invisble form with buttons

How do I make a form look like this

http://img415.imageshack.us/img415/5873/question6kz.jpg
?

The form is invisable but the things showing seem to be labels? Correct me if I'm wrong. How do I do this?

what are you tryoing to do? i know how to make the form invisible and show only the controls on it.

I have to ask... would you WANT to make your form look like that? :confused:

In any case, the technique in use looks like regioning. Do a search on the forums for examples.

This will only make the controls show on the screen, with the rest of the form being invisible. Currently it only works with square items but can be easily modified for other shapes.

VB Code:

'To use this code, you'll need to put controls on the form. Make sure that one control can unload
'form or you won't be able to close it
 
Const RGN_And = 1
Const RGN_COPY = 5
Const RGN_Or = 2
Const RGN_Xor = 3
Const RGN_DIFF = 4
Private Const CCHILDREN_TITLEBAR = 5
Private Type RECT
    Left As Long
    Top As Long
    Right As Long
    Bottom As Long
End Type
Private Type TITLEBARINFO
    cbSize As Long
    rcTitleBar As RECT
    rgstate(CCHILDREN_TITLEBAR) As Long
End Type
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 CreateEllipticRgn Lib "gdi32" (ByVal X1 As Long, ByVal Y1 As Long, ByVal X2 As Long, ByVal Y2 As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function CombineRgn Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hDestRgn As Long, ByVal hSrcRgn1 As Long, ByVal hSrcRgn2 As Long, ByVal nCombineMode As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function DeleteObject Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SetWindowRgn Lib "User32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal hRgn As Long, ByVal bRedraw As Boolean) As Long
Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "User32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long
Private Declare Sub ReleaseCapture Lib "User32" ()
Const WM_NCLBUTTONDOWN = &HA1
Const HTCAPTION = 2
Private Declare Function GetTitleBarInfo Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByRef pti As TITLEBARINFO) As Long
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
Me.ScaleMode = vbPixels 'APIs work in pixels
 
Dim tb As TITLEBARINFO
Dim rgn1 As Long
Dim rgn As Long
Dim ctrl As Control
 
    tb.cbSize = Len(tb)
    GetTitleBarInfo Me.hwnd, tb
    tbh = tb.rcTitleBar.Bottom - tb.rcTitleBar.Top + 2.5    'The Bar Height
 
    rgn = CreateRectRgn(Me.Left, Me.Top + tbh, Me.Left + Me.Width, Me.Top + Me.Height + tbh)   'This is the form region
 
 
    For Each ctrl In Me
        rgn1 = CreateRectRgn(ctrl.Left + 2.5, ctrl.Top + tbh, ctrl.Left + ctrl.Width + 2.5, ctrl.Top + ctrl.Height + tbh)   'Every control's region is taken
        CombineRgn rgn, rgn, rgn1, RGN_Xor                                                                                  'away from the main region
    Next
 
    SetWindowRgn Me.hwnd, rgn, True 'Set the form's shape to the region made
 
 
    DeleteObject rgn    'cleanup
    DeleteObject rgn1
End Sub

You can make the form invisible using the follwong code.

This goes in the general section

VB Code:

Public Const GWL_EXSTYLE = (-20)
Public Const WS_EX_TRANSPARENT = &H20&
Public Const SWP_FRAMECHANGED = &H20
Public Const SWP_NOMOVE = &H2
Public Const SWP_NOSIZE = &H1
Public Const SWP_SHOWME = SWP_FRAMECHANGED Or _
SWP_NOMOVE Or SWP_NOSIZE
Public Const HWND_NOTOPMOST = -2
 
Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" (ByVal
hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long, ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long
 
Declare Function SetWindowPos Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal
hWndInsertAfter As Long, ByVal x As Long, ByVal y As Long, ByVal cx As
Long, ByVal cy As Long, ByVal wFlags As Long) As Long

And this on the form

VB Code:

Private Sub Form1_Load( )
 
SetWindowLong Me.hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, WS_EX_TRANSPARENT
SetWindowPos Me.hwnd, HWND_NOTOPMOST, 0&, 0&, 0&, 0&, SWP_SHOWME
 
End If

If you add a picture box, you should be able to see it.
It should work. If any problems, post here.

_________

If this post was helpful, please rate it

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by khanjan_a2k

You can make the form invisible using the follwong code.

This goes in the general section

VB Code:

Public Const GWL_EXSTYLE = (-20)
Public Const WS_EX_TRANSPARENT = &H20&
Public Const SWP_FRAMECHANGED = &H20
Public Const SWP_NOMOVE = &H2
Public Const SWP_NOSIZE = &H1
Public Const SWP_SHOWME = SWP_FRAMECHANGED Or _
SWP_NOMOVE Or SWP_NOSIZE
Public Const HWND_NOTOPMOST = -2
 
Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" (ByVal
hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long, ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long
 
Declare Function SetWindowPos Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal
hWndInsertAfter As Long, ByVal x As Long, ByVal y As Long, ByVal cx As
Long, ByVal cy As Long, ByVal wFlags As Long) As Long

And this on the form

VB Code:

Private Sub Form1_Load( )
 
SetWindowLong Me.hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, WS_EX_TRANSPARENT
SetWindowPos Me.hwnd, HWND_NOTOPMOST, 0&, 0&, 0&, 0&, SWP_SHOWME
 
End If

If you add a picture box, you should be able to see it.
It should work. If any problems, post here.

_________

If this post was helpful, please rate it

---

There is one issue with this approach. I've used this before, and encountered that fact that Labels will not show up when the form is made transparent. I've had no other problems with any other controls. I got "around" the problem by using a textbox as a label.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hack

There is one issue with this approach. I've used this before, and encountered that fact that Labels will not show up when the form is made transparent. I've had no other problems with any other controls. I got "around" the problem by using a textbox as a label.

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If you can keep frames opaque, could you not put the label in a frame?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dayjo

If you can keep frames opaque, could you not put the label in a frame?

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I don't believe I tried that. Give it a shot and see what happens.

Well I couldn't seem to get that to work actually, it just seems to crash, no error just go all glitchy etc.

The fist example works fine though, with labels etc.