ACC: How to Create Floating Pop-Up Menus (1.x/2.0) (95444)

MORE INFORMATION

To create a floating pop-up menu, follow these steps:

1. Create a new form called Pop-up Menu Form.
2. Add a list box control called Menu to the form. Make the control large enough to display each of the strings it contains without displaying a scroll bar. Set the control's properties as follows:
   

         List Box Properties
         ----------------------------------------------
         ControlName:   Menu
         RowSourceType: Value List
         RowSource:     String1;String2;String3;String4
         AfterUpdate:   =ItemSelected([Menu])
         Left:          0 in
         Top:           0 in
         FontName:      System
         FontSize:      8
         FontWeight:    Bold
   						

   
   NOTE: Specify the menu strings in the RowSource property. Separate succeeding string values with a semicolon (;) character.
3. Change the properties of the Pop-up Menu Form as follows:
   

         Form Properties
         ------------------------------------------------
         ScrollBars:      Neither
         Popup:           Yes
         RecordSelectors: No
         Width:           <Width of the list box control>
   
         Section Properties
         -------------------------------------------------
         Height:          <Height of the list box control>
   						

   
   
4. Save the form and close it.
5. Create a new module and type the following code into the Declarations section for the module.
   
   'NOTE: Some of the following Windows API functions may be 'defined in an existing Microsoft Access library. If so, the new 'declarations would cause a duplication procedure name error. If 'this error occurs, remove the offending declare statement from 'your code or convert the declaration to a comment.
   
   'NOTE: In the following sample code, an underscore (_) is used 'as a line continuation character. Remove the underscore when 're-creating this code in Access Basic.
   
   

         Option Explicit
         Type POINTAPI
            x As Integer
            y As Integer
         End Type
   
         Global Const GWL_STYLE = (-16)
         Global Const WS_DLGFRAME = &H400000
   
         Declare Sub GetCursorPos Lib "User" (lpPoint As POINTAPI)
         Declare Function GetWindowLong& Lib "User" (ByVal hWnd%, _
                             ByVal nIndex%)
         Declare Function SetWindowLong& Lib "User" (ByVal hWnd%, _
                             ByVal nIndex%, ByVal dwNewLong&)
   						

6. Type the following functions:
   

         Function ShowPopup ()
            Dim coord As POINTAPI
            Dim attr&
   
            GetCursorPos coord
            DoCmd OpenForm "Pop-up Menu Form"
   
            attr& = GetWindowLong(Forms![Pop-up Menu Form].hWnd, GWL_STYLE)
            attr& = SetWindowLong(Forms![Pop-up Menu Form].hWnd, GWL_STYLE, _
                       attr& And Not WS_DLGFRAME)
   
            DoCmd MoveSize (coord.x * 14), (coord.y * 14), , 1100
         End Function
   
         Function ItemSelected (WhichItem As String)
            DoCmd Close
            MsgBox "The selected item was " & Trim(WhichItem)
         End Function
   						

7. Choose the form in which you want the pop-up menu to appear. Open the form in Design view.
8. Select the event property that you want to use to activate the pop-up menu and specify the following function call:
   

         =ShowPopup()
   						

   
   

When you open your form and cause the event assigned in Step 8 above, the pop-up menu appears at the current mouse position. The menu remains on the screen until you select an item from the pop-up menu.