Show a custom popup menu for a TextBox without subclassing

Show a custom popup menu for a TextBox without subclassing

Elsewhere in the TipBank we show how you can display a custom popup menu on a TextBox control by subclassing the WM_CONTEXTMENU message that Windows sends the control when the user right-clicks on it. If you don’t like to resort to subclassing for such an easy job, you can use the following tip, taken from Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Private Declare Function LockWindowUpdate Lib "user32" (ByVal hwndLock As Long) _    As LongPrivate Sub Text1_MouseDown(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, _    Y As Single)    If Button = vbRightButton Then        ' don't let the control display as "grayed"        LockWindowUpdate Text1.hWnd        ' disable the textbox, so that it can't react to mouse click        Text1.Enabled = False        ' show your custom menu               PopupMenu mnuFile        ' re-enable the control        Text1.Enabled = True        ' stop freezing the update        LockWindowUpdate 0&    End IfEnd Sub

Even better, it turns out that you don’t even need the LockWindowUpdate API function to avoid the TextBox control enter the “grayed” state, provided that you re-arrange the above statements and ensure that the TextBox control misses the opportunity to display the default Edit menu:

Private Sub Text1_MouseDown(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, _    Y As Single)    If Button = vbRightButton Then        ' disable the textbox        Text1.Enabled = False        ' (this DoEvents seems to be optional)        DoEvents        ' re-enable the control, so that it doesn't appear as grayed        Text1.Enabled = True        ' show your custom menu               PopupMenu mnuFile    End IfEnd Sub

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