Cannot center Open File Dialog

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From: Matthias Hofmann (hofmann_at_anvil-soft.com)
Date: 03/07/04

  • Next message: Christian ASTOR: "Re: Cannot center Open File Dialog" 
    Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 21:30:16 +0100

    Hello!

    I wrote an application that uses the GetOpenFileName() function to let the
    user load a document. It would be great if the dialog thus created could be
    centered on the screen - however, this turns out to be more difficult than
    you'd think...

    Studying the MSDN Library, I found that specifying a hook procedure and
    centering the window in response to the WM_INITDIALOG message seems to be
    the 'official' way to do it. So I wrote a function that centers the dialog
    on the screen, but this does not work properly on Windows 95 (yes, I know
    that Windows 95 is obsolete and no one cares about it anymore, but I do). To
    be more specific, the call to SetWindowPos() causes parts of the open file
    dialog to be literally cut off when part of the application is outside the
    screen.

    As I found no way to work around this bug I decided to have Windows do the
    job and specify the DS_CENTER style for the open file dialog. The only way
    to accomplish this is to get the dialog's parent in response to the
    WM_INITDIALOG message (the MSDN library states that the open file dialog
    will be a child of the actual dialog created by the call to
    GetOpenFileName()) and add the DS_CENTER style. I was able to verify using
    Spy++ that the DS_CENTER style had actually been set, but unfortunately, the
    whole thing had no effect at all. Apparently the style has to be set on
    creation, it is too late when the dialog proc is entered.

    I have spent hours looking for a solution now, but I start feeling
    deparate - the only thing I can do is not to center the dialog, thus making
    it appear at position 0,0 of the parent's client area.

    Does anyone have an idea what I could do? What is the best way to make the
    open file dialog appear at a decent position on the screen? Other apps (like
    MS VC++) do not seem to have these problems as their dialogs appear as they
    should - I just don't think they'll let me see the source code...

    Best regards,

    Matthias Hofmann

  • Next message: Christian ASTOR: "Re: Cannot center Open File Dialog"

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