NOTE: I will make a sample project, but since I had deleted this content and there was a 'please delete me' filler I wanted to repost as soon as possible. What happened was, I tried the code I posted, it seemed to work, so I posted it. I don't know if something in my system changed, or if I was hallucinating, or what, but the next minute I look and this method is not working. I came up with a fix, but it turns this from a code snippet into something fairly complicated. So standby for a sample project, but I wanted to get the post back up.
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Problem: A regular CommandButton can have its image set with BM_SETIMAGE, but making it into a pushbutton (toggle button) by setting its style to BS_PUSHLIKE does not work. Conversely, a checkbox can be made into a pushbutton, but then you can't set its picture with BM_SETIMAGE and also have text.
Solution: A workable solution is to simply mimic the behavior of a pushbutton using BM_SETSTATE- which toggles whether the button is in its mousedown appearance. It stays depressed when focus is lost and when left clicked, and as far as I can tell behaves no different than a BS_PUSHLIKE button. The only trick is preventing a change to the state when focus is lost.
This code assumes you already have a project using modern common controls; see other threads for info about that.
On Form_Load, set the icon and whatever other styles you need for the button; e.g.
hBtn is a Public Long. BS_NOTIFY is required; BS_LEFT I just added because it looks better, you can omit it or change it as long as the notify style remains. Do NOT set BS_PUSHLIKE.
Then you can toggle it on and off like this:
bFlag is a project level setting you're tracking with the button state.
The big problem, and initial issue with this post, is that the button seems to lose the effect when focus is lost. Further complicating the issue, the Command_LostFocus is only fired when you click some controls and not others in VB (but the effect is lost on all), so your main form has to be subclassed to intercept the BN_KILLFOCUS message (the button itself need not be subclassed).
I know this is rather trivial, but when I came across the problem I saw lots of people asking and no adequate solutions. In modern UI's there's lots of places I prefer toggle buttons to checkboxes, so figured someone else might come across the same issue one day.
Declares and Supports
Problem: A regular CommandButton can have its image set with BM_SETIMAGE, but making it into a pushbutton (toggle button) by setting its style to BS_PUSHLIKE does not work. Conversely, a checkbox can be made into a pushbutton, but then you can't set its picture with BM_SETIMAGE and also have text.
Solution: A workable solution is to simply mimic the behavior of a pushbutton using BM_SETSTATE- which toggles whether the button is in its mousedown appearance. It stays depressed when focus is lost and when left clicked, and as far as I can tell behaves no different than a BS_PUSHLIKE button. The only trick is preventing a change to the state when focus is lost.
This code assumes you already have a project using modern common controls; see other threads for info about that.
On Form_Load, set the icon and whatever other styles you need for the button; e.g.
Code:
hBtn = Command1.hWnd
Call SendMessage(Command1.hWnd, BM_SETIMAGE, 1&, ByVal hIcon1)
SetButtonStyle Command1.hWnd, BS_NOTIFY Or BS_LEFTThen you can toggle it on and off like this:
Code:
Private Sub Command1_MouseUp(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
If bFlag Then
ToggleButtonState Command1.hWnd, 0
bFlag = False
Else
ToggleButtonState Command1.hWnd, 1
bFlag = True
End If
End Sub
Public Sub ToggleButtonState(hWnd As Long, lState As Long)
Call SendMessage(hWnd, BM_SETSTATE, lState, ByVal 0&)
End SubThe big problem, and initial issue with this post, is that the button seems to lose the effect when focus is lost. Further complicating the issue, the Command_LostFocus is only fired when you click some controls and not others in VB (but the effect is lost on all), so your main form has to be subclassed to intercept the BN_KILLFOCUS message (the button itself need not be subclassed).
Code:
Public Function WndProc(ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal uMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
'[...other subclass code]
Case WM_COMMAND
Dim lCode As Long
lCode = HiWord(wParam)
Select Case lCode
Case BN_KILLFOCUS
If lParam = hBtn Then
If bFlag Then
Call SendMessage(hBtn, BM_SETSTATE, 1&, ByVal 0&)
End If
End If
WndProc = 1
Exit Function
'[...other subclass codeI know this is rather trivial, but when I came across the problem I saw lots of people asking and no adequate solutions. In modern UI's there's lots of places I prefer toggle buttons to checkboxes, so figured someone else might come across the same issue one day.
Declares and Supports
Code:
Public Const BM_SETIMAGE = &HF7
Public Const BM_SETSTATE = &HF3
Public Const BS_LEFT = &H100&
Public Const BS_NOTIFY = &H4000&
Public Const BN_KILLFOCUS = 7&
Public Const WM_COMMAND = &H111
Public Const GWL_STYLE = (-16)
Public Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" (Destination As Any, _
Source As Any, _
ByVal Length As Long)
Public Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, _
ByVal wMsg As Long, _
ByVal wParam As Long, _
lParam As Any) As Long
Public Declare Function GetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowLongA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, _
ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, _
ByVal nIndex As Long, _
ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long
Public Function SetButtonStyle(hWnd As Long, dwNewStyle As Long, Optional bAdd As Boolean = True) As Long
Dim dwStyle As Long
If bAdd Then
dwStyle = GetWindowLong(hWnd, GWL_STYLE)
End If
dwStyle = dwStyle Or dwNewStyle
SetButtonStyle = SetWindowLong(hWnd, GWL_STYLE, dwStyle)
End Function
Public Function HiWord(dwValue As Long) As Integer
CopyMemory HiWord, ByVal VarPtr(dwValue) + 2, 2
End Function