So I wrote a small class, CMenuSpawn, which takes care with some help from FrameWnd of menu remapping and drawing.

What has been updated, changed, added since the last version:
06.22.1998:

• fixed something in documentation

• fixed again standard menu font different from control panel settings
• add support for having the main menu (on title bar) highlighted with 3d boxes instead of standard highlight color (this has been implemented in both MDI and SDI code, but tested only under MDI .. hope it will work with SDI too)

• fix a bug that crashed when trying a not-existing shortcut under NT (thanks, Craig!)
• enhanced drawing of disabled bitmap (thanks to Michael Santoro)
• fixed standard menu font different from control panel settings

• fix some memory/resource leaks reported from BoundsChecker but not from Msdev (I'm not an owner of BoundsChecker - thanks to H.Tome, C. Schmidt, and all the others who report them)
• added support for shortcut for menu items and popups
• added support for a user font for the menu
• added support for user defined color of menu items
• added support for using bitmap as menu background
• (hope to have) fixed the bug who sometimes make the text (especially of popups) disappear and/or enlarge VERY much the popup - however, yet to understand why it did so :)
• added a contructor with a boolean value to be used when creating popup menu (look at demo, in the view right mouse click)
• added some base classes for CFrameWnd, CMDIFrameWnd and CMDIChildFrameWnd to make it easier the work; you can now simply rederive your CMainFrame from CSpawnFrameWnd or CSpawnMDIFrameWnd and eventually your CChildFrame from CSpawnMDIChildWnd to get the WM_MEASUREITEM, WM_DRAWITEM, WM_INITMENU, WM_INITMENUPOPUP handled

Now I will explain how to use it in a MDI application:

Step 1: including files

Step 2: handling frame messages

If you are making an SDI application instead of an MDI, derive the CFrameWnd from CSpawnFrameWnd and include the SpawnFrameWnd.cpp/.h files.

Step 3: initializing the CSpawnClass

• add a CMenuSpawn cSpawn instance in the include file; note that if you use a CSpawnFramexxx class as base class for mainframe, you already get an instance of CMenuSpawn named cSpawn.
• initialize the CMenuSpawn class in the CMainFrame constructor (cSpawn.LoadToolBarResource(IDR_MAINFRAME)) this will load the toolbar resource into the class; you can alse use the AddToolBarResource function to add more than toolbar resource to the class. In the demo app, I add a toolbar for the system menu

CMainFrame::CMainFrame()
{
	cSpawn.LoadToolBarResource(IDR_MAINFRAME);
}

Step 4: Note to Stingray Software's Objective Toolkit Pro users

LRESULT CMainFrame::WindowProc(UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
	if (message != WM_MEASUREITEM) return SECFrameWnd::WindowProc(message, wParam, lParam);
	else return CFrameWnd::WindowProc( message, wParam, lParam );
}

Note for misterious bug in the system menu (usually in SDI application)

Note for new 3d highlight of main menu items on menubar

void OnEnterMenuLoop(BOOL bIsTrackPopupMenu);
void OnExitMenuLoop(BOOL bIsTrackPopupMenu);
UINT OnNcHitTest(CPoint point);
void OnTimer(UINT nIDEvent);
int OnCreate(LPCREATESTRUCT lpCreateStruct);
void OnDestroy();

And that's all to have basic coolmenu support.
Looking at the demo application, which implements an MDI Edit application, you will find a way to implement popup coolmenu.

Here follows a small description of the most useful function of the CSpawnMenu class:

bool MeasureItem(..)
To be called from the CWnd OnMeasureItem(..); call the base class if it return false

bool DrawItem(..)
To be called from the CWnd OnDrawItem(..); call the base class if it return false

bool LoadToolBarResource(unsigned int resId)
Load a toolbar resource in the class; an array of command id will be created and mapped to index of an imagelist

bool AddToolBarResource(unsigned int resId)
Add a toolbar resource to the class; works as the LoadToolBarResource

void RemapMenu(CMenu * pMenu)
Makes all the items of the menu OwnerDraw, (eventually) maps them with the appropiate images index based on the item command id; has to be called from the WM_INITMENU and WM_INITPOPUPMENU and before the TrackPopupMenu function

void EnableMenuItems(CMenu * pMenu, CWnd * pWnd)
Use the MFC command enabler mechanism to enable/disable menu items; need the pointer of the menu and the pointer of the CWnd of which the command enablers are to be used; it is designed to be used with popups menu from the right button click in Views (see the CEditView in sample apps for an example)

bool SetFont(LOGFONT * lf)
If someone, for evil pourpose, want to use a different font to draw the menu items, it is possible to call this function (before the menu are displayed, for example in the CMainFrame contructor after the LoadToolBarResource()). Look at the demo, there is commented code.

bool FindKeyboardShortcut(UINT nChar, UINT nFlags, CMenu * pMenu, LRESULT & lRes)
This is needed to handle the shortcuts when the menu is displayed (the &Letter shortcurs); you need to call it in response to WM_MENUCHAR messages of CMainFrame, CChildFrame if MDI app, and CView if using Spawn popups; the usage is a bit complex, look at demo and copy/paste the code.

void SetTextColor(const COLORREF crNormal, const COLORREF crSelected)
You can use this to specify different colors from default for the normal and selected menu items

void SetBackBitmap(const int iRes)
void SetBackBitmap(const int iRes, COLORREF crBackColor)
Now you can use bitmaps as background for menu using one of this 2 function. The first simply set a bitmap, the second change the color you specify to the menu background obtaining a simple transparency. Pay attention to the bitmap you use, which can make the menu text unreadable; you may need to use SetFont to set a bold font to read the text and the SetTextColor to use brighter color if you use strange bitmaps. In the demo, bitmap are enabled in the app menu, and disabled in the popup of the view. To see how to disable it, comment the SetBackBitmap in the CMainFrame constructor of the demo.

bool GetMenuItemText(CString &csText, CMenu * pMenu, const int cmd, bool bByPos)
Use this function to retrieve the text of a menu item; csText will contain the text, cmd is the menu identifier or position, bByPos is true if cmd is the position of menu identifier or false if it is an identifier. If the funtion returns true, csText contain valid text.

bool IsSpawnMenu(CMenu * pMenu, const int iItem, const bool bByPos)
This function is used internally; however, you can use it to see if a menu item as been handled by SpawnMenu or not (not usually means bitmap menu item, like icons of mdi child and maximize/minimize/close buttons of mdi child, which are handled by Evil Windows as menus, and not as buttons as everybody could imagine).

Very thanks to Craig Schmidt for support!

Feel free to use and modify this class with all your software - I will only be glad to know for which apps it will be used and of any improvement you will do to it!