The PBForms visual designer for PBWin includes a Menu
editor which makes the creation of menus very easy. The
following example creates a couple of top-level Popup
menu items and related dropdown menus with sub-items.
What is the difference between a Menu
Popup and a Menu Item? A Menu Popup is designed to "pop
up" additional Menu Items in the form of a drop-down
menu. The drop-down menu can contain Menu Items,
Separators, and additional Menu Popup's.
Depending on the type of menu member being edited or
created, PowerBASIC Forms will automatically enable or
disable controls on the Menu Editor window to make it
simple to choose the appropriate settings for each menu
member.
1. Start PBForms and open up a New Dialog.
2. Press the "Menu Editor" button to display
the PBForms Menu Editor Dialog box.
File Menu
3. In the "Caption" TextBox, type "&File"
(without the quotes). The "&" character is
used to create a Menu Accelerator. The Character after
the ampersand (&) is displayed with an underline and
allows the user to access the Menu Item by holding down
the ALT key and then pressing the character after "&".
In this case the Menu Accelerator will be ALT+F.
4. Press the "Next" button.
5. In the "Caption" TextBox type "&New"
(without the quotes).
6. In the "Accelerator key" Textbox, press Ctrl+N
to make this combination a keyboard shortcut to the
command.
7. In the "Prompt" Textbox, type in "Creates
a New File" (without the quotes). Notice
that the "ID Name" and "ID Value"
boxes were both updated automatically with unique names
and values. It is best to let PBForms create these
because it will always select unique names and values
with the correct syntax. The Prompt text is displayed in
a StatusBar control, which we will be adding to the
dialog later.
8. Press the "Next" button.
9. In the "Caption" TextBox type in "&Open"
(without the quotes)
10. In the "Accelerator key" Textbox, press Ctrl+O
to make this combination a keyboard shortcut to the
command.
11. In the "Prompt" TextBox type in "Opens
a File" (without the quotes)
12. Press the "Next" button.
13. Select "Separator" radio button from the
"Type" groupbox. This will insert a Menu
Separator, which is A horizontal line used to visually
separate groups of unrelated Menu Items.
14. Press the "Next" button.
15. In the "Caption" TextBox type in "E&xit"
(without the quotes).
16. In the "Prompt" TextBox type in "Exit
the Program" (without the quotes)
17. Press the Enter key or click the "Next"
button.
Help Menu
18. Click the Left Arrow button on the "Menu Editor"
dialog box. This will cause the next Menu Item or Menu
Popup to be displayed at the top level directly to the
right of the previous top level Menu Item or Popup.
19. Select the "Popup" radio button from the
"Type" groupbox.
20. In the "Caption" Textbox, type in "&Help"
(without the quotes).
21. Press the Enter key or click the "Next"
button.
22. In the "Caption" TextBox type in "&About"
(without the quotes)
23. In the "Prompt" TextBox type in "Displays
the About Dialog Box" (without the quotes).
24. Click the "Close" button. This will close
the Menu Editor and take you back to the PBForms Visual
Designer.
Adding a Status Bar to the dialog
25. Double-click on the "Status Bar Control"
button in the Floating Toolbox. If the Floating Toolbox
is not visible, select "View | Toolbox" from
the PBForms menu.
26. Make sure the newly created StatusBar is selected and
press F4 to bring up the Properties
dialog.
27. Delete the Caption text for the StatusBar and press
OK to close the Properties dialog.
Test the menu
28. Now we are ready to test the menu. Select the "Test
Dialog" button in the PBForms ToolBar or "View
| Test Dialog" from the PBForms Menu. This will
display the Dialog with the Menu you just have created.
Try using the Menu Accelerator keys and also make sure
the Prompt text displayed in the Status Bar Control when
a Menu Item is highlighted is correct.
The Result
29. You are now ready to save the Dialog as a .BAS file,
to be edited and compiled with PowerBASIC For Windows.
Select "File | Save As" from the PBForms Menu,
select a unique name and folder for the file and Save.
30. Done! PBForms has created command handlers for all
menu item id's under %WM_COMMAND and a %WM_MENUSELECT
callback handler which will display prompt strings of
highlighted menu items in the status bar control. Open up
the code in the IDE (PBEdit), replace the MSGBOX parts
under the related id's with the code you want to be
executed on selection of the menu items, Compile and Run.
