Win32/SDK Status Bar Text/Menu Browsing

[Michael Mattias]

I am trying to put some "help text" in a status bar window.

I am using a top level menu; each top level item has a POPUP menu associated with it.

Currently, I intercept the WM_MENUSELECT message, with this code:

    CASE %WM_MENUSELECT
           LOCAL szsText AS ASCIIZ * 60
      ' see if browsing a top-level menu
      ' this works, but does not show anything unless the user is currently browsing a menu
      IF lParam = getMenu(hwnd) THEN       'it's a top level menu
         SELECT CASE LOWRD(wParam)
                CASE %IDM_INDEX_FILE
                   szsText = "File and Database Commands"
                CASE %IDM_INDEX_OPTIONS
                   szsText = "Output Options"
                CASE %IDM_INDEX_REPORTS
                   szsText = "Reports and Queries"
                CASE %IDM_INDEX_HELP
                   szsText = "Help and 'About' information"
          END SELECT
      ELSE
         ' this works good for the items in the popups
         LoadString GetWindowLong(hWnd, %GWL_HINSTANCE), wParam, szsText, SIZEOF(szsText)
      END IF
      SendMessage hStatus, %WM_SETTEXT, 0, VARPTR(szsText)
      FUNCTION = 0
      EXIT FUNCTION

As noted in the comments, this works fine as long as the user has "selected" a menu, and the associated popup menu has been displayed; and when the user actually selects an item from the popup, I get the correct text as well by intercepting WM_COMMAND.

But...

I am trying to get text to display when the user just passes the mouse over the top-level menu item, when Windows makes the item "currently under the mouse" appear to be in a 'raised' button. That is, be able to change the help text even though the user has not yet 'selected' a menu item.

I have looked through MSDN and the Win32 kit, and can't seem to find a message to intercept which says, "the cursor is currently over a top-level menu item."

Can anyone point me in the correct direction?

Thanks,



------------------
Michael Mattias
Racine WI USA
[email protected]

[Kev Peel]

Michael,

I don't think thats possible, I tried looking for top level menu messages and none are sent.

You could try intercepting %WM_NCHITTEST and look up the cursor in relation to the required menu item, that seems workable.

Regards,


------------------
Kev G Peel
KGP Software, Bridgwater, UK.
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A> http://www.kgpsoftware.com

[Matthew Berg]

...can't seem to find a message to intercept which says, "the cursor is currently over a top-level menu item."

Does Windows not generate WM_NCMOUSEMOVE messages for this situation?