Shell to Notepad

[AlexanderBB]

Hi, I'm rewriting a project after losing the main code module.

I had a routine that would shell to Notepad and display a text message.

All the examples I Google refer to a specific file to Open Notepad with. Mine
did not (from memory). It could be Saved if required, of course, but normally it would
just be closed and never be seen again.

Can anyone tell me how I could do this again ? (How did I do it in the first place, yes - asked myself that !!!)

Thanks, ABB

[HanneSThEGreaT]

You could have a look at :

Shell
ShellExecute
WinExec

There is just one thing I do not understand. You mention that this is not a file being opened in Notepad, but as you describe I think it is indeed a file

[Bonnie West]

Here's a simple, although somewhat unreliable, approach which does not mess with the Clipboard:

Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32.dll" (Optional ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Shell "notepad", vbNormalFocus
    Sleep 100&
    SendKeys Text1.Text, True
End Sub

If you want a more robust method, you'll likely have to use APIs such as FindWindowEx and WM_SETTEXT.

[AlexanderBB]

Hannes, I thought it might be too, but I have the original exe (with lost source) but
cannot find a file written anywhere. And Notepad shows no source folder.

Bonnie, maybe a did use Sendkeys as I'm no expert with APIs. How unreliable is unreliable ?

Thanks for the responses !

Regards, ABB

[Bonnie West]

How unreliable is unreliable ?

Well, if the timing isn't right (Sleep 100&), the keystrokes might accidentally be sent to another application. In fact, it happened during my testing!

With the API method, you can be 99% sure that Notepad will receive the text that you send to it.

[AlexanderBB]

> With the API method, you can be 99% sure that Notepad will receive the text that you send to it.

How complex ? Would you have an example ?

Thanks, ABB

[Bonnie West]

Would you have an example ?

Before I give you one, please describe first your complete requirements. For example, what exactly do you want to happen? How do you want it to be done? What are the inputs and what output do you expect? Etc...

[DataMiser]

Sounds to me like a textbox and a few lines of code would do the trick without the need to shell to notepad.
Am I missing something?

[AlexanderBB]

The shell to notepad is to save -keep if required- even if you Exit VB. It was in the one I lost and hoping
to replace the same as. I've forgotten how this bit was done though !

Bonnie I can't think how to answer what you're asking - inputs outputs etc. It is just text in Notepad.
Exactly like:

ff1 = FreeFile
Open cc$ For Output As #ff1
Print #ff1, theString
Close #ff1
ff = Shell("NOTEPAD.EXE " & cc$, 1)

Except that writes a file to disk, then Opens it it Notepad. The old way didn't write any file, Notepad somehow opened with the text already there.
It's doesn't really matter now... I can stick with the method above. Just be nice to know how it could be done.

[DataMiser]

Probably used the clipboard

[Bonnie West]

Except that writes a file to disk, then Opens it it Notepad. The old way didn't write any file, Notepad somehow opened with the text already there.
It's doesn't really matter now... I can stick with the method above.

If you are going to write temporary files to disk, it would be best to create them in the user's Temp folder (Environ$("Temp")). Call the GetTempFileName function to generate a unique file name.

Just be nice to know how it could be done.

My approach would have been to FindWindow (or EnumWindows) the shelled Notepad's window and check if its Process ID is equal to Shell's return value. If they match, I'd FindWindowEx the child Edit control and WM_SETTEXT the desired text.

[AlexanderBB]

Thanks Bonnie, I may try your approach just to see if I succeed !!
Agree on the temp file... I'm still kind of bugged I can't remember how I avoided that before. I tried Sendkeys and you can see each line
appearing quite slowly. That didn't happen before so Sendkeys wasn't used... and not sure what datamiser means by clipboard...

[westconn1]

just save the file in temp or whereever appropriate, show it in notepad, delete file if not required to save

sendkeys may well fail on windows7 (permission denied error)

[DataMiser]

Thanks Bonnie, I may try your approach just to see if I succeed !!
Agree on the temp file... I'm still kind of bugged I can't remember how I avoided that before. I tried Sendkeys and you can see each line
appearing quite slowly. That didn't happen before so Sendkeys wasn't used... and not sure what datamiser means by clipboard...

I mean that maybe it was copied to the clip board and then pasted in notepad

I don't understand a need for notepad though, you could write the routines to display and save the file within your program similar to notepad in just a few minutes and IMO would be a better choice.

[jmsrickland]

Maybe because Notepad has editing features that OP doesn't want to write

[Nightwalker83]

@ABB,

Maybe the code in post #35 here will give you some idea of how to send the data back to notepad.

[AlexanderBB]

@ABB,

Maybe the code in post #35 here will give you some idea of how to send the data back to notepad.

Do you mean post #3 and Sendkeys? I dunno... the mention of unreliabilty and problems with Win 7 don't inspire.... and the "Sleep" command didn't seem to exist in
my Vb6. I'd like to try the API approach but every part of it is new and unknown. FindWindow (or EnumWindows) the shelled Notepad's window and check if its Process ID is equal to Shell's return value. If they match, I'd FindWindowEx the child Edit control and WM_SETTEXT the desired text. . Doubt if I'd make it halfway through that!

[Nightwalker83]

Do you mean post #3 and Sendkeys? I dunno... the mention of unreliabilty and problems with Win 7 don't inspire.... and the "Sleep" command didn't seem to exist in my Vb6. I'd like to try the API approach but every part of it is new and unknown. FindWindow (or EnumWindows) the shelled Notepad's window and check if its Process ID is equal to Shell's return value. If they match, I'd FindWindowEx the child Edit control and WM_SETTEXT the desired text. . Doubt if I'd make it halfway through that!

No! If you run the code I linked to you will see that it displays the result in notepad. I am guessing you want to do the same thing with you code?

[westconn1]

and the "Sleep" command didn't seem to exist in
my Vb6. I'd like to try the API approach

sleep is yet another API

[AlexanderBB]

Sorry Nightwalker, I didn't notice that link in the message. After having a look I think weeding out the relative parts
are a bit hard for me. I need to get it finished and the write-file method works. And APIs seem far too murky.

Thanks to everyone for their help and advice.

Regards, ABB

[DataMiser]

Maybe because Notepad has editing features that OP doesn't want to write

It does have find and replace but that is about it, not very hard to write code for that.

Notepad is a very simple program, a textbox, a menu and a common dialog with just a little code would be able to replicate it and could be a useful exercise for novice programmers.

[jmsrickland]

It also has Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Select All, not to mention Format options

Given that I didn't want to write those functionalities I would Shell Notepad and then get it's handle and SendMessageByString

[DataMiser]

It also has Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Select All, not to mention Format options

Given that I didn't want to write those functionalities I would Shell Notepad and then get it's handle and SendMessageByString

Most of those are extremely simple to write [1 or 2 lines of code] and/or are already supported via shortcut keys.

The format options? Really, they consist of allowing you to change the font and turn word wrap on or off, both are very simple to do with a text box.

That said the OP said that he was shelling to notepad just to allow them to save the text so I would imagine that non of those are even needed.

My point was that rather than try to shell to notepad and loading a file or getting into API calls to transfer data it would be simple to just use a form with a text box and write a few lines of code behind it and you have the added benefit of the program being self contained and not requiring Notepad to be available on the target system.

[jmsrickland]

I was actually speaking for myself what I would do on post #22 providing I didn't want to write those functions. Also, you don't have to worry about always having Notepad to be available if you went one step further and loaded Notepad.exe in a Resource file. But that's a totally different subject.

And your point is taken. For nothing more than just saving the text I would also just put a textbox on a Form with a Save button


EDIT: Please disregard the bold statement above. It is not a good idea. I was wrong to even state that.

[dilettante]

Also, you don't have to worry about always having Notepad to be available if you went one step further and loaded Notepad.exe in a Resource file. But that's a totally different subject.

I am fascinated that this extremely poor practice comes up so often in threads here. Notepad also is not safe to plop and run on different Windows versions since it makes use of different Edit Control features on different Windows versions, i.e. the code is tailored to the OS.

This is almost as shabby as window spelunking and hijacking to try to automate programs that are not meant to be automated. It will not be long before antivirus software begins flagging any programs calling FindWindow due to the rampant abuse. UIPI is not granular enough to do the job alone.

Programmers should start making more use of windowless controls to prevent such hijacking of your own software. The big boys are doing this more and more in self defense.

[jmsrickland]

You're absolutely right, dilettante, I should never had posted that statement about putting Notepad.exe in a Resource file. I will amend my post.

[Nightwalker83]

Why would you need to include notepad with your program anyway? It IS a part of the Windows operating system and if anyone needs to uses Notepad with their program they can just use a free one such as Notepad ++, etc.

[jmsrickland]

You wouldn't

[Nightwalker83]

You wouldn't

Why mention putting Notepad in a resource file in post #24?

[jmsrickland]

I didn't, you're just imagining that