[RESOLVED] How to set focus to "Find" form created by WebBrowser control?

[ma14]

I have VB6 form with MS Webbrowser control on it.
When I click the Webbrowser and after that press Ctrl+F the "Find" form pops-up. This "Find" form is created by Microsoft and is triggered by Webbrowser. I checked that "Find" form is not listed in the Forms collection.

Problem is - the focus of application usually is not switched to this "Find" form. It's title bar stays gray and user has to manually click it before typing the word he/she wants to find.

Can anyone advice me please how I can switch focus to this "Find" form immediately after it's pop-up.

Thanks!

[jmsrickland]

I haven't had a single case where the "Find" window pops up without the focus. I don't even see how it can occur unless you are doing something that causes the focus to move away from the window.

[ma14]

Thank you for reply. Actually you right. I realized that problem is in statement HTMLDOC.focus that occurs in HTMLDOC_onmousemove procedure. I added this statement to let user to scroll the WB page with mouse without initial clicking the WB control. It works fine. But when user clicks the Ctrl+F and "Find" window pops-up, the mouse pointer is still in WB and focus is switched back to WB control. Interesting that _onmousemove occurs in WB even if I do not move the mouse, just keep it inside the control.

Additional problem is the _onkeyup procedure does not respond to Ctrl+F ! It somehow "reserved". The _onkeyup fires for "Ctrl" or "F" press and release, or for Ctrl+S etc. But not for Ctrl+F. As a result I can not detect the "Find" form presence, unless I use "FindWindow" API in _onmousemove or in Timer, what is resource consuming.

Form_KeyUp is also not fired when I press Ctrl+F in WB control (even if Form.KeyPreview is true).

Any suggestions or ideas?

[jmsrickland]

If all you are interested in is knowing when user entered Ctrl+F to bring up the "Find" dialog box then you can use this:

Private Sub WebBrowser1_PropertyChange(ByVal szProperty As String)
 If szProperty = "__IE_FindDialog" Then
   Caption = "You invoked the 'Find Dialog Window'"
 End If
End Sub

[ma14]

Problem solved!
I simple added GetAsyncKeyState into HTMLDOC_onmousemove to not focus on WB if Ctrl+F is pressed. Very simple. In this case focus is switched to "Find" form instantly and HTMLDOC_onmousemove is not triggered any more. When I move mouse back to WB the HTMLDOC.focus works again and WB page scrolling becomes available again.


Private Sub HTMLDOC_onmousemove()

If Not (GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyControl) <> 0 And GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyF) <> 0) Then
HTMLDOC.focus
End If

End Sub

[ma14]

If all you are interested in is knowing when user entered Ctrl+F to bring up the "Find" dialog box then you can use this:

Private Sub WebBrowser1_PropertyChange(ByVal szProperty As String)
 If szProperty = "__IE_FindDialog" Then
   Caption = "You invoked the 'Find Dialog Window'"
 End If
End Sub

Thank you for advice. Unfortunately on my computer WebBrowser1_PropertyChange does not respond to "Find" dialog pop-up. There is response like
szProperty = {265b75c1-4158-11d0-90f6-00c04fd497ea}
to navigation , but not to "Find" dialog pop-up.

I will use the method
If Not (GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyControl) <> 0 And GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyF) <> 0) Then , which I posted an about hour ago.

Thank you any way!

[jmsrickland]

Why wouldn't you put your code in _onkeydown instead of _onmousemove

[ma14]

Sub _onmousemove calls the HTMLDOC.focus that needed to let user to scroll the WB page with mouse wheel without clicking the WB control. When user clicks the Ctrl+F I need immediately to stop this .focus.

Probably I can run FindWindow API in _onkeydown and set focus on "Find" dialog box by it's hWnd. I did not try it yet. I could be less resource consuming

[jmsrickland]

Also it seems like you should use

If (GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyControl) <> 0 And GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyF) <> 0) Then

instead of

If Not (GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyControl) <> 0 And GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyF) <> 0) Then

Reason: using the Not allows vbKeyControl to enter the If Clause regardless of vbKeyF while leaving off the Not allows the If clause to be entered only if both keys are pressed

[ma14]

Just tested.

The
If (GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyControl) <> 0 And GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyF) <> 0)
does not work.

I also checked that my inversed statement
If (GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyControl) = 0 Or GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyF) = 0) Then
HTMLDOC.focus
End If

works fine.

[jmsrickland]

Wierd!

You say your version of WB doesn't respond to If szProperty = "__IE_FindDialog" Then but mine does. You say that If (GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyControl) <> 0 And GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyF) <> 0)
does not work for you but it does for me and that If (GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyControl) = 0 Or GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyF) = 0) Then works for you but it doesn't work for me.

[ma14]

Hmm. Interesting...

I use IE 11 on Windows 7. What is your environment?

Regarding If (GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyControl) = 0 Or GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyF) = 0). Possible here is some simple misunderstanding: I use this condition to focus to WB. Indeed, if there is no key press or pressed not Ctrl+F then app sets focus to WB control. If both keys are pressed (i.e. GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyControl) <> 0 AND GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyF) <> 0) then app does not set focus back to WB. In another words code detects not the case when Ctrl+F is pressed, but when it is NOT pressed, because I need to set focus to WB to allow scrolling without clicking. It is in my code above.

[jmsrickland]

OK, I see now. I didn't think about it to test for when it is not pressed in which case yours is correct.