Q137627: HOWTO: Change the Mouse Pointer to Any .CUR or .ANI File

Article: Q137627
Product(s): Microsoft FoxPro
Version(s): 
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbcode kbvfp300 kbvfp500
Last Modified: 06-AUG-1999

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, versions 3.0, 5.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

The ability to change the mouse pointer to a cursor file other than one of the
default system cursors is available to Visual FoxPro through the Windows API.
This feature set is available under both Windows 95 and Windows NT.

Visual FoxPro allows you to change the MousePointer property to specify one of
the pointer shape available in the default 12 system pointers, and the DragIcon
property allows you to set the pointer to any monochrome .cur file. However, in
some cases, you might want a colored pointer or an animated pointer (.ani file).
You can use the Windows API to do this.

The example in this article shows a method using LoadCursorFromFile() and
SetSystemCursor(). There are other functions that may be useful as well such as
CopyIcon(), ClipCursor(), GetCursor(), and so on. See the Win32api.hlp file for
more information on these functions.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The following code demonstrates a form with two command buttons. The upper
button changes the pointer to an animated cursor and the lower button resets the
pointer to the original cursor. The sample code is designed to run under Windows
NT. It requires slight modification to run under Windows 95; instructions are
given in comments.

Sample Code
-----------

  PUBLIC oform1

  oform1=CREATEOBJECT("form1")
  oform1.Show()
  RETURN

  DEFINE CLASS form1 AS form
       Caption = "Form1"
       Name = "Form1"

       ADD OBJECT command1 AS commandbutton WITH ;
            Top = 72, ;
            Left = 96, ;
            Height = 29, ;
            Width = 94, ;
            Caption = "SetCursor", ;
            Name = "Command1"

       ADD OBJECT command2 AS commandbutton WITH ;
            Top = 144, ;
            Left = 96, ;
            Height = 29, ;
            Width = 94, ;
            Caption = "ResetCursor", ;
            Name = "Command2"

       PROCEDURE Init
            public currenthcurs,tempcurs,newhcurs,OCR_NORMAL
            OCR_NORMAL=32512  &&from winuser.h
       ENDPROC

       PROCEDURE command1.Click
            MyDir=space(255)
            declare Integer GetWindowsDirectory in Win32Api String @, Integer
            declare Integer CopyIcon in Win32Api Integer
            declare Integer LoadCursorFromFile in Win32Api String
            declare Integer SetCursor in Win32Api Integer
            declare SetSystemCursor in Win32Api Integer, Integer
            declare Integer GetCursor in Win32Api

            currenthcurs=GetCursor()
            tempcurs=CopyIcon(currenthcurs)
            len=GetWindowsDirectory(@MyDir,255)
            MyDir=left(MyDir,len)+"\System32\dinosaur.ani"  && WindowsNT
  *  Uncomment the next line and comment the previous line if running under
  *  Windows 95, or set MyDir to the path to a valid .cur or .ani file.
  *         MyDir=left(MyDir,len)+"\cursors\dinosaur.ani"  && Windows95
            newhcurs=LoadCursorFromFile(MyDir)
            =SetSystemCursor(newhcurs,OCR_NORMAL)
       ENDPROC

       PROCEDURE command2.Click
            =SetSystemCursor(tempcurs,OCR_NORMAL)
       ENDPROC
  ENDDEFINE

REFERENCES
==========

For more details, you can find a reference to these cursor functions in the
Win32Api.hlp Help file and in the Win32 SDK. The creation of cursor files is
supported by Imagedit.exe, and the Windows NT utility Aniedit.exe can be used to
create animated cursors.

Additional query words:

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Keywords          : kbcode kbvfp300 kbvfp500 
Technology        : kbVFPsearch kbAudDeveloper kbVFP300 kbVFP500
Issue type        : kbhowto

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