Form Question - is this possible?

[derek412]

Let me see if I can explain this clearly: I had an app designed to run full screen at 1024x768. Now i'm faced with making it run "windowed" on larger/wider monitors, and i'm noticing (on Windows 7 anyway) that when forms "unload" they fade in and out on top of each other and I want the program to run and go from screen to screen "smooth" the way it did when it was full screen.

I've seen games do this before, so I know its possible.

Since the program is complex and uses many different forms, is there a way to make the program operate in a single "window" or container so to speak, as if it were still full screen? There's no animation or anything, just static screens. In other words, loading a form right "into" the existing screen so they don't fade in and out?

[vb5prgrmr]

I believe that behavior is set up through the OS in its self. As for "windowing" your application, you could use the MDI Parent/Child setup and probably would not take too much effort on your part to convert your program to such...



Good Luck

[derek412]

So how do I use the MDI Parent/Child setup? Do I load the initial form, then each other form as a Child form?

[vb5prgrmr]

Yes, you would load the parent form, a MDIForm, set all your other forms to be children (MDChild = true in properties).

Now, depending upon your startup and program flow this can be easy or difficult but if you have added the MDIForm and changed the MDIChild property of all the forms then...

If you startup object is sub main and in sub main you have... say Form1.Show, you would change that to MDIForm1.Show. Then in the load of MDIForm1 you would set Form1.show. However, if your startup object is Form1 then you will need to change that in project properties to the MDIForm1 and in its load put Form1.Show. From there, it should be fairly easy to keep previous functionality without doing much else.


Good Luck

[derek412]

Very close so far...thanks! I'm almost there now.

One more issue: It loads the very first form fine, but then it loads the next form shifted down and diagonal a bit (cascaded I guess it is)...is there a way to totally unload the previous form so it doesn't shift downward a bit (so they load "on top" of each other, so to speak)?

[vb5prgrmr]

Well first off you could make form1's window state vbMaximized and all other forms will be the same...

Load Form1
Form1.WindowState = vbMaximized
Form1.Show

or you could do...

Load Form2
Form2.Left = Form1.Left
Form2.Top = Form1.Top
Form2.Width = Form1.Width
Form2.Height = Form1.Height
Form2.Show

Good Luck

[derek412]

Here's a pic of the issue...I figure if there's a way to totally unload the form, I can just load the new one into the MDI Form without it being pushed down.

The first form here works great:


But the next form loads and displays like this:


What do I do to "reset" the next form to display centered in the "window" using MDI? I'm very close to getting what I need....thanks for your help so far.

Note: Your second suggestion above doesn't work for some reason, and I need the app to be windowed, so maximizing the window won't look right.

[derek412]

Actually: Your second suggestion above does work; is there an easier way though? Something more automatic/compact?

[vb5prgrmr]

You could use the move method instead of left/top/height/width arguements which would reduce those four lines down to one. Further more, you could create a public sub that takes a form or forms as an arguement(s)...

Public Sub MoveMyForm(NewForm As Form, OldForm As Form)
Load NewForm
NewForm.Move OldForm.Left, OldForm.Top, OldForm.Width, OldForm.Height
NewForm.Show
End Sub

and you would call it like so...

MoveMyForm Form2, Form1

Good Luck