[RESOLVED] How can I remove the focus rectangle?

[vb.elmar]

Hello.

On a form I have a progress bar (microsoft windows common controls 5.0)
and 2 check boxes. I want none of the 2 check boxes having the focus
rectangle. How can I do that?

[Bonnie West]

See this post.

[vb.elmar]

Thanks Bonnie, the link you posted has the solution:

Private Const WM_KILLFOCUS As Long = &H8
Private Declare Function SendMessageW Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal uMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long

Private Sub Check1_Gotfocus()
    SendMessageW Check1.hWnd, WM_KILLFOCUS, 0&, 0&
End Sub

Private Sub Check2_Gotfocus()
    SendMessageW Check2.hWnd, WM_KILLFOCUS, 0&, 0&
End Sub

[dilettante]

Er, as written above doesn't that prevent you from ever checking either CheckBox?

[vb.elmar]

@dilettante
When using the sample above the CheckBox doesn't get checked when clicking the 1st time but when clicking the 2nd time the CheckBox is getting checked (It's a disadvantage - but I don't know a better solution at this time).

[edit post]
Argh, I've found out that the focus rectangle appears when the checkbox has a caption. So when turning the checkbox caption to a vbNullstring and adding a label beside the checkbox I get a checkbox without a focus rectangle. -That's the solution.

[Max187Boucher]

Here is little easy hack I just made that you could use.

Private Function RemoveFocus(ChkBox As CheckBox)
Static FakeButton As CommandButton
    
    If FakeButton Is Nothing Then
        Set FakeButton = Controls.Add("VB.CommandButton", "FakeButton")
        With FakeButton
            .Move -300, -300, 30, 30
            .Visible = True
        End With
    End If
    
    With ChkBox
        If .Value = vbChecked Then .Value = vbUnchecked Else .Value = vbChecked
    End With
           
    FakeButton.SetFocus
End Function

To use it all you need to do is call the function on the checkbox_mousedown, better if you use array.

Example 1 (Array)

Private Sub Check1_MouseDown(Index As Integer, Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
    RemoveFocus Check1(Index)
End Sub

Example 2 (regular, non-array)

Private Sub Check2_MouseDown(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
    RemoveFocus Check2
End Sub

Note: Do not add to the CheckBox_Click event because it will cause 'Out of stack space' error.

[vb.elmar]

Thanks, but I do it using a label beside the checkbox as described in posting #5 (there is no Api needed).

[Bonnie West]

... but I do it using a label beside the checkbox as described in posting #5 (there is no Api needed).

Keep in mind though, that any control (including windowless controls) always have greater overhead than a simple API call.