SAMPLE: Code to Demonstrate a Button Bar

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows versions 3.0 and 3.1

The file BTNBAR.EXE in the Microsoft Software Library demonstrates one method of adding a button bar to an application, such as the toolbar, which is found in Microsoft Excel.

For the button bar to correctly interact with the MDI (multiple document interface) functions of Windows, the client window must be resized to avoid painting problems. The code in the BTNBAR file is designed to be merged into the MULTIPAD sample application that is provided with the Windows SDK.

The remainder of this article provides some information on the design of this button bar implementation.

Each button on the button bar is defined in an array of TOOL structures, which is defined as follows:

  typedef struct tagTOOL
    {
    HICON     hIcon;             // 2
    WORD      CommandID;         // 2
    BOOL      bEnabled;          // 2
    WORD      x, y, dx, dy;      // 8
    }                            // --
  TOOL;                          // 14 bytes total

This implementation of the button bar uses icons to label the buttons. The DrawTool() function draws a plain button with a gray face and dark edges, to simulate a three-dimensional object. Then, the icon specified in the structure is drawn over the button. This icon must use the "screen" color for its background color. This places the icon image on the button with minimal coding effort.

When the user clicks on a button, the button bar code sends a WM_COMMAND message to the main window (ghWnd). The wParam parameter of this message is set to the CommandID value.

Download BTNBAR.EXE, a self-extracting file, from the Microsoft Software Library (MSL) on the following services:

• Microsoft Download Service (MSDL)

        Dial (206) 936-6735 to connect to MSDL
        Download BTNBAR.EXE (size: 23770 bytes) 
  

• Internet (anonymous FTP)

        ftp ftp.microsoft.com
        Change to the \SOFTLIB\MSLFILES directory
        Get BTNBAR.EXE (size: 23770 bytes)