I am trying to create a full-screen control panel window with many controls: buttons, sliders, list boxes, etc.
I can create a dialog window and add controls to it, but everything is scaled in dialog units. I just want to create a window in the GUI editor that is scaled in pixels, not derived units like dialog units.
I can sort of lay out all the controls in the GUI editor and then resize the window programmatically to full-screen using SetWindowPos, but the dialog window in the GUI editor will not look the same as the final product. I want it to be WYSIWIG in the GUI editor.
This is the front end for a small dedicated instrument control computer running XP. The SDK is written in MFC. I have to add and change controls frequently. The screen is small, 7" # 800 x 600, so of course I am developing the program on a different computer. I don't want the program window to change when I change monitors -- I want it fixed at 800 x 600, and I want the controls to be fixed in size and layout as well.
There must be a way -- this is more basic than the default functionality.
Thanks.
Dialog Units are based on properties of the font used by the dialog. A horizontal dialog unit is equal to 1/4th the average width of the current font.
A vertical dialog unit is equal to 1/8th the average character height of the current font.
I'd recommend using method 2 (MapDialogRect() for a 4 x 8 dialog) to figure out how many DLUs 800x600 corresponds to on your output display then make a reference form equal to that size. You can later use that reference form while you're designing.
p.s.-I'm glad Visual Studio no longer emphasizes dialog units since they were always a pain to deal with.
Thanks. I was able to make a reference form by just resizing the form manually in the GUI editor over and over again until it exactly filled the screen... No kidding that dialog units are a pain. From your response, I guess in the current Visual Studio there is a better way to do this? (This is my first experience with Windows programming).
Related
For a small demonstration application, I want the option to delete file (from the files explorer on windows) by simple dragging it all the way to left/right side of the screen (the all desktop, not the application)
Is there a way to do it?
Thanks.
For demonstration purposes you could create a borderless always on top window that fills the entire screen and cut out a hole in the middle of it with a window region so you are left with just a 1 or 2 pixel wide strip on each side and set the opacity to 1 so it is basically invisible. You could then handle drops on the window.
On Windows 8 you might run into issues because it already uses the edges.
I don't believe this feature is useful enough to actually implement as a real product though.
I'm writing a small application in Windows using win32(vc++) and I want to create a different view based on the position of the taskbar. How can I check the position of taskbar in code like any api?
You can use the SHAppBarMessage() function with the ABM_GETTASKBARPOS message.
The taskbar may be displayed on multiple displays so in general it's not possible to retrieve a single rect that defines it's position. It may occupy discontiguous space.
Use EnumDisplayMonitors to enumerate the attached displays. Then for each display use GetMonitorInfo to obtain bounding and work area rectangles for the display. If there's a difference, then that difference is (usually) due to the taskbar. Remember that the taskbar can appear on multiple displays.
I say usually because you might have applications with app bars that reduce the working area. But I'm guessing that what you really want to do is display your program so that it does not overlap with the taskbar, and if you want to avoid overlapping the taskbar then you'll likely want to avoid overlapping app bars too.
first off, I'm very new to using API's so please bear with me I'm on a steep learning curve !
I'm creating an application using Silverfrost Fortran FTN95.
I've been trying to initiate the opening of an initial Window within the program which uses the whole screen
useable area (the so-called WORKAREA in API parlance) but am having a problem.
Having used GET_WINDOW_LOCATION# API function within my Fortran code to obtain the dimensions and origin of the max possible area for
the window (without taskbar), I've then defined the 'origin' of the window to be at -n,-n where the border is n pixels thick and I've
increased the window dimensions by (2xn) in each direction so that the other 2 borders will be off-screen at top or under the taskbar at the bottom edge).
Anyway, I'm having difficulty obtaining exactly the same as produced via clicking the 'MAXimise button' on a window.
While the window produced itself seems to occupy the whole area available, when it appears the CAption appears right on the upper edge of the
CAption ba(i.e. not centre justified vertically).
Also, the MINimise, MAXimise and CLOSE buttons in top rh corner of window do not fill the whole depth of the CAption bar (they're about half the depth and indeed appear to be cut-off).
If I subsequently click the window 'MAXimise button' after initial window creation then the CAption and buttons re-align themselves correctly.
This is all illustrated in this image here:-
http://s1164.photobucket.com/user/john_pbucket/media/SilverfrostForumsImageFiles/MAXWIN-Summary_zpscajfx3vx.png.html
Note - I first created the full window with borders within the available screen area (this is the first example shown) where the window Border (8pix wide) is visible
The subsequent attempt to create the window as per the MAXimise button places the window at origin (-8,-8) and I increase the window dimensions by 16 (2xborder width) in each direction in order to get the borders off-screen, but thy're still there.
So, What series of Windows API commands should I be using exactly to get the window to open in a correctly maximised state, and are there any 'subtleties' of alignment and/or spacings I should be aware of which may be causing this problem?
I guess the question boils down to 'what sequence of API commands does the window MAXIMISE button execute ?' but I can't find an answer anywhere.
Maybe there are also some subtleties I need to know about with regard to any windows dimensions parameters which could be creating the anomaly ?
Any help/guidance would be appreciated. Thanks
My application is a Windows Forms one.
I tried using the windows wallpaper, but this depends on the "Fill", "Stretch", "Fit" or "Tile" settings.
I just need the image as it is on the desktop, but including the part "under" the taskbar, because this part is visible in case of transparent taskbar.
Why I need this?
Because I have a tray application which slides from under the taskbar when opening. And I need to set a mask there, so it can't be seen sliding, until it reaches the top of the taskbar. Again, this is only a problem when the taskbar is transparent.
I am not sure if I understood your question correctly. But to me, it seems that you need the image that has created wallpaper. If it seems easier, take a look at registry entries at following location:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
This will give you the path, size, tile/no tile etc. information for the wallpaper.
There is a Win32 function called PaintDesktop you could try but unless I'm misunderstanding things you should be able to just adjust the height of your window so it is never really behind the taskbar...
Why I need this? Because I have a tray application which slides from under the taskbar when opening. And I need to set a mask there, so it can't be seen sliding, until it reaches the top of the taskbar. Again, this is only a problem when the taskbar is transparent.
The problem here is that you're starting the slide up from the bottom of the entire screen, rather than starting from the bottom of the screen's working area (i.e., the top of the taskbar). That's why you're seeing the pop-up window slide up behind a transparent taskbar.
Luckily, the solution is much simpler than obtaining the desktop background and/or doing any type of masking. It's also much faster, and it's always good that your eye candy isn't unnecessarily taxing the user's computer.
All you need to do is determine the coordinates of the screen's working area, which is defined by Windows as the area that can be used by applications, not including the taskbar and other side bars. You can obtain this information easily in WinForms by querying the Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea property. This will return a Rectangle that corresponds to the primary screen's working area. Since you know that the taskbar is always displayed on the primary screen, this is exactly what you want.
Once you have the coordinates of the primary screen's working area, start your pop-up window's slide from the bottom of that.*
This is a good lesson of why you should always include an explanation of why you want to accomplish something. There's often an even better way that you haven't thought of.
*Of course, I'm ignoring the fact that a user might not have their taskbar positioned at the bottom of the screen. You can put it on either side or even on top. It sounds to me like you haven't considered this in your question, either. If this is an app that you're writing only for yourself or for a controlled environment where you can be sure that no one has their taskbar in non-default positions, that might be OK. But if you're writing software to distribute to a wider audience, you will need to take this into account. The rcWork coordinates will be correct, regardless of where the taskbar is positioned, of course, but you will need to know whether to start the pop-up window's slide from the bottom, the left side, the right side, or the top.
I've got a dialog box where I need to display the standard Information icon. Here's my RC code:
ICON "",IDC_ICON_INFORMATION,18,70,21,20
I process the WM_INITDIALOG message as follows:
HICON aIcn = LoadIcon(NULL, IDI_INFORMATION);
SendDlgItemMessage(m_hWnd, IDC_ICON_INFORMATION, STM_SETICON, (WPARAM) aIcn, 0);
Everything works great under 96 DPI: the static control displays a 32x32-pixel icon.
However, when I switch to higher DPI's (through right-clicking on the Desktop, choosing Screen resolution, and clicking Make or other items larger or smaller) the icon does not scale! Since everything else scales nicely, the icon looks visually much smaller than the neighboring text. I would expect that on 144 DPI (150%) the icon dimensions will be 48x48 pixels. I did declare my application as DPI-aware through an XML manifest.
The damnedest thing is that when I use my own custom-made icon (also coming from the RC file), everything scales perfectly. Furthermore, the MessageBox function called with the MB_ICONINFORMATION flag does display a scaled version of the icon, as well.
Given these thoughts, I assume of the following:
The static control with the SS_ICON style can display scaled versions of icons.
The icon resource that contains the standard Information icon has a scaled version of the icon (48x48).
What am I doing wrong then?
Use LoadImage() instead of LoadIcon(), and specify the cxDesired and cyDesired params with the values you get from GetSystemMetrics(SM_CYICON) and GetSystemMetrics(SM_CXICON).
Or maybe just declaring your app as DPI aware could be enough? You can try that easily by simple creating a text file making it a manifest file.
See the example in the remarks section for the SetProcessDPIAware API