By Jonathan Hosking
V2.12 (12.08.2001)

What is the TOffice97Button component?
How to install the TOffice97Button component
TOffice97Button reference
Revision history
Future ideas
Other components
Contacting me

The TOffice97Button component is a new component I have written for Delphi and C++Builder. It looks and acts like the controls (Buttons, radiobuttons, up buttons and down buttons) that appear in the Office Assistant balloons in Office 97 and Office 2000. It can be fully customised if desired. It has the following features: -

• Fully customisable source code, which can be edited if necessary.
• "Active" border & button glyphs, which change depending on the state of the control.
• "Active" button glyphs can be easily modified, positioned and turned on or off.
• Control can act like any control that appears in the Office Assistant balloons in Office 97 and Office 2000.
• A popup menu can be used with the control.
• Fully compatible with the TButton component. (It has all the properties and events of the TButton component)
• Works on Windows 95, NT and 2000. (I have not tested it with Windows 98)
• Compact size, only occupying 52KB when compiled in Delphi 1.0! (47KB in Delphi 6.0!)

The component code was written by modifying some code for an Internet Explorer-style button, written by Dave Jewell. Code from the TButton component was also used to write some handling routines and the code for creating a disabled bitmap was taken from the RX Library v2.40. The code works fine on Delphi 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 and C++Builder 3.0, but I have not tested it with other versions.

You are free to distribute the code, but you may NOT sell it. If you modify the code, you must include me in the acknowledgements. If you do want your ideas or modifications to be incorporated into the latest version, send them to the address at the end of this document.

Thanks to Kambiz for adding bi-directional support, auto height adjustment, transparency, the hover font property, actions, and fixing some other bugs.

Thanks to Michel for fixing a bug in the keyboard routines and helping with the auto transparency feature.

To unzip the TOffice97Button component, assuming [Program Path] is the path to Delphi or C++Builder, follow these steps: -

1. Unzip the file OFFBTN97.ZIP to any directory, using the directory switch (This is VERY important).
2. Copy the file OFFBTN.PAS to the directory [Program Path]\Source\Samples.
3. If you want documentation, copy the file OFFBTN97.HTM to the directory [Program Path]\Bin, if you are using Delphi 1.0. Otherwise, copy it to the directory [Program Path]\Help.
4. If you are using Delphi 1.0, copy the files in the 16-Bit directory of this Zip to the directory [Program Path]\Source\Samples. Otherwise copy the files in the 32-Bit directory of this Zip to the directory [Program Path]\Source\Samples.

You can now install the component into the component library. Ignore the 3 compiler warnings about variables not being initialised. Follow the procedure for the version of Delphi or C++Builder that you are using.

Delphi 1.0:

1. Click on Options and then select Install Components.
2. In the Install Components dialog, click Add. In the next dialog, click Browse and open the file OFFBTN.PAS.
3. Click Ok to install the component.

Delphi 2.0:

This procedure should also work with C++Builder 1.0, but I'm not sure.

1. Click on Component and select Install.
2. In the Install Components dialog, click Add. In the next dialog, click Browse and open the file OFFBTN.PAS.
3. Click Ok to install the component.

Delphi 4.0:

1. Click on Tools and select Environment Options.
2. In the next dialog, click on the Library tab and add the full path of the TOffice97Button source code to the Library Path edit box. Then click Ok.
3. Click on Component and select Install Component.
4. In the Install Component dialog, click on the Into existing package tab. Click on the first Browse button and open the file OFFBTN.PAS. Then click on the second Browse button and open the file DCLUSR40.DPK. Finally, click Ok to install the component.

Delphi 5.0:

1. Click on Tools and select Environment Options.
2. In the next dialog, click on the Library tab and add the full path of the TOffice97Button source code to the Library Path edit box. Then click Ok.
3. Click on Component and select Install Component.
4. In the Install Component dialog, click on the Into existing package tab. Click on the first Browse button and open the file OFFBTN.PAS. Then click on the second Browse button and open the file DCLUSR50.DPK. Finally, click Ok to install the component.

Delphi 6.0:

1. Click on Tools and select Environment Options.
2. In the next dialog, click on the Library tab and add the full path of the TOffice97Button source code to the Library Path edit box. Then click Ok.
3. Click on Component and select Install Component.
4. In the Install Component dialog, click on the Into existing package tab. Click on the first Browse button and open the file OFFBTN.PAS. Then click on the second Browse button and open the file DCLUSR.DPK. Finally, click Ok to install the component.

C++Builder 3.0:

This procedure should also work, with minor modifications, with Delphi 3.0, but I'm not sure.

1. Click on Tools and select Environment Options.
2. In the next dialog, click on the Library tab and add the full path of the TOffice97Button source code to the Library Path edit box. Then click Ok.
3. Click on Component and select Install Component.
4. In the Install Component dialog, click on the Into existing package tab. Click on the first Browse button and open the file OFFBTN.PAS. Then click on the second Browse button and open the file DCLUSR35.BPK. Finally, click Ok to install the component.

C++Builder 4.0:

This procedure should also work, with minor modifications, with C++Builder 5.0, but I'm not sure.

1. Click on Tools and select Environment Options.
2. In the next dialog, click on the Library tab and add the full path of the TOffice97Button source code to the Library Path edit box. Then click Ok.
3. Click on Component and select Install Component.
4. In the Install Component dialog, click on the Into existing package tab. Click on the first Browse button and open the file OFFBTN.PAS. Then click on the second Browse button and open the file DCLUSR40.BPK. Finally, click Ok to install the component.

Remarks:

You may wonder why 2 resource files are used with this component. There are several explanations for this: -

1. The DCR file could not be linked in, because doing so would cause a "Duplicate Resource Identifier" error.
2. The bitmaps in the RES file have to be linked in, otherwise they won't display properly. They can't be in the DCR file, as this would mean linking the DCR file, which would cause the error described above.
3. A RES file can't be used alone, as the error described above would occur and the component's icon would not be displayed.

The bitmaps used to indicate the status of the control can be edited by opening the file OFFBTN.RES. These bitmaps are the default bitmaps for every TOffice97Button component, so any changes will be global. The bitmaps are stored in the following names: -

• OFFICE_1 û Active state bitmap. (Button)
• OFFICE_2 û Disabled state bitmap. (Button)
• OFFICE_3 û Down state bitmap. (Button)
• OFFICE_4 û Inactive state bitmap. (Button)
• OFFICE_5 û Active state bitmap. (Radiobutton)
• OFFICE_6 û Disabled state bitmap. (Radiobutton)
• OFFICE_7 û Down state bitmap. (Radiobutton)
• OFFICE_8 û Inactive state bitmap. (Radiobutton)
• OFFICE_9 û Active state bitmap. (Up Button)
• OFFICE_10 û Disabled state bitmap. (Up Button)
• OFFICE_11 û Down state bitmap. (Up Button)
• OFFICE_12 û Inactive state bitmap. (Up Button)
• OFFICE_13 û Active state bitmap. (Down Button)
• OFFICE_14 û Disabled state bitmap. (Down Button)
• OFFICE_15 û Down state bitmap. (Down Button)
• OFFICE_16 û Inactive state bitmap. (Down Button)
• OFFICE_17 û Active state bitmap. (Office 2000 Radiobutton)
• OFFICE_18 û Disabled state bitmap. (Office 2000 Radiobutton)
• OFFICE_19 û Down state bitmap. (Office 2000 Radiobutton)
• OFFICE_20 û Inactive state bitmap. (Office 2000 Radiobutton)
• OFFICE_21 û Active state bitmap. (Office 2000 Help Button)
• OFFICE_22 û Disabled state bitmap. (Office 2000 Help Button)
• OFFICE_23 û Down state bitmap. (Office 2000 Help Button)
• OFFICE_24 û Inactive state bitmap. (Office 2000 Help Button)

The assumed transparent colour of the bitmaps is clBlack. This can be changed by modifying the fTransparentColor variable in the TOffice97Button.Create(AOwner: TComponent) constructor, or by modifying the TransparentColor property.

It is not advisable to reduce the control size. If you do, the control may not display exactly as it should. Text may disappear if the control becomes too small. There shouldn't be any fatal errors if the control size is decreased. You also should not delete any of the bitmaps, or rename them, as this will probably cause errors.

When the ControlType property is set to anything other than bsButton, the control frame is not drawn and the focus is drawn in the Office 97 or Office 2000 style. It is also a fixed size when text is word-wrapped, unless you change the control size.

Early versions of the component used the cmFocusChanged message to handle focus control. This was eventually replaced by the wmKillFocus and wmLostFocus messages in version 1.4, fixing a very annoying bug. However, the cmFocusChanged message is still called, to update the control, when the Default property is set.

If you are upgrading the component to version 1.9 or later of the control, you may find that the glyphs on any existing TOffice97Buttons disappear. If this happens, toggle the Office2000Look property on and off.

Known problems:

There are currently no problems with the control.

Key properties:

• property About: TOffBtnAbout default abNone;
  If you set this to abAbout, the component information is shown.
• property Action: TBasicAction;
  Allows you to assign an action to the control.
• property ActiveColor: TColor default $00808080;
  The colour of the control outline when it is active.
• property ActiveGlyph: TBitmap;
  The glyph to be displayed when the control is active. If the property is empty, the default active glyph is used.
• property ActiveOutlineColor: TColor default clWhite;
  The colour of the inside control outline when it is active.
• property ActiveOutlineColor2: TColor default $00D6E7E7;
  The colour of the second inside control outline when it is active.
• property Align;
  Determines how the control is aligned within its parent.
• property AutoHeight: Boolean default True;
  If this is set to True, the control automatically adjusts its own height.
• property AutoTransparency: Boolean default True;
  If this is set to True, the control uses the bottom left pixel of the glyph as the transparent colour.
• property BiDiMode;
  Determines if the control uses bi-directional support.
• property Cancel: Boolean;
  If this is set to True, the OnClick event occurs when you press ESC.
• property Caption: TCaption;
  This is what text appears in the control.
• property Color;
  Determines the colour of the control. The default ($00CCFFFF) is a yellowish colour.
• property ControlType: TOffBtnType default bsButton;
  Determines the type of control that is displayed.
• property Default: Boolean default False;
  If this is set to True, the OnClick event occurs when you press ENTER, even if the control isn't selected.
• property DisabledGlyph: TBitmap;
  The glyph to be displayed when the control is disabled. If the property is empty, the default disabled glyph is used.
• property DownActiveGlyph: TBitmap;
  The glyph to be displayed when the control is active and clicked. If the property is empty, the default active and clicked glyph is used.
• property DragCursor;
  Determines the mouse pointer that is displayed when an object is dragged over the control.
• property DragMode;
  If this is set to automatic, the control can be dragged and dropped at any time. If this is set to manual, the control can only be dragged when the BeginDrag method is called.
• property Enabled;
  If this is set to False, the control cannot be used until this is set to true.
• property Font;
  Determines the font that is used in the control.
• property HoverFont;
  Determines the font that is displayed when the mouse hovers over the control.
• property InactiveColor: TColor default clSilver;
  The colour of the control outline when it is inactive.
• property InactiveGlyph: TBitmap;
  The glyph to be displayed when the control is inactive. If the property is empty, the default inactive glyph is used.
• property ModalResult: TModalResult default 0;
  If this is not set to 0, the form containing the control closes and the value of ModalResult is sent to whatever called the ShowModal method for that form.
• property Office2000Look: Boolean default True;
  Determines if an Office 2000 look is applied to the control.
• property ParentBiDiMode;
  If this is set to True, the control uses the BiDiMode used by its parent.
• property ParentFont;
  If this is set to True, the control uses the font used by its parent.
• property ParentShowHint;
  If this is set to True, the parent of the control displays the hints.
• property PopupMenu;
  If this is set, right clicking the control displays the set popup menu.
• property Position: TGlyphPosition default bsLeft;
  This determines the position of the glyph on the control. When the ControlType property is not set to bsButton, the only accepted values are bsTop and bsBottom.
• property ShowGlyph: Boolean default True;
  If this is set to False, the glyph is not displayed on the control.
• property ShowHint;
  If this is set to True, the control displays its own popup hints.
• property TabOrder;
  This determines the order in which the controls in the parent are selected.
• property TabStop default True;
  If this is set to False, the Tab key can't be used to select the control focus.
• property Transparent default True;
  If this is set to True, the control is transparent.
• property TransparentColor: TColor default clBlack;
  Determines the transparent colour of the glyph.
• property UseCustomGlyphs: Boolean default False;
  If this is set to True, the custom glyphs will be displayed instead of the default glyphs.
• property Visible;
  If this is set to False, the control cannot be seen.
• property WordWrap: Boolean default True;
  If this is set to True, the text is word wrapped. If you set the ControlType property to anything other than bsButton, the Office 97 focus is used.

Key events:

• property OnClick: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when the control is selected.
• property OnDblClick: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when the control is double-clicked.
• property OnDragDrop: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when an object being dragged is dropped.
• property OnDragOver: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when an object is dragged over the control.
• property OnEndDrag: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs whenever the dragging of an object ends, either by dropping the object or by cancelling the dragging.
• property OnEnter: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when the control becomes active.
• property OnExit: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when the input focus switches from the control to another control.
• property OnKeyDown: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when a key is pressed while the control has focus.
• property OnKeyPress: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when a key is pressed.
• property OnKeyUp: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when a key, that was pressed, is released.
• property OnMouseDown: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when a mouse button is pressed with the pointer over the control.
• property OnMouseEnter: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when the mouse enters the control.
• property OnMouseExit: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when the mouse leaves the control.
• property OnMouseMove: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when the pointer is moved whilst over the control.
• property OnMouseUp: TNotifyEvent;
  Occurs when a mouse button that was pressed is released with the pointer over the control.

V2.12 (12.08.2001)

• Delphi 6.0 is now supported.

V2.11 (12.05.2001)

• Bug Fixed - Pressing the ENTER key didn't always trigger the OnClick event. Thanks to Michel for fixing this.

V2.1 (05.05.2001)

• New AutoTransparency property added, allowing the control automatically select the transparent colour. Thanks to Michel for helping with this.
• Bug Fixed - Pressing the control hotkey didn't always trigger the OnClick event. Thanks to Michel for fixing this.

V2.02 (15.04.2001)

• Bug Fixed û The control state was not always correctly set when the control was loading. Thanks to Kambiz for fixing this.
• Bug Fixed - The bitmap routines contained a small memory leak. Thanks to Kambiz for correcting the code.
• Bug Fixed - When the mouse was over the control, the parent window couldn't be closed using ALT + F4. Thanks to Kambiz for fixing this.

V2.01 (07.09.2000)

• Bug Fixed û The control state was not always correctly updated when the control was selected.

V2.0 (28.07.2000)

• New Action property added, allowing the control to use actions. Thanks to Kambiz for providing the code.
• New HoverFont property added, allowing a custom font to be displayed when the mouse hovers over the control. Thanks to Kambiz for providing the code.
• New Transparent property added, allowing the control to look transparent. Thanks to Kambiz for providing the code.

V1.91 (07.03.2000)

• Extended the ControlType property to include a bsHelpButton setting. This allows the control to look like a bulb label that appears in the Office 2000 Assistant balloons.

V1.9 (01.03.2000)

• New ActiveOutlineColor2 and Office2000Look properties added, adding Office 2000 features to the control.
• The default value of Color is now $00CCFFFF.
• The default value of ActiveColor is now $00808080.

V1.82 (22.12.1999)

• Bug Fixed û The control had a slight bug in the keyboard routines. Thanks to Kambiz for fixing it.
• Bug Fixed - The control did not work properly with modal forms. This was due to the mouse being captured when it should not have been.
• Changed the default value of the Color property to the actual colour ($00E1FFFF).

V1.81 (21.11.1999)

• Bug Fixed û The auto height adjustment code had a few inaccuracies. Thanks to Kambiz for fixing it.

V1.8 (30.10.1999)

• New BiDiMode and ParentBiDiMode properties added, allowing bi-directional support. Thanks to Kambiz for providing the code.
• New AutoHeight property added, allowing the control to automatically adjust its own height. Thanks to Kambiz for providing the code.

V1.7 (04.09.1999)

• Delphi 5.0 is now supported.

V1.69 (17.08.1999)

• Added a message hook to help reduce flickering.

V1.68 (12.08.1999)

• Bug Fixed û The control now correctly recognises C++Builder 4.0.
• Updated the drawing routines to reduce flicker on the control.

V1.67 (25.05.1999)

• C++Builder 3.0 is now supported.
• Code documentation has been slightly improved, though there is still more room for improvement.

V1.66 (16.03.1999)

• Bug Fixed û The control state didn't update correctly when using modal forms.

V1.65 (19.02.1999)

• Bug Fixed û Wouldn't compile in Delphi 3.0 and 4.0 due to difference between TCustomForm and TForm. It should now compile all right.

V1.64 (22.01.1999)

• Bug Fixed û An error was generated when the user displayed only text using a control style other than bsButton.
• The text is positioned slightly more accurately to improve the control's appearance.

V1.63 (09.12.1998)

• Bug Fixed û The keyboard routines didn't work correctly due to an error in the focus handling routines.
• New About property added, allowing the user to display information about the component.

V1.62 (30.08.1998)

• Bug Fixed û The positioning routine did not work correctly for bsBottom or bsRight.
• Bug Fixed û If the control was too small to accommodate any text, it produced errors.

V1.61 (05.05.1998)

• Bug Fixed û The control did not work correctly when it was top of or below other TOffice97Button components.

V1.6 (26.02.1998)

• New UseCustomGlyphs property added, allowing custom glyphs to be turned on or off.
• The control now uses a new transparent routine to draw the glyphs. This is a lot better than the method used in previous versions.
• The control uses new routine to create a disabled bitmap if one is not already specified.

V1.5 (08.02.1998)

• New WordWrap property added, allowing text to be word wrapped, if required.
• The control now uses the Office 97 focus when the ControlStyle property is not set to bsButton. The control should now look almost exactly like the real thing.

V1.4 (01.02.1998)

• Bug Fixed û The control did not update itself when switching between windows. This is the most annoying bug, to date, to have been fixed!
• The focus now looks like it should when the control is in the bsDown state.
• The control painting procedures have been slightly improved.

V1.3 (27.01.1998)

• The control now uses a new control frame, improving its appearance.
• The default values of Height and Width are now 23 and 70.

V1.2 (26.01.1998)

• The control now uses 256 colour glyphs, improving the appearance.
• New ControlType property added, allowing the user to display any control (Button, radiobutton, up button and down button) that appears in the Office Assistant balloons in Office 97. As each type of control uses different glyphs, there are now even more bitmaps, which has dramatically increased the size of the RES file.
• The default value of Color is now $00CEFFFF.
• The default value of TransparentColor is now clBlack.
• The default value of ActiveColor is now clGray.
• The default value of InactiveColor is now clSilver.

V1.1 (01.01.1998)

• Bug Fixed û If the Default property was set to true, the control didn't respond to the Enter key when it didn't have the focus.
• The control now uses a new routine to draw the focus. This is better than the old routine used in previous versions, as the new focus looks similar to a real focus.
• The control now only updates itself when necessary.
• New ActiveGlyph, DisabledGlyph, DownActiveGlyph and InactiveGlyph properties added, allowing the user to use custom glyphs without modifying the OFFBTN.RES file.
• New events added, including OnDragDrop, OnDragOver, OnEndDrag, OnEnter, OnExit, OnKeyDown, OnKeyPress and OnKeyUp.
• New PopupMenu property added, allowing the control to use popup menus.
• New Position property added, allowing the glyph to be positioned on the control in 4 different places.
• New ShowGlyph property added, allowing the user to turn the glyphs on or off.
• Other new properties added, including DragCursor, DragMode, ModalResult and TransparentColor.

V1.01 (10.12.1997)

• Bug Fixed û When the user clicked the control and released the mouse button, the control acted as if it had been clicked again.
• Code is now documented in some areas to show what is happening, although most remains undocumented.

V1.0 (09.12.1997)

• Initial release.

I currently only have one idea for future versions of the TOffice97Button component. It is listed below: -

• Improved control updating, so it doesn't flicker unnecessarily.

Below is a list other components that I have written: -

• TLCD99 û A control that looks like an LCD display.
• TOffice97Balloon û A control that looks and acts like the Office Assistant balloons in Office 97.
• TYearPlanner û A control that looks like a year planner.

I am currently on the Internet. If you have any bug reports, comments, ideas, modifications, etc. then you can Email me at the address given below. You can also go to my web site to find out the latest information on my components.

Email: jonathan@the-hoskings.freeserve.co.uk
WWW: http://www.the-hoskings.freeserve.co.uk/