grab a text from any place by clicking on middle mouse click? hook of some kinds?

[wiz126]

ok is there any way i can grab the text from a link,text,or a button caption from any app by click the mouse middle button and sending that text to textbox1 in my form?

[gigemboy]

Here's a little code...

Private Sub Form_MouseDown(sender As Object, e As System.WinForms.MouseEventArgs)
   Select Case e.Button
      Case MouseButtons.Middle
      'code here 
   End Select
End Sub

That's just to capture the middle mouse click...

[wiz126]

well i know how to make the middle button, my question is how would i be able to grab the text under the mouse curser?

[gigemboy]

That would depend.. what kind of text are we talking about?? textboxes?? labels? Actually, the form mousedown wouldnt work for that, you would essentially have to code a mousedown for every control.. or find some global way of capturing a mouse click.. Are you wanting just one word in particular?? Or just the entire text of the control you click on?

[kleinma]

if you are talking about grabbing the text from control in OTHER applications, then that would not be possible (not easily anyway, if at all). There are APIs that can hook you into windows to get information similar to what you are talking about, but it would be a pretty extensive set of API calls to do what you are talking about

[wiz126]

i made it easer,

is there a way (globaly - out of my app) to grab a singel highlighted word from any text and copy it to my textbox1 with my middle mouse click

[gigemboy]

Just Copy to the clipboard, thats all I know... although thats not what you're wanting...

*** ADDED - seems to be needing just a global way of capturing the mouse click in his app..

[wiz126]

Just Copy to the clipboard, thats all I know... although thats not what you're wanting...

just moved from vb6 to .net ..... can you explain how?

[gigemboy]

can you explain how?

lol.. umm.. Cntrl+C .... (thats why i said, its not what youre wanting )

[wiz126]

lol.. umm.. Cntrl+C .... (thats why i said, its not what youre wanting )

well LOL not like that but thats the idea

[gigemboy]

How about this... is this text all contained in the same control???

[wiz126]

huh? i don't understand?

[gigemboy]

The text that you are selecting.. you said you are highlighting it, so its selectable. Well is the text that you are able to highlight all contained inside the same control? Like the same richtextbox, or textbox, webbrowsercontrol, .. etc etc?

If it is, what control is it?? or what are the controls that are having the text that you are selecting?

[wiz126]

yes, but the the highlighted text is in internet explorer or in word

[wiz126]

is there a way to sendkeys.send CONTRL C while pressing the middle buton on the mouse?

[gigemboy]

Ohh so this text is outside your app?? If that's the case, then you will need API calls... even then its going to be hard getting the text.. and the text returned is going to be the entire text for the window, not the highlighted text that you want...

[wiz126]

Ohh so this text is outside your app?? If that's the case, then you will need API calls...

calls.................................what? example?

[gigemboy]

Its a set of api calls.. like ... FindWindowEX to get window handle of outside application, then EnumChildWindows to enumerate the windows down to get the handle of the control that contains the text, then GetWindowText to retrieve the window text of the control.. not to mention grabbing just the selected text.. not sure how to go about doing that.. Theres info in the API section of this forum, but take note.. if its VB6 function delclarations, you have to change "Long" to "Integer" (what i learned from using them)

[Bruce Fox]

Here is the background (Thanks Joacim):
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=359886

And here is what I ended up with:

Public Class frmMain
'
'   SysTray SpellChecker
'
    Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
 
    Public Declare Function SetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" Alias "SetForegroundWindow" (ByVal hwnd As Int32) As Int32
    Public Declare Function PostMessage Lib "user32" Alias "PostMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Int32, ByVal wMsg As Int32, ByVal wParam As Int32, ByVal lParam As Int32) As Int32
    Public Declare Function GetNextWindow Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindow" (ByVal hwnd As Int32, ByVal wFlag As Int32) As Int32
 
    Const GW_HWNDNEXT As Long = 2
    Const WM_COPY As Long = &H301
    Const WM_PASTE As Long = &H302
 
    Const wdDialogToolsSpellingAndGrammar As Long = &H33C
 
    Private Sub frmMain_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        '
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub NotifyIcon_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles NotifyIcon.Click
        Dim objWord As Object
        Dim objDoc As Object
        Dim strResult As String
        Dim intRetVal As Integer
 
        'Regain the App in use (as the focus was lost comming here)
        SetForegroundWindow(Me.Handle.ToInt32)
        Dim int32GNhWnd As Int32 = GetNextWindow(Me.Handle.ToInt32, GW_HWNDNEXT)
        SetForegroundWindow(int32GNhWnd)
 
        'Copy the selected text from the App in use
        PostMessage(int32GNhWnd, WM_COPY, vbNull, vbNull)
 
        'Check for valid Pasted data
        If Not Clipboard.GetDataObject.GetDataPresent(DataFormats.Text) Then
            MessageBox.Show("Please select some text first.", "No Text Selected", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
            GC.Collect()
            Exit Sub
        End If
 
        Try
 
            'Create a new instance of Word
            objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
 
            Select Case objWord.Version
                Case "9.0", "10.0", "11.0"
                    objDoc = objWord.Documents.Add(, , 1, True)
                Case "8.0"
                    objDoc = objWord.Documents.Add
                Case Else
                    MessageBox.Show("Your version of Word is not supported.", "Later Version Required", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1)
                    objWord.Application.Quit(True)
                    objWord = Nothing
                    Exit Sub
            End Select
 
            'Place the Slected text into the new Word Document
            objDoc.Content.Text = Trim$(Clipboard.GetDataObject.GetData("System.String", True))
 
            'Check for missspelling
            If objDoc.SpellingErrors.Count <> 0 Then
 
                intRetVal = objWord.Dialogs.Item(wdDialogToolsSpellingAndGrammar).Display
 
                If intRetVal = -1 Then
                    'Return the result to the Clipboard
                    strResult = objDoc.content.text
                    strResult = strResult.Substring(0, Len(strResult) - 1)
                    Clipboard.SetDataObject(strResult, True)
                ElseIf intRetVal = 0 Then
                    'Do nothing as User selected Cancel
                End If
 
            Else
                'Spelling was correct
                MessageBox.Show("Spelling for '" & Clipboard.GetDataObject.GetData("System.String", True) & "' is correct.", "Correct", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1)
            End If
 
            'Clean up
            objDoc.Close(False)
            objDoc = Nothing
            objWord.Application.Quit(True)
            objWord = Nothing
 
            GC.Collect()
 
        Catch
 
            'Handle Errors
        Catch ex As Exception
            objDoc.Close(False)
            objDoc = Nothing
            objWord.Application.Quit(True)
            If Not (objWord Is Nothing) Then objWord = Nothing
 
            MessageBox.Show(ex.ToString)
 
            GC.Collect()
 
        End Try
 
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub mnuAbout_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles mnuAbout.Click
        Dim frmObjAbout As New frmAbout
 
        frmObjAbout.ShowDialog()
 
        frmObjAbout.Dispose()
        frmObjAbout = Nothing
 
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub mnuExit_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles mnuExit.Click
 
        Me.NotifyIcon.Visible = False
 
        GC.Collect()
 
        Application.Exit()
 
    End Sub
 
End Class

[Bruce Fox]

I think its still works.... The idea was highlight a word, and click the SysTray Icon, and it would provide a list of words, or tell you it was correct!

Worked with Access, and Excel.

[wiz126]

can you attach an example please? i can't seem to get it to work . i will much apprichiate it

[Bruce Fox]

Cant at the moment - sorry. All I had was a Menu on a Form. PM an I can get back to you tommorow if required.

Best of luck,
Bruce.