Win32 App tabbing between controls SOLVED!

Hello,
I am fairly new to Win32 C++ but i am working on it. Anyways I have a Multiline Edit Box and two buttons on my window and I would like to be able to Press Tab when in the edit box and instead of inserting a tab have it go to the buttons. I figured i would just capture WM_KEYDOWN and get VK_TAB and just set focus ect... but unfortunatly if the main window doesnt have focus then it doesnt send the WM_KEYDOWN message. Anyways i would appriciate any help or critisism on the way i am doing things, anything that will make me a better programer. And I did search the forum and check MSDN first i just didnt find my answer. :)
Thanks In Advance!
Josh Powers

hmm, no answers. Okay well does anyone know how I can tell what keys are being pressed while the Edit has the focus? Or is there a standard method for tabbing between controls? By the way I am not using MFC I am using the API. Uhm, I am really just looking for anything that might help me work twords this, i dont nessicarily need a whole anwser.

Thanks in Advance,
Josh Powers

Ofcourse, if the Edit control doesn't has focus, it won't be able to register keypresses since you're not sending keys to the Edit control. You can, however, subclass other windows to get their messages and process or even discard them if you like.

Is this what you want?

Anyway, be sure to check out this tutorial:
http://www.winprog.org/tutorial/

there's loads of examples.. and if you want to catch a keypress, you capture WM_KEYDOWN

you should be able to find more info about tabbing here @ MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...asp?frame=true
More info about keyboard input (also about tabbing) here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...asp?frame=true

Good luck, I hope I've informed you to your needs.

Oh and could you please shorten your signature a bit? it makes me scroll like hell :D

I'n not sure if you answered my question yet I will look into the stuff you posted. Thanks for the help. Oh by the way the Edit Control does have the focus at first, well normaly. But I only get WM_KEYDOWN when the main window itself has focus. If I press tab while the edit control or one of the buttons has focus i dont get WM_KEYDOWN. And i dont know why :)

I'm not sure either, if you need more help just ask.

And thanks for shortening your Sig :) great!

hmm i looked and i dont really think that solved the problem, I read the articles and I couldnt find anything that would send me anykind of notification when a key was pressed while the edit box has the focus. Is there a way to recieve messages sent to the children of the parrent window? Or am I supposed to be recieving them, i mean when you click on a button it sends WM_COMMAND to the parrent window why not send info to the parrent when you do everything?

There's a WS_EX_CONTROLPARENT or similar style that tells the default window procs to handle various messages in a way that the window behaves like a dialog box.

Hmm CornedBee, how would I use WS_EX_CONTROLPARENT? I tried putting it in my CreateWindowEx call for my main window and it didnt change anything. I also found references to a WS_TABSTOP and tried puting that in the CreateWindow call for my childwindows.

I cant even get it to tab between controls when there is no edit box involved.

I think you should set it with SetWindowLong, have a look at MSDN for more info.

Good luck!

hrm, i coulnt get that to work either.

I tried using SetWindowLong for the WS_EX_CONTROLPARENT and the WS_TABSTOP and i couldnt get any changes. It just doesnt do anything as far as I can tell.

Thanks for your help so far, sorry I am a pain, i just cant figure this "tabbing" out.

Maybe catch the WM_SETFOCUS in the main window and set the focus to one of the child windows.

I dont understand how that will help. My child windows already have the focus. I just need to be able to switch between who has focus when the tab key is pressed. Unfortunatly as far as I can tell it doesnt send me any kind of notification that tab was pressed. I assume that a message is sent to the child window but I dont know how to recieve messages sent to my child window.

Actually it should shift by itself if the parent has WS_EX_CONTROLPARENT...

yeah the problem is it doesnt seem to. I dont understand why. Could one of you try it and if you get it to work submit the source. It doesnt have to be anything fancy just a couple of controls and the ability to tab between them. I bet i can figure out what I am doing wrong from that. Sorry again for being a pain.

I don't have time anymore. I could do it next weekend if by then you still haven't solved it. Post here if you want me to.

well if i havent posted that i have solved it by then would you do it please, i would really appriciate it.

HAHA! i got it. Well i got a solution anyways. Instead of looking for the message in the Callback I used peekmessage and checked if WM_KEYDOWN was sent then just worked with that. Evedently TranslateMessage sends the message to the appropriate window instead of to the parent. Anyways then it was just a matter of checking who had the focus and setting it to the next control in line.
Thanks for all the help!