How to simuilate moving border when copying a cell using a grid, like excel does.

[npolo]

I'm using VSFlexGrid, and I have an option to copy and paste cells, I want to simulate what excel does, when choosing copy in excel it creates a moving border around the cell....how do I do that in VB?.....the grid does not support that....HELP

[Aaron Young]

You can achieve a similar effect if you want to do a little work...

In a Form with a MSFlexGrid and Timer control:

Option Explicit
 
' Win32 API Declarations:
Private Type RECT
  Left As Long
  Top As Long
  Right As Long
  Bottom As Long
End Type
 
Private Type POINTAPI
  x As Long
  y As Long
End Type
 
Private Const R2_XORPEN = 7
Private Const PS_DOT = 2
Private Const PS_DASHDOT = 3
 
Private Declare Function ReleaseDC Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal hdc As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetWindowDC Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SetROP2 Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal nDrawMode As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function Polyline Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long, lpPoint As POINTAPI, ByVal nCount As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function CreatePen Lib "gdi32" (ByVal nPenStyle As Long, ByVal nWidth As Long, ByVal crColor As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SelectObject Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function DeleteObject Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SelectClipRgn Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal hRgn As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function CreateRectRgn Lib "gdi32" (ByVal X1 As Long, ByVal Y1 As Long, ByVal X2 As Long, ByVal Y2 As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetClientRect Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, lpRect As RECT) As Long
 
' Custom structure to hold information about a user's selection
Private Type SelectionType
  Col As Long               ' ColumnIndex of first selected column
  Row As Long               ' RowIndex of first selected row
  Columns As Long           ' Number of Columns in the selection
  Rows As Long              ' Number of Rows in the selection
  AnimationIndex As Long    ' Arbitrary value to indicate some kind of animation index
  Active As Boolean         ' Is the selection currently active
End Type
 
' Current selection information
Private m_selection As SelectionType
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
  ' Configure the FlexGrid and Timer, then clear the selection variable
  With MSFlexGrid1
    .Cols = 20
    .Rows = 20
    .FixedCols = 1
    .FixedRows = 1
    .BackColorSel = vbHighlight
    .FocusRect = flexFocusHeavy
  End With
  Timer1.Interval = 200
  ClearSelection
End Sub
 
Private Sub MSFlexGrid1_KeyDown(KeyCode As Integer, Shift As Integer)
  ' Capture a user's keypress in the FlexGrid
  Select Case KeyCode
  Case vbKeyC And ((Shift And vbCtrlMask) = vbCtrlMask)
      ' Select a cell/cells using CTRL+C
      SelectCurrentCells
    
  Case vbKeyUp, vbKeyDown, vbKeyLeft, vbKeyRight, _
       vbKeyMenu, vbKeyControl, vbKeyShift, vbKeyCapital, vbKeyTab, _
       vbKeyPageUp, vbKeyPageDown, vbKeyEnd, vbKeyHome
       
    ' Do nothing special when using navigational/special keys
    
  Case Else
    ' Any other key clears the current selection
    ClearSelection
    
  End Select
End Sub
 
Private Sub SelectCurrentCells()
  ' Mark the currently highlighted cells as "Selected"
  With MSFlexGrid1
    ' Get the Left-most Column in the selection
    m_selection.Col = IIf(.Col < .ColSel, .Col, .ColSel)
    ' Calculate the number of columns in the selection
    m_selection.Columns = IIf(.Col > .ColSel, .Col, .ColSel) - m_selection.Col + 1
    ' Get the Top-most Row in the selection
    m_selection.Row = IIf(.Row < .RowSel, .Row, .RowSel)
    ' Calculate the number of rows in the sleection
    m_selection.Rows = IIf(.Row > .RowSel, .Row, .RowSel) - m_selection.Row + 1
    ' Activate the selection - which will cause the Timer to draw/animate it
    m_selection.Active = True
  End With
End Sub
 
Private Sub ClearSelection()
  ' Deactivate the current selection - stops the timer drawing/animating it
  m_selection.Active = False
  ' Refresh the grid to remove any remaining image
  MSFlexGrid1.Refresh
End Sub
 
Private Sub DrawSelectionRect(ByRef selection As SelectionType)
  ' Draw the current selection rectangle
  Dim tRECT As RECT
  Dim lDC As Long
  Dim lPen As Long
  Dim lOldPen As Long
  Dim tPoints(1 To 5) As POINTAPI
  Dim lOldMixMode As Long
  Dim lIndex As Long
  Dim lRegion As Long
    
  With MSFlexGrid1
    ' Redraw the grid
    .Refresh
    ' Get the Device Context of the Grid
    lDC = GetWindowDC(.hwnd)
    
    ' Get the client rectangle of the FlexGrid
    Call GetClientRect(.hwnd, tRECT)
    
    ' Now push in the Top and Left sides to exclude any Fixed Rows/Columns
    ' So that when we draw the selection box, it won't draw over anything
    ' it shouldn't
    For lIndex = 0 To .FixedCols - 1
      tRECT.Left = tRECT.Left + (.ColWidth(lIndex) / Screen.TwipsPerPixelX)
    Next
    For lIndex = 0 To .FixedRows - 1
      tRECT.Top = tRECT.Top + (.RowHeight(lIndex) / Screen.TwipsPerPixelY)
    Next
    ' Create a Region using this new Client Rect
    lRegion = CreateRectRgn(tRECT.Left + 2, tRECT.Top + 2, tRECT.Right + 2, tRECT.Bottom + 2)
    ' Set the new region as the Clipping Region (anything outside the region won't be drawn)
    Call SelectClipRgn(lDC, lRegion)
    
    ' Create a Rectangle using the Coord's of the selected cells in the grid
    tRECT.Left = _
      (.ColPos(selection.Col) / Screen.TwipsPerPixelX) + 2
      
    tRECT.Top = _
      (.RowPos(selection.Row) / Screen.TwipsPerPixelY) + 2
      
    tRECT.Right = _
      ((.ColPos(selection.Col + selection.Columns - 1) + _
      .ColWidth(selection.Col + selection.Columns - 1)) / _
      Screen.TwipsPerPixelX) + 2
      
    tRECT.Bottom = _
      ((.RowPos(selection.Row + selection.Rows - 1) + _
      .RowHeight(selection.Row + selection.Rows - 1)) / _
      Screen.TwipsPerPixelY) + 2
        
    ' Get the current mix mode of the device context,
    ' while changing it to XOR, so that anything we draw
    ' is XOR'd with the underlying pixels
    lOldMixMode = SetROP2(lDC, R2_XORPEN)
    
    ' Convert the rectangle into an array of POINT structures
    ' So that we can draw an outline of the rectangle
    tPoints(1).x = tRECT.Left
    tPoints(1).y = tRECT.Top
    tPoints(2).x = tRECT.Right
    tPoints(2).y = tRECT.Top
    tPoints(3).x = tRECT.Right
    tPoints(3).y = tRECT.Bottom
    tPoints(4).x = tRECT.Left
    tPoints(4).y = tRECT.Bottom
    tPoints(5).x = tRECT.Left
    tPoints(5).y = tRECT.Top
    
    ' Perform some rudamentry animation...
    Select Case selection.AnimationIndex
    Case 0
      ' If the Index is Zero, use a DOT pen (......)
      lPen = CreatePen(PS_DOT, 1, vbBlack)
      
    Case Else
      ' If the Index is One, use a DOT/DASH pen (._._._._.)
      lPen = CreatePen(PS_DASHDOT, 1, vbBlack)
      
    End Select
    
    ' Create the pen, storing the old one
    lOldPen = SelectObject(lDC, lPen)
    
    ' Draw the rectangle outline
    Polyline lDC, tPoints(1), 5
    
    ' Reset the clipping region
    Call SelectClipRgn(lDC, 0)
    DeleteObject lRegion
    
    ' Restore the old mix-mode
    Call SetROP2(lDC, lOldMixMode)
    
    ' Restore the old pen
    SelectObject lDC, lOldPen
    ' Delete the pen we created
    DeleteObject lPen
       
    ' Release the Device Context handle we obtained
    ReleaseDC .hwnd, lDC
  End With
End Sub
 
Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
  ' Animate the selection...
  Static bOn As Boolean
  ' Only animate the selection if it's active
  If m_selection.Active Then
    ' Toggle the "bOn" flag
    bOn = Not bOn
    ' If "On", set the AnimationIndex to 1 (DOT/DASH pen)
    ' Otherwise, set the AnimationIndex to 0 (DOT pen)
    m_selection.AnimationIndex = IIf(bOn, 1, 0)
    ' Draw the selection on the FlexGrid
    DrawSelectionRect m_selection
  End If
End Sub

Regards,

- Aaron.