Menu class

A Menu is an item in a Win32 native menu — either a top-level entry on a Form’s or MDIForm’s menu bar, an entry in a drop-down sub-menu, or a separator bar between groups of related commands. Menus are a non-windowed control: they have no Left / Top / Width / Height, no font, and no mouse or keyboard events of their own — they are populated, structured, and bound to handlers at design time through the form’s menu editor.

The default property is Enabled and the default event is Click.

Private Sub Form_Load()
    mnuFileSave.Enabled = False     ' grey out until there is something to save
End Sub

Private Sub mnuFileSave_Click()
    SaveDocument
End Sub

Private Sub mnuViewToolbar_Click()
    mnuViewToolbar.Checked = Not mnuViewToolbar.Checked
    Toolbar1.Visible = mnuViewToolbar.Checked
End Sub

Caption and separators

Caption supplies the text drawn for the menu item. Two Caption values have special meaning:

  • An ampersand (&) marks the next character as a keyboard mnemonic — pressing Alt + that letter while the menu is open invokes the item, and the letter is underlined in the rendered menu. Use && to display a literal ampersand.
  • A Caption consisting of a single hyphen ("-") renders the item as a horizontal separator bar between the surrounding entries. Separator items still receive their own Click events if invoked programmatically, but the user cannot reach them with the keyboard or mouse.
mnuFileNew.Caption    = "&New"          ' Alt+N while File is open
mnuFileSep1.Caption   = "-"             ' separator bar
mnuFileSaveAs.Caption = "Save &As..."   ' Alt+A

Shortcut keys

ShortcutId binds a keyboard accelerator to the menu item. It is typed as ShortcutConstants — vbShortcutNone disables the accelerator, vbShortcutCtrlS binds Ctrl+S, and so on across the function-key, Shift+, and Ctrl+ ranges. When set, the Win32 runtime appends the corresponding text after a tab character in the rendered Caption — Save\tCtrl+S — so the shortcut appears right-aligned in the menu, the conventional way.

mnuFileSave.ShortcutId = vbShortcutCtrlS
mnuFilePrint.ShortcutId = vbShortcutCtrlP

Note

The hidden Shortcut String property exists only to round-trip the raw text imported from VB6 .frm files; it is not consulted at run time. New code should use ShortcutId.

twinBASIC extends the classic VB6 menu with optional 16×16 (or arbitrary-sized) icons drawn beside the caption. Assign a StdPicture to Picture and the bitmap is rendered to the left of the caption text. When the supplied picture is a multi-resolution .ico, IconSizeX and IconSizeY pick which embedded image to use; left at 0 (the default), the picture is loaded at its natural size.

Set mnuFileSave.Picture = LoadResPicture("MNU_SAVE", vbResBitmap)
mnuFileSave.IconSizeX = 16
mnuFileSave.IconSizeY = 16

Control arrays

A control array of menus is the standard way to build a most-recently-used file list, a dynamic Window sub-menu, or a list of plug-in commands. The array is declared at design time on the first item; further items are added at run time with Load and removed with Unload, exactly as for a windowed control. Inside a Click handler shared by every item in the array, Index identifies which one was picked.

Private Sub mnuRecent_Click(Index As Integer)
    OpenDocument mnuRecent(Index).Tag       ' Tag holds the file path
End Sub

Index raises run-time error 343 (Object not an array) when read on a menu that is not part of a control array.

Window list (MDI)

When the form hosting the menu is an MDIForm, setting WindowList to True at design time turns this menu into the application’s Window sub-menu — the runtime auto-populates it with one entry per open MDI child, marks the active child with a checkmark, and routes a click on any of those entries to SetFocus on the corresponding child. The application typically combines this with an explicit Cascade / Tile sub-menu that calls Arrange on the parent.

Properties

Caption

The text drawn for the menu item. String. An ampersand marks the next character as a mnemonic; && produces a literal ampersand. A Caption of "-" renders the item as a horizontal separator. Assignments are reflected immediately in any visible menu bar or pop-up.

Syntax: object.Caption [ = string ]

Checked

Whether a checkmark is drawn next to the item. Boolean, default False. Setting it on a top-level (menu-bar) item is supported but visually unusual; the conventional use is on drop-down items that toggle a setting.

Syntax: object.Checked [ = boolean ]

ControlType

A read-only ControlTypeConstants value identifying this control as a menu. Always vbMenuControl.

Enabled

Whether the user can pick the item. A disabled menu item is drawn greyed out and ignores mouse and keyboard activation, including its ShortcutId accelerator. Boolean, default True. Default property.

Syntax: object.Enabled [ = boolean ]

Disabling a top-level menu-bar item disables its entire drop-down. The runtime rebuilds the menu state when Enabled changes, so the change is visible immediately.

HelpContextID

Note

Reserved for VB6 compatibility; not currently implemented in twinBASIC.

A Long that, in VB6, identified a topic in the application’s help file shown when the user pressed F1 with the menu item highlighted.

IconSizeX

When Picture is a multi-resolution .ico, the horizontal size in pixels of the embedded image to load. Long, default 0 (use the picture’s natural size). Pair with IconSizeY.

IconSizeY

The vertical counterpart to IconSizeX. Long, default 0.

Index

When the menu is part of a control array, the Long zero-based index of this instance within the array. Read-only at run time. Raises run-time error 343 (Object not an array) on a menu that is not part of an array.

Name

The unique design-time name of the menu on its parent form. String, read-only at run time. Inherited from the base control class.

NegotiatePosition

Note

Reserved for compatibility with VB6’s ActiveX-document menu negotiation feature; not currently implemented in twinBASIC.

Typed as NegotiatePositionConstants (vbNoNegotiate, vbLeft, vbMiddle, vbRight) — VB6 used this to decide where a top-level menu should appear in the host application’s menu bar when an ActiveX document was activated.

Parent

A reference to the Form (or MDIForm / UserControl) that contains this menu. Read-only.

Picture

A StdPicture drawn to the left of the caption. twinBASIC extension — VB6 menus could not display icons. Assigning Nothing removes the icon. Icons are converted to bitmaps internally; pass a bitmap directly to skip the conversion. Pair with IconSizeX / IconSizeY for multi-resolution .ico files.

Syntax:

  • object.Picture [ = picture ]
  • Set object.Picture = picture

Shortcut

Note

Hidden, read-only, and unused at run time — exists only to round-trip the raw shortcut text imported from VB6 .frm files. Use ShortcutId to bind an accelerator.

ShortcutId

The keyboard accelerator bound to this menu item. A member of ShortcutConstants — vbShortcutNone (no accelerator, default), vbShortcutCtrlA through vbShortcutCtrlZ, vbShortcutF1 through vbShortcutF12, and the Shift+, Ctrl+, and Shift+Ctrl+ function-key variants. When set, the matching shortcut text is appended to Caption (after a tab) when the menu is rendered.

Syntax: object.ShortcutId [ = value ]

Tag

A free-form String the application can use to associate custom data with the menu item. Ignored by the framework. Inherited from the base control class. Useful for control arrays — e.g. holding the file path that an MRU-list entry should open.

Visible

Whether the menu item is shown. Boolean, default True. Setting it to False removes the entry from the menu without unloading it; setting it back to True restores it in its original position. Hiding a top-level menu-bar item rebuilds the menu bar so the surrounding items close the gap.

Syntax: object.Visible [ = boolean ]

WindowList

When True on a menu hosted by an MDIForm, turns this menu into the application’s Window sub-menu — the runtime auto-populates it with one entry per open MDI child and routes the resulting click to SetFocus on the corresponding child. Boolean, read-only at run time — set at design time. At most one menu per MDI form should have WindowList set.

Methods

Container

Returns a reference to the Control that hosts this menu — typically the Form or MDIForm that owns the menu structure. Equivalent to traversing Parent for a top-level menu, but defined on every menu (including sub-items) so it can be called uniformly.

Syntax: object.Container

Events

Click

Raised when the user picks the menu item — by clicking it, pressing its mnemonic while the menu is open, or pressing its ShortcutId accelerator. Also raised when PopUpMenu selects an item. Default event.

Syntax: object_Click( )

For a menu that is part of a control array, the handler receives the array Index of the picked item:

Syntax: object_Click( Index As Integer )