[RESOLVED] how to make a picture from a MDIparent centered?

[detj]

how to make the background picture of a MDIparent centered?

[eyeRmonkey]

I think this will work, but I havn't tested it.

Picture1.Left = (MDIParent.ScaleWidth / 2) - (Picture1.Width / 2)
Picture1.Top = (MDIParent.ScaleHeight / 2) - (Picture1.Height / 2)

[CVMichael]

I think this will work, but I havn't tested it.

Picture1.Left = (MDIParent.ScaleWidth / 2) - (Picture1.Width / 2)
Picture1.Top = (MDIParent.ScaleHeight / 2) - (Picture1.Height / 2)

In a MDI form you can't center picture/or any kind of objects... they always align to left, top, bottom, or right

Here's how I did it, you have to put a PictureBox on the form that is used as a temporary holder for the picture... (make the picture.Visible = False)

Option Explicit
 
Private Const SWP_FRAMECHANGED = &H20
Private Const SWP_NOMOVE = &H2
Private Const SWP_NOSIZE = &H1
Private Const SWP_NOZORDER = &H4
 
Private Const swpFlags As Long = SWP_FRAMECHANGED Or SWP_NOMOVE Or SWP_NOZORDER Or SWP_NOSIZE
 
Private 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
 
Private LoadPic As StdPicture
 
Private Sub MDIForm_Load()
    Set LoadPic = LoadPicture("C:\windows\winnt.bmp") ' change the path to your picture
    CenterPicture Picture1
End Sub
 
Private Sub MDIForm_Resize()
    CenterPicture Picture1
End Sub
 
Private Sub CenterPicture(DummyPic As PictureBox)
    DummyPic.Visible = False
    
    On Error Resume Next
    DummyPic.Width = Me.ScaleWidth
    DummyPic.Height = Me.ScaleHeight
    On Error GoTo 0
    
    DummyPic.AutoRedraw = True
    DummyPic.BackColor = Me.BackColor
    
    DummyPic.PaintPicture LoadPic, (DummyPic.ScaleWidth / 2) - (DummyPic.ScaleX(LoadPic.Width, vbHimetric, vbTwips) / 2), _
        (DummyPic.ScaleHeight / 2) - (DummyPic.ScaleY(LoadPic.Height, vbHimetric, vbTwips) / 2)
    
    Set Me.Picture = DummyPic.Image
    
    SetWindowPos Me.hwnd, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, swpFlags ' repaint the form
End Sub

[Joacim Andersson]

Even though this thread have been marked as resolved I would like to add another solution. It's very simular to the one that CVMicheal posted but it doesn't require you to add a picture box on the MDI form during design time. Instead a picture box is created during run-time by adding it to the MDIForm controls collection. For some reason when you do that the control doesn't have to be aligned to one of the borders. It's a surprising little feature (or bug?) but makes it very interesting since you can now wrap it up in an easy to use class.

I quickly wrote a class that you find attached to this thread. To use it add code simular to this to your MDI Form.

Private oPic As CMDIPicture
 
Private Sub MDIForm_Load()
    Set oPic = New CMDIPicture
    'The Init method takes the MDI form and a standard picture object
    'as argument. Instead of LoadPicture you can pass the Picture property of
    'any PictureBox or Image control or load an image from a resource file.
    oPic.Init Me, LoadPicture("c:\TheImage.jpg")
End Sub

That's it the rest is handled by the class in a very simular way CVMichael did.