[Resolved] How to prevent Command btn from taking focus?

[Pradeep1210]

I don't want some command buttons on my form to take the focus when they are clicked. Is there some easy way out, like setting some properties etc. I want only the depress and release effects, no dotted rectangle.

[THEROB]

you could just use a picture of a button - the picture box control wont draw any focus rects or depress.

The harder way is to subclass the button control.

[Pradeep1210]

Thanks Therob
I m using a picture box right now but it is very resource hungry. (Imagine more than 20 picture boxes instead of command buttons).
Why I asked this quesiton was that whenever command btn has focus (dotted rectangle), the caption wraps if it doesn't fit the button width. Just want to prevent that thing as I can't increase button size. When it doesn't have focus, the caption appears OK.

[hassa046]

set the focus to a other control or form after OnClick event

[THEROB]

or even onmousedown

[Pradeep1210]

I can't.
Their GotFocus event will get fired which would create unexpected problems!

[RobCrombie]

Create a texbox called txtTakeFocus.
Form_Load should move it's left to -900 (there but not 'see a ble')

In your button click event use

txtTakeFocus.SetFocus

[Mark Gambo]

I needed to do the same thing and here is what I found:

In a Module:

Option Explicit
 
'declare external procedures
    Public Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "user32" _
                                        Alias "SetWindowLongA" _
                                        (ByVal hwnd As Long, _
                                        ByVal nIndex As Long, _
                                        ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long
   
    Public Declare Function CallWindowProc Lib "user32" _
                                        Alias "CallWindowProcA" _
                                        (ByVal lpPrevWndFunc As Long, _
                                        ByVal hwnd As Long, _
                                        ByVal uMsg As Long, _
                                        ByVal wParam As Long, _
                                        ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
                                            
'declare constants
    Public Const GWL_WNDPROC            As Long = (-4)
 
'declare local variables
    Private WndProcOrig                 As Long
 
Public Function BtnWndProc(ByVal hwndBtn As Long, _
                            ByVal wMsg As Long, _
                            ByVal wParam As Long, _
                            ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
    
    If wMsg = 7 Then
        BtnWndProc = 0
        Exit Function
    Else
        BtnWndProc = CallWindowProc(WndProcOrig, hwndBtn, wMsg, wParam, lParam)
    End If
End Function
 
Public Sub SubClassBtn(ByVal hwndBtn As Long)
    WndProcOrig = SetWindowLong(ByVal hwndBtn, GWL_WNDPROC, AddressOf BtnWndProc)
End Sub
 
Public Sub UnSubclassBtn(ByVal hwndBtn As Long)
    Call SetWindowLong(hwndBtn, GWL_WNDPROC, WndProcOrig)
    WndProcOrig = 0
End Sub

On your Form in the Form Load Event:

Private Sub Form_Load()
       Me.Command1.TabStop = False
       SubClassBtn Me.Command1.hwnd
End Sub

The command button will not receive the focus.

[Pradeep1210]

Thank u all for the replies.

RobCrombie, Ur method works OK. Only the problem is when the mouse is down, the button still looks odd.
I think I should stick to what I m doing at present (pictureboxes) or subclass the buttons (the harder way). Mark Gambo's code is really helpful and working.

Matter closed

Pradeep