+There is also a corresponding \helpref{wxBITMAP}{wxbitmapmacro} macro which allows
+to create the bitmaps in much the same way as \helpref{wxICON}{wxiconmacro} creates
+icons. It assumes that bitmaps live in resources under Windows or OS2 and XPM
+files under all other platforms (for XPMs, the corresponding file must be
+included before this macro is used, of course, and the name of the bitmap
+should be the same as the resource name under Windows with {\tt \_xpm}
+suffix). For example:
+
+\begin{verbatim}
+// an easy and portable way to create a bitmap
+wxBitmap bmp(wxBITMAP(bmpname));
+
+// which is roughly equivalent to the following
+#if defined(__WXMSW__) || defined(__WXPM__)
+ wxBitmap bmp("bmpname", wxBITMAP_TYPE_RESOURCE);
+#else // Unix
+ wxBitmap bmp(bmpname_xpm, wxBITMAP_TYPE_XPM);
+#endif
+\end{verbatim}
+
+You should always use wxICON and wxBITMAP macros because they work for any
+platform (unlike the code above which doesn't deal with wxMac, wxBe, ...) and
+are more short and clear than versions with {\tt \#ifdef}s.
+
+\subsection{Supported bitmap file formats}\label{supportedbitmapformats}
+
+The following lists the formats handled on different platforms. Note
+that missing or partially-implemented formats are automatically supplemented
+by the \helpref{wxImage}{wximage} to load the data, and then converting
+it to wxBitmap form. Note that using wxImage is the preferred way to
+load images in wxWindows, with the exception of resources (XPM-files or
+native Windows resources). Writing an image format handler for wxImage
+is also far easier than writing one for wxBitmap, because wxImage has
+exactly one format on all platforms wheras wxBitmap can store pixel data
+very differently, depending on colour depths and platform.
+
+\wxheading{wxBitmap}
+
+Under Windows, wxBitmap may load the following formats:
+
+\begin{itemize}\itemsep=0pt
+\item Windows bitmap resource (wxBITMAP\_TYPE\_BMP\_RESOURCE)
+\item Windows bitmap file (wxBITMAP\_TYPE\_BMP)
+\item XPM data and file (wxBITMAP\_TYPE\_XPM)
+\item All formats that are supported by the \helpref{wxImage}{wximage} class.
+\end{itemize}