PRB: Resizing OCX Does Not Resize Its Component Control(s)

ID: Q161209

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual Basic Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 6.0
Microsoft Visual Basic Control Creation and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 5.0

SYMPTOMS

When resizing your ActiveX control on a host form, the component controls or user-drawn graphics do not get resized.

CAUSE

You do not have logic in the Resize event of the UserControl object to resize the component control(s) to the new size, or in the Paint event of the UserControl object to redraw the user-drawn graphics.

RESOLUTION

Add code to the UserControl's Resize and/or paint event to resize the component control(s) and user-drawn graphics.

STATUS

This is behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Even though you may want to have various effects when the developer resizes your ActiveX control, Visual Basic has no way of determining how to handle resize issues of your component controls. You can place code in the UserControl_Resize event to handle the resizing in whatever manner you wish.

If your control has no component controls, the UserControl_Paint event allows you to redraw the user-drawn graphics.

Several examples are included below. All code is in the UserControl object.

Resizing a Single Control

The control is resized to fill the entire UserControl by using the following code:


      Private Sub UserControl_Resize()
        Text1.Move 0, 0 , ScaleWidth, ScaleHeight
      End Sub

Resizing a Control and a Label Side-by-Side

The label occupies the leftmost 20% of the user control. The textbox occupies the rightmost 75% of the user control. A 5% gap exists between them, as shown here:


      Private Sub UserControl_Resize()
        Label1.Move 0, 0 , ScaleWidth * .2, ScaleHeight
        Text1.Move ScaleWidth * .25, 0, ScaleWidth * .75, ScaleHeight
      End Sub

Resizing a Shape Control with a Label Drawn Part-Way Down

The shape control fills the entire UserControl. The label occupies the full width and is drawn slightly above center as shown here:


      Private Sub UserControl_Resize()
        Shape1.Move 0, 0 , ScaleWidth, ScaleHeight
        Label1.Move 0, (ScaleHeight - Label1.Height) * .4, ScaleWidth
      End Sub

The height of the label is assumed not to change in this example. To change label height to be 30% of the UserControl height, add the 4th argument to the Move method:


      Label1.Move 0, ScaleHeight * .28, ScaleWidth, ScaleHeight * .3

The change of the second argument to ScaleHeight * .28 is obtained by substituting ScaleHeight * .3 for Label1.Height, giving:


      (ScaleHeight - ScaleHeight * .3) * .4
      (ScaleHeight * .7) * .4
      ScaleHeight * .28

Resizing User-Drawn Graphics

The code draws a border around the UserControl and puts an 'X' in it. The ScaleMode needs to be in pixels for the border to paint correctly:


      Private Sub UserControl_Paint()
        UserControl.ScaleMode = vbPixels
        UserControl.Line (0, 0)-(ScaleWidth - 1, ScaleHeight - 1), 0, B
        UserControl.Line (0, 0)-(ScaleWidth - 1, ScaleHeight - 1), 0
        UserControl.Line (0, ScaleHeight - 1)-(ScaleWidth - 1, 0), 0
      End Sub

REFERENCES

Microsoft Visual Basic User's Guide, Chapter 4, Creating an ActiveX Control, Drawing the ShapeLabel Control

Additional query words: kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbdse kbDSupport kbVBp kbvbcc kbActiveX

Keywords : kbGrpVBDB
Version :
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb