asked on

How do you get the App with Focus' Title Bar text?

How do you find the title bar text for the application that has the focus? For example, say i were to load "Notepad" by dclicking it on my desktop, giving it focus. Now how would i go about letting my vb program knowing what that "in focus" app's title bar text is? In this case it should return back: "Untitled - Notepad". If i were to switch focus to another running app then my program should pick up that app's text too.

Thanks/

caraf_g

Use the GetForegroundWindow and GetWindowText Apis.

caraf_g

Sorry, that should've been a comment.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

mcrider

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caraf_g

er..... ?

aniston

ASKER

Would you also know how to Set focus onto an app?

caraf_g

Not recommended. But check out the SetForegroundWindow API

mcrider

You can do this with the VB native command AppActivate, however, it you want to do this with APIs, you need to do this (you need to have the window handle to do this, GetForegroundWindow returns a window handle)

Add the following to a module:

' ShowWindow() Commands
Public Const SW_HIDE = 0
Public Const SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1
Public Const SW_NORMAL = 1
Public Const SW_SHOWMINIMIZED = 2
Public Const SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED = 3
Public Const SW_MAXIMIZE = 3
Public Const SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE = 4
Public Const SW_SHOW = 5
Public Const SW_MINIMIZE = 6
Public Const SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE = 7
Public Const SW_SHOWNA = 8
Public Const SW_RESTORE = 9
Public Const SW_SHOWDEFAULT = 10
Public Const SW_MAX = 10

Declare Function SetFocusAPI Lib "user32" Alias "SetFocus" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
Declare Function SetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
Declare Function ShowWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nCmdShow As Long) As Long

Then you can do:

SetFocusAPI iVal
SetForegroundWindow iVal

You may also want to show the window if it's minimized:

ShowWindow iVal, SW_SHOWNORMAL

Cheers!®©

caraf_g

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

mcrider

By the way, if you want to know if the window is minimized and you need to show it, add the following to a module:

Public Const WS_MINIMIZE = &H20000000
Public Const GWL_STYLE = (-16)
Declare Function GetWindowLong Lib "user32" _
Alias "GetWindowLongA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, _
ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long
Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long

Dim lWinfo As Long
Dim lhWnd As Long

lhWnd = FindWindow(vbNullString, "Win32api.txt - WordPad")
lWinfo = GetWindowLong(lhWnd, GWL_STYLE)
If (lWinfo And WS_MINIMIZE) = WS_MINIMIZE Then
Debug.Print "minimized"
Else
Debug.Print "not minimized"
End If

By the way, I am using the FindWindow API above to find the window handle... To use it, all you have to do is pass the title of the window as the 2nd argument...

Cheers!®©

mcrider

In my last comment, everything before the "Dim" statements go in a module.. Everything after goes in a subroutine...

Cheers!®©

mcrider