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Article: Q216189
Product(s): Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
Version(s): WINDOWS:5.0,6.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbAPI kbMenu kbGrpDSUser kbVBp kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpDSVB
Last Modified: 11-JAN-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual Basic Learning Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

Many applications (especially older, 16-bit programs) have the Help menu item
right-justified on the menu bar. That is, "Help" appears all the way to the
right instead of the left, grouped with the other top level menu items. The
Visual Basic Menu Editor does not supply this functionality, but it is fairly
easy to implement this feature with a few WIN32 API calls, as demonstrated in
this example.

NOTE: The use of a right-justified Help menu in an application is not the
recommended style for creating Windows applications. This article provides this
information without recommending its use.

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

Step-by-Step Example
--------------------

1. Open a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.

2. On the Tools menu, click Menu Editor. Create a menu with "Help" as the last
  top level menu item.

3. Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Form1:

  Option Explicit

  Private Type MENUITEMINFO
     cbSize As Long
     fMask As Long
     fType As Long
     fState As Long
     wID As Long
     hSubMenu As Long
     hbmpChecked As Long
     hbmpUnchecked As Long
     dwItemData As Long
     dwTypeData As String
     cch As Long
  End Type

  Private Const MF_STRING = &H0&
  Private Const MF_HELP = &H4000&
  Private Const MFS_DEFAULT = &H1000&

  Private Const MIIM_ID = &H2
  Private Const MIIM_SUBMENU = &H4
  Private Const MIIM_TYPE = &H10
  Private Const MIIM_DATA = &H20

  Private Declare Function GetMenu Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long

  Private Declare Function GetMenuItemInfo Lib "user32" _
     Alias "GetMenuItemInfoA" _
     (ByVal hMenu As Long, ByVal un As Long, ByVal B As Boolean, _
     lpMenuItemInfo As MENUITEMINFO) As Long
   
  Private Declare Function SetMenuItemInfo Lib "user32" _
     Alias "SetMenuItemInfoA" _
     (ByVal hMenu As Long, ByVal un As Long, ByVal bool As Boolean, _
     lpcMenuItemInfo As MENUITEMINFO) As Long

  Private Declare Function DrawMenuBar Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) _
     As Long

  Private Sub Form_Load()
     Dim mnuItemInfo As MENUITEMINFO, hMenu As Long
     Dim BuffStr As String * 80   ' Define as largest possible menu text.

     hMenu = GetMenu(Me.hwnd)   ' Retrieve the menu handle.
     BuffStr = Space(80)
     With mnuItemInfo   ' Initialize UDT
           .cbSize = Len(mnuItemInfo)   ' 44
           .dwTypeData = BuffStr & Chr(0)
           .fType = MF_STRING
           .cch = Len(mnuItemInfo.dwTypeData)   ' 80
           .fState = MFS_DEFAULT
           .fMask = MIIM_ID Or MIIM_DATA Or MIIM_TYPE Or MIIM_SUBMENU
     End With
     ' Use the desired item's position for the '3' below (zero-based list).
     If GetMenuItemInfo(hMenu, 3, True, mnuItemInfo) = 0 Then
        MsgBox "GetMenuItemInfo failed. Error: " & Err.LastDllError, , _
               "Error"
     Else
        mnuItemInfo.fType = mnuItemInfo.fType Or MF_HELP
        If SetMenuItemInfo(hMenu, 3, True, mnuItemInfo) = 0 Then
           MsgBox "SetMenuItemInfo failed. Error: " & Err.LastDllError, , _
                  "Error"
        End If
     End If
     DrawMenuBar (Me.hwnd)   ' Repaint top level Menu
  End Sub

4. Run the project. Notice that "Help" is right-justified at the far right-side
  of the menu bar and is completely functional.

REFERENCES
==========

For additional information about manipulation menus in Visual Basic, please see
the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q216185 HOWTO: Create Multi-Column Menus in Visual Basic Using the WIN32 API

(c) Microsoft Corporation 1999, All Rights Reserved. Contributions by Chris E.
Jolley, Microsoft Corporation.


Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbAPI kbMenu kbGrpDSUser kbVBp kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpDSVB 
Technology        : kbVBSearch kbAudDeveloper kbZNotKeyword6 kbZNotKeyword2 kbVB500Search kbVB600Search kbVBA500 kbVBA600 kbVB500 kbVB600
Version           : WINDOWS:5.0,6.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

=============================================================================

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Q216189: HOWTO: Right Justify the Help Menu Item in Visual Basic