HOWTO: Display Additional Buttons in Customize Toolbar Dialog

• Microsoft Visual Basic Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0
• Microsoft Visual Basic Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions, 32-bit only, for Windows, version 4.0

SUMMARY

The Toolbar control that is provided with the Microsoft Windows Common Controls (COMCTL32.OCX) can be customized by users. The Customize Toolbar method is displayed if either:

• the AllowCustomize property is set to True and the user double- clicks the Toolbar
  
  -or-



• the Customize method of the Toolbar is invoked.

MORE INFORMATION

All of the buttons in the Buttons collection of a Toolbar control appear in the Customize Toolbar dialog. Buttons that are currently showing on the Toolbar appear in the "Toolbar Buttons" list and Buttons that have been removed from the Toolbar through customization appear in the "Available Buttons" list. To add additional buttons to the "Available Buttons" list, create your default toolbar, use the SaveToolbar method to save this setting, add the additional buttons at run-time, and then use RestoreToolbar to restore the "default" toolbar settings.

Step-by-Step Example

1. Start a new project.



2. Reference the Microsoft Windows Common Controls (COMCTL32.OCX).



3. Add a Toolbar and an ImageList to Form1.



4. Add six images to ImageList1 with the following properties:




   Index          Key          Picture
   -----          ---          -------

   1              Bold        ..\VB\Graphics\Bitmaps\Tlbr_w95\Bld.bmp
   2              Italic      ..\VB\Graphics\Bitmaps\Tlbr_w95\Itl.bmp
   3              Underline   ..\VB\Graphics\Bitmaps\Tlbr_w95\Undrln.bmp
   4              Copy        ..\VB\Graphics\Bitmaps\Tlbr_w95\Copy.bmp
   5              Paste       ..\VB\Graphics\Bitmaps\Tlbr_w95\Paste.bmp
   6              Cut         ..\VB\Graphics\Bitmaps\Tlbr_w95\Cut.bmp
 

5. Set the ImageList property of Toolbar1 to "ImageList1."



6. Add three buttons to Toolbar1 with the following properties:




   Index        Key            Image
   -----        ---            -----

   1            Bold           Bold
   2            Italic         Italic
   3            Underline      Underline
 

NOTE: The Toolbar contains only these three buttons because this is the layout of the "default" toolbar. The Copy, Paste, and Cut buttons will be added at run-time so that they will appear in the "Additional Buttons" list.


7. Add the following code to Form1:




      Private Declare Function RegOpenKey Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias _
        "RegOpenKeyA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpSubKey As String, _
        phkResult As Long) As Long

      Const HKEY_CURRENT_USER = &H80000001

      Private Sub Form_Load()

         Me.Show

         'Check to see if the registry keys for the toolbar exists
         'If not, then save the initial toolbar settings
         Success = RegOpenKey(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "MyApp", hKey)
         If Success <> 0 Then Toolbar1.SaveToolbar "Test", "MyApp", _
            "Toolbar1"

         'Add the toolbars you wish to see in the "Available Buttons" list
         Toolbar1.Buttons.Add , "Copy", , , "Copy"
         Toolbar1.Buttons.Add , "Paste", , , "Paste"
         Toolbar1.Buttons.Add , "Cut", , , "Cut"

         'Restore the toolbar settings
         DoEvents
         Toolbar1.RestoreToolbar "Test", "MyApp", "Toolbar1"
         DoEvents

      End Sub

      Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)

         'When the form unloads, save the toolbar settings
         'to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\MyApp
         Toolbar1.SaveToolbar "Test", "MyApp", "Toolbar1"

      End Sub
 

NOTE: If you are using Visual Basic version 6.0, change the following line in the Form_GotFocus event:

   Success = RegOpenKey(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "MyApp", hKey) 

to:

   Success = RegOpenKey(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "Test\MyApp", hKey) 

8. Press the F5 key to run the application. Double-click Toolbar1 to display the Customize Toolbar dialog. Notice that the Cut, Copy, and Paste toolbars appear in the Additional Buttons list.


NOTE: The SaveToolbar and RestoreToolbar methods used in this example write and read the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\MyApp\Toolbar1.

REFERENCES

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q182943 : BUG: "Key" Argument of SaveToolBar & RestoreToolBar Doesn't Work

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbVBp kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpVB kbDSupport kbControl
Version : WINDOWS:4.0,5.0,6.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto