You can specify a Gtk::TreeModel when constructing the Gtk::TreeView, or you can use the set_model() method, like so:

m_TreeView.set_model(m_refListStore);

You can use the append_column() method to tell the View that it should display certain Model columns, in a certain order, with a certain column title.

  m_TreeView.append_column("Messages", m_Columns.m_col_text);

When using this simple append_column() override, the TreeView will display the model data with an appropriate CellRenderer. For instance, strings and numbers are shown in a simple Gtk::Entry widget, and booleans are shown in a Gtk::CheckButton. This is usually what you need.

To render more than one model column in a view column, you need to create the TreeView::Column widget manually, and use pack_start() to add the model columns to it.

Then use append_column() to add the view Column to the View. Notice that Gtk::View::append_column() is overridden to accept either a prebuilt Gtk::View::Column widget, or just the TreeModelColumn from which it generates an appropriate Gtk::View::Column widget.

Here is some example code from demos/gtk-demo/example_stockbrowser.cc, which has a pixbuf icon and a text name in the same column:

Gtk::TreeView::Column* pColumn = Gtk::manage( new Gtk::TreeView::Column("Symbol") ); 

// m_columns.icon and m_columns.symbol are columns in the model.
// pColumn is the column in the TreeView:
pColumn->pack_start(m_columns.icon, false); //false = don't expand.
pColumn->pack_start(m_columns.symbol);

m_TreeView.append_column(*pColumn);

The default CellRenderers and their default behaviour will normally suffice, but you might occasionally need finer control. For instance, this example code from demos/gtk-demo/example_treestore.cc, manually constructs a Gtk::CellRenderer widget and instructs it to render the data from various model columns through various aspects of it's appearance.

Gtk::CellRendererToggle* pRenderer = Gtk::manage( new Gtk::CellRendererToggle() );
int cols_count = m_TreeView.append_column("Alex", *pRenderer);
Gtk::TreeViewColumn* pColumn = m_TreeView.get_column(cols_count-1);
if(pColumn)
{
  pColumn->add_attribute(pRenderer->property_active(), m_columns.alex);
  pColumn->add_attribute(pRenderer->property_visible(), m_columns.visible);
  pColumn->add_attribute(pRenderer->property_activatable(), m_columns.world);

You can also connect to CellRenderer signals to detect user actions. For instance:

Gtk::CellRendererToggle* pRenderer = Gtk::manage( new Gtk::CellRendererToggle() );
pRenderer->signal_toggled().connect(
  SigC::bind( SigC::slot(*this, &Example_TreeView_TreeStore::on_cell_toggled), m_columns.dave)
);