("Calibri", 9.75F, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Bold);