Other than setting the focus to another control when a control is clicked, is
there a way to not get the focus rectangle to show on a control?
e.g. when an OptionButton is clicked it is depressed and a focus rectangle
is displayed.
I do not want the focus rectangle so I set the focus on another control,
typically a picturebox that holds the OptionButtons.
So, sometimes this forces me to include a pcturebox when I really have no
need for it.
VB6

Try sending BM_SETSTATE to the button.

Personally I prefer the method of seting focus to another control, such as a
PictureBox, but if you would prefer not to do that then one alternative is
to send a KillFocus message:

Option Explicit
Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" _
  Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, _
  ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, _
  lParam As Any) As Long
Private Const WM_KILLFOCUS = &H8

Private Sub Option1_Click()
SendMessage Option1.hwnd, WM_KILLFOCUS, 0&, ByVal 0&
End Sub

You may also want to set Tabstop to False on the complete set of Option
Buttons, or otherwise add code to get rid of the focus rectangle if the user
Tabs to an Option Button.

Mike

The focus rectangle serves an important purpose....to let the user know what
control currently has focus. This is especially important for users that are
navigating by using the keyboard or some means other than the mouse.
Therefore, it's usually not a good idea to "hide" the focus rectangle. If
you're the only one using the app, then I guess that's your prerogative,
But if this app is being used by others, this is not something that I, for
one, would recommend you do.

But to answer your question, no, I don't think there is.  A search at
www.google.com (which you could have done yourself), did not turn any up
anything other than what you're already doing.  I suppose there might very
well be an API function or some other way (subclassing perhaps), but setting
focus to another control was the only answer I managed to find (granted, I
didn't not check ALL hits that were found, only the first few).

Focus Rect is Turned Off by default OS installation. unsless Turned On by
user.

What in the hell are you talking about?

desktop properties > Appearance > Effects > Hide underlined lettter for
keyboard navigation until i press the alt key

If this checkbox is checked, Focus Rect wont draw. and its checked by
default.


Show quoteHide quote

I think you're talking about a different focus rectangle than the OP, who
was actually asking about the "dotted line" focus rectangle that is drawn
around the text portion of various controls on the Form when the user
selects them using the mouse, such as the focus rectangle around the Caption
text of a command Button or an Option Button.

Mike

Tue, 19 May 2009 05:03:11 +0530 bearing the following fruit:

The 'underlined letter' won't but this has nothing to do
with the fouces rect.

J

Show quoteHide quote

Despite it's name, this property controls *both* the accelerator (underline)
and focus rectangle. However it is broken in vb (forms). With the property
enabled, a non-themed app will display both, while a themed app will display
neither. And, pressing 'Alt' or other keyboard navigation keys will not
change the state as it should. Msgboxes however, and other windows dialogs,
do follow the property as expected.

David

released on Tue, 19 May 2009 22:10:25 -0500 bearing the
following fruit:

Show quoteHide quoteIt's not an option I would ever choose to have switched on,
but if you're telling me that with it switched on I'd be
unable to tell a button has focus then it sounds worse than
I imagined.

Show quote Hide quote That is absolutely, positively, 100% wrong. It would have taken you seconds
to test, as it did me. The check box does EXACTLY what it says and nothing
more.

Show quote Hide quote I can only suggest that you spend a little more than a few seconds testing,
I have.
Try this in XP,
    Open the Display Properties Effects page
    Set focus to the 'Hide underlined letters...' checkbox  (heading may
differ among OS's)
    Press F1 and read the help text for this property (copy/pasted below)

"Specifies whether to suppress the drawing of keyboard shortcuts (the
underlined characters in menus and controls) and input focus indicators (the
dotted rectangles around objects), until you actually start using the
keyboard to navigate in Windows, generally with the ALT, TAB, or arrow
keys."

While you were there did you notice that if the property was enabled that
there is *no* focus rectangle displayed until you press one of the keyboard
navigation keys? Try it.

I as said earlier, this *feature* does not function properly in VB and it's
behavior is different between themed and non-themed VB applications.

I have posted code in the past to override this property and I'll post it
again here.

Option Explicit

Private Const WM_CHANGEUISTATE As Long = &H127
Private Const UISF_HIDEFOCUS As Integer = &H1
Private Const UISF_HIDEACCEL As Integer = &H2
Private Const UIS_CLEAR As Integer = &H2

Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" ( _
        ByVal hwnd As Long, _
        ByVal wMsg As Long, _
        ByVal wParam As Long, _
        lParam As Any) As Long

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Dim uiState As Long
    uiState = MakeLong(UIS_CLEAR, UISF_HIDEFOCUS Or UISF_HIDEACCEL)
    SendMessage Me.hwnd, WM_CHANGEUISTATE, uiState, ByVal 0
End Sub

Private Function MakeLong(ByVal wLow As Integer, ByVal wHigh As Integer) As
Long
    MakeLong = wHigh * &H10000 + wLow
End Function

David

Ahhhh, that's a much clearer explanation, thank you. I didn't understand
what you meant at first when you said "navigation keys"; I thought you just
meant menu navigation keys, i.e., Alt & F10.

And now that I see it in action, I think it's utterly horrible. It's bad
enough that they turned off the underlines to begin with, but ALL focus
indicators? Yuck.

Yuck indeed. It seems Microsoft has become so infatuated with the "kewl" factor
in its user interfaces that it has abandoned any thoughts of ~actual~ usability.
I blame it on Microsoft's apparently incurable Mac-envy. Others will, of course,
disagree.

RW

Yes it's horrible but it can be fixed.
Call this in the form load:

Public Sub EnableUIFocusMarks(FrmHWnd As Long)
Call SendMessageAny(FrmHWnd, WM_CHANGEUISTATE, USIF_RESETUI, ByVal 0)
End Sub

Declarations:
Private Const WM_CHANGEUISTATE   As Long = &H127
Private Const USIF_RESETUI         As Long = &H30002

Private Declare Function SendMessageAny Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA"
(ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As
Any) As Long

'                            COMMENT
'USIF_RESETUI  =
'             (LoBytes) Const UIS_CLEAR      As Integer = &H2
'     +      (HiBytes) Const UISF_HIDEFOCUS As Integer = &H1
'     +      (HiBytes) Const UISF_HIDEACCEL As Integer = &H2

Dave O.

<RonW@no_domain.invalid> wrote in message
Show quoteHide quote

As much as I hate it, I hate any program which screws with my user
settings--without asking my permission first--more.

This is not a focus rectangle, it is a "mnemonic."

I know VB refers to it as a mnemonic but that's a really bad name for it;
they help you get to a specific control quickly via the keyboard but they
don't really help you remember anything...

Calling them "accelerator keys" at least makes some sense.  Either way, they
definitely have nothing to do with focus rectangles.

Thanks for the helpful suggestions.

Show quoteHide quote

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