 This
is a straightforward method to prevent the mouse cursor from leaving the current form. When activated, the mouse can not be moved outside the
form (see caveats below), nor can the titlebar or other non-client area controls thereon be accessed.
The caveat to this call is that under 32-bit operating systems the
user remains free to activate other widows outside the application via the keyboard. Should another app gain focus, upon regaining focus the
form that had previously set the ClipCursor will no longer restrict the mouse to its client area. As a workaround to this condition, again
for justified uses only, you may want to add the subclassing code from WM_ACTIVATEAPP: Detect Application Activation State in order to detect the
form's activation when moving from another application in order to reset the restriction on regaining focus.
While it is strongly recommended that this practice be avoided for
general use, specific situations it may warrant its limited use. Just remember that it is considered very bad programming practice to
restrict or otherwise play with the rodent cursor. Not to mention that its bound to tick off the user. |
| The demo shown in the illustration used two forms: the
bottom one (Form1) holds only a simple Form2.Show statement in its Command1_Click event. The code for Form1 is not provided here.
The front form, Form2, requires only a command button (Command1) to
close the form, as the code restricting the cursor is called in Form2's Activate event.
|
Option Explicit
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Copyright ©1996-2011 VBnet/Randy Birch, All Rights Reserved.
' Some pages may also contain other copyrights by the author.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Distribution: You can freely use this code in your own
' applications, but you may not reproduce
' or publish this code on any web site,
' online service, or distribute as source
' on any media without express permission.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Private Type RECT
left As Long
top As Long
right As Long
bottom As Long
End Type
Private Type POINT
x As Long
y As Long
End Type
Private Declare Function ClipCursor Lib "user32" _
(lpRect As Any) As Long
Private Declare Function GetClientRect Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long, _
lpRect As RECT) As Long
Private Declare Function ClientToScreen Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long, _
lpPoint As POINT) As Long
Private Declare Function OffsetRect Lib "user32" _
(lpRect As RECT, _
ByVal x As Long, _
ByVal y As Long) As Long
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Unload Me
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
'Release the cursor restriction
ClipCursor ByVal 0&
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Activate()
'justOnce is used to prevent re-calling the API
'if another form is given focus. Removing the If..
'condition will reset the cursor restriction ONLY
'if the window that gained focus (via the
'keyboard/task list etc) is another form within the
'same project. If the clipped form has focus and
'another window (outside the project) is activated,
'on regaining focus the clipped form will not
'reset the clipping region because the form's
'Activate event is only called when activating forms
'within the application.
Static justOnce As Boolean
Dim rc As RECT
Dim topcorner As POINT
If Not justOnce Then
justOnce = True
GetClientRect Me.hwnd, rc
topcorner.x = rc.left
topcorner.y = rc.top
If ClientToScreen(Me.hwnd, topcorner) <> 0 Then
If OffsetRect(rc, topcorner.x, topcorner.y) <> 0 Then
Call ClipCursor(rc)
Caption = "Cursor is Trapped!"
End If
End If
End If
End Sub |
