HOw to open a POP UP form to a specified size

[darbid]

On start up I disable all toolbars and commandbars.

Thus my "base forms" open (Maximised) with a simple border and nothing else (other than the minimise, restore and close buttons in the top right corner). (everything else is disabled)

I have a "new form" which opens on top of these "base forms". This form is a POP UP and I do NOT want it to have borders.

I would like this "new form" to open up to exactly the same size as the "base form". Meaning that the users sees the "new form" except that the border is from the form underneath.

I can force this to happen by setting/dragging the new form (in design view) to a certain size which is perfect for my screen resolution. But if the screen resoltuion changes then my "base form" maximises to the full screen, but my new form does not change size.

So my question is how can I dynamically resize this pop up.

I realise that I am probably going to have to use API calls and get the "base form" size but can someone point me at least in the right direction.

 

[Vonnie]

This is something I have found very irritating. I use a workaround, but maybe someone else has a simpler solution? When you load a form as dialog, it won't recogonize the movesize coding.

Well, this is one way... in the form properties, set the autocenter property to NO
Then put this code in the Load Event of both forms, making sure the autocenter property is at No
DoCmd.MoveSize 2400, 50, 15000, 13000' right, down, width, height measured in Twips (1440 twips to a inch).
Then load the popup form using a timer an a static variable, setting the timer interval to be really short, like 20 in the properties of your main form

Private Sub Form_Timer()
Static blnLoadForm As Boolean
If blnLoadForm = False Then DoCmd.OpenForm "frmPopUp", acNormal
blnLoadForm = True


End Sub

 

[darbid]

My Solution at least

Thanks Vonnie you got me looking for the right things.

My Popup is actually a useless piece of eyecandy that is Black but 20% transparent. It actually gives the effect of what you see in Vista when it darkens your whole screen and gives you a warning - eg for UAC stuff.

In any case in my openargs for this form opening i give the name of the form whose size it must measure. This form must be open of course.

I then use one of the windows properties (native to access and not an api call) to get the sizes of the form/window - you can see an example/moreinfo of this here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa663056(office.11).aspx


Then I use these sizes to make my opeing form the same size by using the MOVE method - more info here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa221370(office.11).aspx

This means that no matter what screen resolution the user has and no matter what size they currently have their "base" form at, this popup with no border will fit snuggly ontop. (at least that what I have seen so far)

Here is an example where I was then playing with the width and hieght. This is in the Load event of my popup.

Dim intwindowheight As Integer
Dim intwindowwidth As Integer

intwindowheight = Forms(Me.OpenArgs).WindowHeight
intwindowwidth = Forms(Me.OpenArgs).WindowWidth

intwindowheight = intwindowheight + 50
intwindowwidth = intwindowwidth + 50
    
Me.Move Left:=Forms(Me.OpenArgs).WindowLeft, Top:=Forms(Me.OpenArgs).WindowTop, Width:=intwindowwidth, Height:=intwindowheight

edit: added a picture to show you the eye candy at work

 

[Vonnie]

Very nice solution, thanks

 

[smig]

@darbid - how do you create the semi transparent form?

 

[darbid]

Hey smig,

The forum has a nice hello banner telling me I have not answered something in the forum for a long time. So I thought I will have to get back to it.

Public Const CS_DROPSHADOW = &H20000
Public Const GCL_STYLE = (-26)
Const SWP_SHOWWINDOW = &H40
Const LWA_COLORKEY = 1
Const LWA_ALPHA = 2
Const LWA_BOTH = 3
Const WS_EX_LAYERED = &H80000
Const GWL_EXSTYLE = -20

Const SW_SHOW = 5


Private Declare Function GetWindowLong Lib "User32" Alias "GetWindowLongA" ( _
                        ByVal hwnd As Long, _
                        ByVal nIndex As Long) _
                        As Long

Private Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "User32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" ( _
                        ByVal hwnd As Long, _
                        ByVal nIndex As Long, _
                        ByVal dwNewLong As Long) _
                        As Long

Private Declare Function SetLayeredWindowAttributes Lib "User32" ( _
                        ByVal hwnd As Long, _
                        ByVal color As Long, _
                        ByVal bAlpha As Byte, _
                        ByVal alpha As Long) _
                        As Boolean
Public Declare Function SetClassLong Lib "User32" Alias "SetClassLongA" ( _
        ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long, ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long

Public Sub SetFormOpacity(frm As Form, sngOpacity As Integer)

Dim lngStyle As Long

' get the current window style, then set transparency
lngStyle = GetWindowLong(frm.hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE)
SetWindowLong frm.hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, lngStyle Or WS_EX_LAYERED

SetLayeredWindowAttributes frm.hwnd, 0, (sngOpacity), LWA_ALPHA

SetClassLong frm.hwnd, GCL_STYLE, GetClassLong(frm.hwnd, GCL_STYLE) Or CS_DROPSHADOW

End Sub

SetFormOpacity Me, 155

I hope I have got all the declarations and consts as I had to cut it out.

 

[smig]

Thanks,
I tried similar code, but some users reported it can cause a crash.
I thought you found a secret option in Access

 

[darbid]

I have had this code running for multiple users for over 2 years on Office 2003 and Win XP.

It has not caused a crash.

Write back here if you can make it crash and I will try to help.

 

[joegcook]

Hi darbid,

This is an older thread, but I thought I'd contribute to help others who may stumble across your code to set form opacity. I found that one public declare function was missing. I added:

Public Declare Function GetClassLong Lib "User32" Alias "GetClassLongA" ( _
ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long

And your code worked beautifully! I ended up just applying it directly to the form that ends up in the background. I was really excited to find this.

Thank you!

-joe