HOWTO: Create Multi-Column Menus in Visual Basic Using the WIN32 API

• Microsoft Visual Basic Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0

SUMMARY

Multi-column menus can be useful when you don't want to cover up sections of your form or when handling large menus that would otherwise extend beyond the screen. Visual Basic offers no built-in method for creating multi-column menus. However, you can split a menu into multiple columns by using a few API calls. The following sample demonstrates how to do this both at Form Load and dynamically, from a CommandButton.

NOTE: This technique will only work for menus that are visible on the menu bar. It does not work for invisible menus, such as shortcut or pop-up menus.

MORE INFORMATION

Step by step example

1. Open a new Standard EXE Project. Form1 is created by default.



2. Add a CommandButton to Form1.



3. On the Tools menu, click Menu Editor. Create a menu consisting of at least two top level menus containing at least four submenu items each.



4. Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Form1:
   

   
   Option Explicit
   
   Private Type MENUITEMINFO
      cbSize As Long
      fMask As Long
      fType As Long
      fState As Long
      wID As Long
      hSubMenu As Long
      hbmpChecked As Long
      hbmpUnchecked As Long
      dwItemData As Long
      dwTypeData As String
      cch As Long
   End Type
   
   Private Const MF_MENUBARBREAK = &H20& ' columns with a separator line
   Private Const MF_MENUBREAK = &H40&    ' columns w/o a separator line
   Private Const MF_STRING = &H0&
   Private Const MF_HELP = &H4000&
   Private Const MFS_DEFAULT = &H1000&
   
   Private Const MIIM_ID = &H2
   Private Const MIIM_SUBMENU = &H4
   Private Const MIIM_TYPE = &H10
   Private Const MIIM_DATA = &H20
   
   Private Declare Function GetMenu Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
   
   Private Declare Function GetMenuItemInfo Lib "user32" _
      Alias "GetMenuItemInfoA" _
      (ByVal hMenu As Long, ByVal un As Long, ByVal B As Boolean, _
      lpMenuItemInfo As MENUITEMINFO) As Long
     
   Private Declare Function SetMenuItemInfo Lib "user32" _
      Alias "SetMenuItemInfoA" _
      (ByVal hMenu As Long, ByVal un As Long, ByVal bool As Boolean, _
      lpcMenuItemInfo As MENUITEMINFO) As Long
   
   Private Declare Function DrawMenuBar Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) _
      As Long
   
   Private Declare Function GetSubMenu Lib "user32" (ByVal hMenu As Long, _
      ByVal nPos As Long) As Long
   
   Private Sub Command1_Click()
   ' Splitting a menu here demonstrates that this can be done dynamically.
      Dim mnuItemInfo As MENUITEMINFO, hMenu As Long, hSubMenu As Long
      Dim BuffStr As String * 80   ' Define as largest possible menu text.
   
      hMenu = GetMenu(Me.hwnd)   ' retrieve menu handle.
      BuffStr = Space(80)
      With mnuItemInfo   ' Initialize the UDT.
             .cbSize = Len(mnuItemInfo)   ' 44
             .dwTypeData = BuffStr & Chr(0)
             .fType = MF_STRING
             .cch = Len(mnuItemInfo.dwTypeData)   ' 80
             .fState = MFS_DEFAULT
             .fMask = MIIM_ID Or MIIM_DATA Or MIIM_TYPE Or MIIM_SUBMENU
      End With
   ' Use item break point position for the '3' below (zero-based list).
      hSubMenu = GetSubMenu(hMenu, 0)
      If GetMenuItemInfo(hSubMenu, 2, True, mnuItemInfo) = 0 Then
         MsgBox "GetMenuItemInfo failed. Error: " & Err.LastDllError, , _
                "Error"
      Else
         mnuItemInfo.fType = mnuItemInfo.fType Or MF_MENUBARBREAK
         If SetMenuItemInfo(hSubMenu, 2, True, mnuItemInfo) = 0 Then
            MsgBox "SetMenuItemInfo failed. Error: " & Err.LastDllError, , _
                   "Error"
         End If
      End If
      DrawMenuBar (Me.hwnd)   ' Repaint top level Menu.
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub Form_Load()
   ' This works for either an API-created menu or a native VB Menu.
      Dim mnuItemInfo As MENUITEMINFO, hMenu As Long, hSubMenu As Long
      Dim BuffStr As String * 80   ' Define as largest possible menu text.
   
      hMenu = GetMenu(Me.hwnd)   ' Retrieve menu handle.
      BuffStr = Space(80)
      With mnuItemInfo   ' Initialize the UDT
             .cbSize = Len(mnuItemInfo)   ' 44
             .dwTypeData = BuffStr & Chr(0)
             .fType = MF_STRING
             .cch = Len(mnuItemInfo.dwTypeData)   ' 80
             .fState = MFS_DEFAULT
             .fMask = MIIM_ID Or MIIM_DATA Or MIIM_TYPE Or MIIM_SUBMENU
      End With
   ' Use item break point position for the '3' below (zero-based list).
      hSubMenu = GetSubMenu(hMenu, 1)
      If GetMenuItemInfo(hSubMenu, 2, True, mnuItemInfo) = 0 Then
         MsgBox "GetMenuItemInfo failed. Error: " & Err.LastDllError, , _
                "Error"
      Else
         mnuItemInfo.fType = mnuItemInfo.fType Or MF_MENUBREAK
         If SetMenuItemInfo(hSubMenu, 2, True, mnuItemInfo) = 0 Then
            MsgBox "SetMenuItemInfo failed. Error: " & Err.LastDllError, , _
                   "Error"
         End If
      End If
      DrawMenuBar (Me.hwnd)   ' Repaint top level Menu.
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub Form_MouseDown(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
      If Button = vbRightButton Then
         PopupMenu Aaa   ' Use the name of one of your menus.
      End If
   End Sub 




5. Change the "Aaa" in the last procedure above to the name of one of your top level menus.



6. Run the project and click on the menu items.

REFERENCES

For additional information about manipulating menus in Visual Basic, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q216189 HOWTO: Right Justify the Help Menu Item in Visual Basic

(c) Microsoft Corporation 1999, All Rights Reserved. Contributions by Chris E. Jolley, Microsoft Corporation.

Additional query words:

Keywords          : kbsample kbAPI kbMenu kbGrpUser kbVBp kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpVB 
Version           : WINDOWS:5.0,6.0
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbhowto 

Last Reviewed: February 7, 1999