I would like to add a simple text button to my c++ win32 application. I'm creating the button using CreateWindowEx function, but can't figure out the correct style to do so. I would like to display a text only button and be able to recive messages when the user clicks on it. The style i would like to get is identical to the text button in windows 7 system volume control (where it says "Mixer"). If possible i would like to display a tooltip also.
That mixer control looks more like a hyperlink control than a button. I'd go for the SysLink control if that's what you need.
You could create a "Button" class window with the BS_OWNERDRAW style and handle the WM_DRAWITEM messages. In your WM_DRAWITEM message handler you can simply display the text.
Actually that button is an owner draw button - it listens to mouse move messages and when you hover over it, it underlines the text (the syslink control doesn't have this behavior). Otherwise it's a stock button.
Related
How to create a button or something with title looking like a link, on Windows applications's windows, dialog boxes, etc? It should receive keyboard focus, and when mouse pointer is over it, its text should be underlined.
I am using C++ Builder. This can be done using TLabel or TStaticText. But the problem is that, it does not receive keyboard focus. I would like it to receive keyboard focus and be tab-stopped.
Thanks.
I have a design like below:
So basically, I want to embed three dialogs in the application main dialog and switch between them, for each button click i.e., button 1 will show dialog one , button 2 will hide dialog 1 and show dialog 2 .. and so on.
Each dialog will be having a different design and functions.
I tried using CPropertySheet class to Add pages but its GUI is different. It has either option for navigating the dialogs using next / back button , or from a tab control.
None of which is as per my requirement.
So I want to know is it possible to have a design like this in MFC ? If yes how? Which Class/ control should I use.
Any help will be appreciated.
What you can do is use a normal CDialog class, add your buttons to it and also create a frame/rect as a placeholder for where your embedded dialogs are to appear. The following piece of code will create and position your embedded dialog.
CRect rect;
CWnd *pHost = GetDlgItem(ID_OF_YOUR_FRAME_RECT);
pHost->GetWindowRect(&rect);
ScreenToClient(&rect);
pDialog->Create(ID_OF_YOUR_DIALOG, this);
pDialog->MoveWindow(&rect);
pDialog->ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
On button clicks, you hide the previously shown dialog (SW_HIDE) and show your selected dialog(SW_SHOW) with ShowWindow(...).
If you create your embedded dialogs with IDD_FORMVIEW style in the add resource editor it'll have the proper styles for embedding.
Another option is probably to use an embedded PropertySheet and hide the tab row and programatically change the tabs on the button clicks. I just find it to be too much fuzz with borders, positioning, validation and such for my liking.
If you have the MFC Feature Pack, that first came with VS2008 SP1 and is in all later versions, you might like to consider CMFCPropertySheet. There are a number of examples on the linked page, that are very similar to your design.
For example, this:
What worked for me just using dialog based application is SetParent() method. Dont know why nobody mentioned it. It seems to work fine.
I am doing like below:
VERIFY(pDlg1.Create(PanelDlg::IDD, this));
VERIFY(pDlg2.Create(PanelDlg2::IDD, this));
VERIFY(pDlg3.Create(PanelDlg2::IDD, this));
::SetParent(pDlg1.GetSafeHwnd(), this->m_hWnd);
::SetParent(pDlg2.GetSafeHwnd(), this->m_hWnd);
::SetParent(pDlg3.GetSafeHwnd(), this->m_hWnd);
Now I can show or hide a child dialog at will (button clicks) as below:
pDlg1.ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
pDlg2.ShowWindow(SW_HIDE);
pDlg3.ShowWindow(SW_HIDE);
Using a Windows 7 touch device Windows shows this little touch-keyboard indicator (tabing this will bring up the touch on screen keyboard) when you tab/focus a textbox or kind of input field (Notepad etc.).
I want to write an application that gets notified when exactly that happens, a textbox (etc.) gets focused (no matter which application).
Are applications informed about focusing in other applications, do I need to hook something?
Is there a way in doing so in c++?
I believe the SetWinEventHook function and specifically the EVENT_OBJECT_FOCUS event is what you are looking for.
From the MSDN description:
An object has received the keyboard focus. The system sends this event for the following user interface elements: list-view control, menu bar, pop-up menu, switch window, tab control, tree view control, and window object. Server applications send this event for their accessible objects.
The hwnd parameter of the WinEventProc callback function identifies the window that receives the keyboard focus.
I have a Windows application that registers one CALLBACK procedure that handles WM_HELP messages for the dialog, and one CALLBACK procedure that handles WM_LBUTTONUP messages for a custom button.
Now, when the user clicks the "?" button, then clicks the custom button, the help opens up as expected (on mouse down), BUT if the help window is not occluding the button, a WM_LBUTTONUP message is triggered as well for the custom button (on mouse up). This causes the button to trigger when the user was only asking for help.
Is there any way to stop the WM_LBUTTONUP message from being sent if the button press is for help?
EDIT: The custom button is implemented using a STATIC control. I believe this is because it needs to have an image and no border. So, it does not send BN_CLICKED notifications. In fact, it does not seem to trigger WM_COMMAND in the parent at all.
Thanks
This is normal. Be sure to use the button's BN_CLICKED notification to see the difference. Generated when the user clicks the button, not generated when the user uses the help cursor. The button still sees the normal button up/down messages so that's not a good trigger to detect a click. Extra bonus is that the button can now also be clicked with the keyboard (space bar).
A good class library takes care of these nasty little details.
A better way would be to create ? as a custom control with BS_CHECKBOX | BS_PUSHLIKE style and capture the mouse. After that you will get all the WM_LBUTTONDOWN message to this custom control and then you can use WindowFromPoint to get the window where the WM_LBUTTONDOWN happened and can send a custom notification to the parent window. The parent window can then show a the tooltip or open the help doc or discard it.
The advantage is, you create the control only once and you can use it in multiple places.
Okay, I fixed it by creating the custom button (static control) with the SS_NOTIFY style, then handling the STN_CLICKED notification in the WM_COMMAND message. (SS_NOTIFY causes WM_COMMAND to trigger in the parent when it is clicked.) This does not trigger when using the "?" button. Thanks!
i have a button that is a rectangle how would i put words in it i want to make so ican click the word and it starts the progrma i know ShellExecute the style is BS_GROUPBOX
If you have more than one program you want to start, you need a button per program you want to start.
To start you external progrma, in the button parent window, you need to process the WM_COMMAND message with the BN_CLICKED notification.
To set the text of the button, you need to send WM_SETTEXT message to the button with the text you want shown.
Btw, BS_GROUPBOX is used for creating the rectangle around radio buttons. This style is not going to work for your scenario.
If you want an alternative to using multiple Button controls, you can use a Toolbar. In fact, it seems to me that a toolbar would be a better control for you. You can read more about creating a toolbar.