Intercepting menu mouseover / havefocus events

[paulc]

Hi,

I would like add some code to a VB6 project that changes the status bar message when the mouse is moved over a menu (or sub-menu) item.

This is so that when the user moves the mouse over a menu item, a description of the function of the menu item can be displayed in the status bar.

I have looked at API functions as a way of doing this but it seems as though there are no appropriate events defined within the VB development area that can be used. Has anyone got any idea how to do this??????

Paul

[Clearcode]

You will have to subclass the form,
intercepting the WM_NCMOUSEMOVE event,
and if it's wParam is HTMENU then get the x position and the y position thus:


'snip from windowproc....
'\\ Mouse move
ElseIf wMsg = WM_NCMOUSEMOVE then
If wParam = HTMENU then
x = LoWord(lParam)
y = HiWord(lParam)
End If
'snip

'\\ --[LoWord]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
'\\ Returns the low word component of a long value
'\\ Parameters:
'\\ dw - The long of which we need the LoWord
'\\
'\\ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'\\ You have a royalty free right to use, reproduce, modify, publish and mess with this code
'\\ I'd like you to visit http://www.merrioncomputing.com for updates, but won't force you
'\\ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
public Function LoWord(dw as Long) as Integer
If dw And &H8000& then
LoWord = &H8000 Or (dw And &H7FFF&)
else
LoWord = dw And &HFFFF&
End If
End Function

'\\ --[HiWord]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
'\\ Returns the high word component of a long value
'\\ Parameters:
'\\ dw - The long of which we need the HiWord
'\\
'\\ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'\\ You have a royalty free right to use, reproduce, modify, publish and mess with this code
'\\ I'd like you to visit http://www.merrioncomputing.com for updates, but won't force you
'\\ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
public Function HiWord(dw as Long) as Integer
If dw And &H80000000 then
HiWord = (dw \ 65535) - 1
else
HiWord = dw \ 65535
End If
End Function




And use the MenuItemFromPoint API to decide which menu the mouse moved over.

Hope this helps,
Duncan

-------------------------------------------------
Ex. Datis: Duncan Jones
Merrion Computing Ltd
http://www.merrioncomputing.com

[paulc]

Thanks for posting that :)

But the problem really is in which event do I place the code?? VB submenu items only have a click event associated with them and I want the code to fire when the mouse is moved over a submenu item for which there is no event.

Do you see my problem??

Paul

[Clearcode]

I do indeed see the problem.

When VB was designed, they chose a set of Events from the much larger set of Windows Messages available as strndard and wrote these up as Visual basic events.

However, they left an awful lot of them out.

Fortunately, after version 5 they gave us the wherewithall to overcome this limitation - which is something I am working on at the moment. My current project is to write an event handler to implement all these missing events - it should be ready for Beta by the middle of next month.

If you want a head start, there are articles on Subclassing off my home site http://www.merrioncomputing.com and if you wish to drop me an email from there I will send you the source as it stands. (I am reluctant to put my email address on this site as it may get picked up by a spammer).

HTH,
Duncan

-------------------------------------------------
Ex. Datis: Duncan Jones
Merrion Computing Ltd
http://www.merrioncomputing.com