# Accessing and Customizing Elements

Accessing and customizing elements can be performed either at design time, or at run time. Before proceeding with this topic, it is recommended to get familiar with the [visual structure](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/controls/buttons/button/structure) of the **RadGroupBox**.

## Design time

You can access and modify the style for different elements in **RadGroupBox** by using the Element hierarchy editor. It can be accessed by selecting the *Edit UI Elements* item from the Smart Tag.

> caption Figure 1: Element Hierarchy Editor

![WinForms RadGroupBox Element Hierarchy Editor](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/assets/2d05893d0a2cf3167bd2ad9901e47c00/groupbox-customizing-appearance-accessing-and-customizing-elements001.png)

## Programmatically

You can customize the nested elements at run time as well:

> caption Figure 2: Customize elements

![WinForms RadGroupBox Customize elements](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/assets/453f4ff122ae6787344f68afd157ebf2/groupbox-customizing-appearance-accessing-and-customizing-elements002.png)

The code sample below access the **FillPrimitive** of the header, changes the first two gradient stop colors to red and yellow, and then the gradient style to linear. *GroupBoxElement* property of the control returns the **RadGroupBoxElement**, then the code access the *GroupBoxHeader* - Children\[1] - finally the code access the **FillPrimitive** - Children\[0] - which is cast to **FillPrimitive** so that you can use its properties like **GradientStyle**.

#### Change the GroupBox Header Color

```C#
FillPrimitive fill = ((FillPrimitive)this.radGroupBox1.GroupBoxElement.Children[1].Children[0]);
fill.ShouldPaint = true;
fill.BackColor = Color.Red;
fill.BackColor2 = Color.Yellow;
fill.GradientStyle = Telerik.WinControls.GradientStyles.Linear;
```

```VB.NET
Dim fill As FillPrimitive = DirectCast(Me.RadGroupBox1.GroupBoxElement.Children(1).Children(0), FillPrimitive)
fill.ShouldPaint = True
fill.BackColor = Color.Red
fill.BackColor2 = Color.Yellow
fill.GradientStyle = Telerik.WinControls.GradientStyles.Linear
```

> note The code samples below are just a demonstration of how you can set node properties programmatically. You will probably prefer to use the Visual Style Builder to create your themes using no code.

## See Also

* [Structure](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/controls/panels-and-labels/groupbox/structure)
* [Themes](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/controls/panels-and-labels/groupbox/customizing-appearance/accessing-and-customizing-elements)