Semitransparent form

Is there any way i can create semitransparent forms?

[oetje]

http://www.planet-source-code.com/xq...s/ShowCode.htm

[andromedia]

This topic sounds quite interesting to me... but is there anyway to do it using Alpha-blending in Windows 2000? I've seen this in Winamp's AVS, where u can make the window _really_ translucent, and somehow the effect is quite different from the one shown in the previous post....

Thanks oetje for the link.
But there is one problem, that is whenever i move the form it takes some time to refresh.

Of course it is slow. VB is slow, and that's slow even with C/C++ (with a slow machine like I'm having). Please only use only if you really think you need it if you share your program.

[Joacim Andersson]

Originally posted by andromedia
This topic sounds quite interesting to me... but is there anyway to do it using Alpha-blending in Windows 2000?

There sure is!
Windows 2000 introduced the SetLayeredWindowAttributes API function that you can use for this.
The following code only works on Win2000.

Private Declare Function SetLayeredWindowAttributes _
 Lib "user32" ( _
 ByVal hWnd As Long, _
 ByVal crKey As Long, _
 ByVal bAlpha As Long, _
 ByVal dwFlags As Long) As Long

Private Const LWA_COLORKEY = &H1&
Private Const LWA_ALPHA = &H2&

Private Declare Function GetWindowLong _
 Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowLongA" ( _
 ByVal hWnd As Long, _
 ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function SetWindowLong _
 Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" ( _
 ByVal hWnd As Long, _
 ByVal nIndex As Long, _
 ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long

Private Const GWL_EXSTYLE = (-20)
Private Const WS_EX_LAYERED = &H80000

Public Sub Translution(ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal Alpha As Byte)
    Dim lngStyle As Long
    
    lngStyle = GetWindowLong(hWnd, GWL_EXSTYLE) Or WS_EX_LAYERED
    If SetWindowLong(hWnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, lngStyle) Then
        SetLayeredWindowAttributes hWnd, 0, CLng(Alpha), LWA_ALPHA
    End If
End Sub

Copy the above code to a BAS module.
Then call the Translution sub and pass the hWnd of any form. The Alpha argument should be a value of 0 - 255 where 0 is invisible and 255 is solid.

Good luck!