Band Properties

ActiveBar allows you to easily design toolbars to your specification through a variety of properties and methods using the ActiveBar Band object.

DockingArea, DockingOffset, and DockLine Properties

The DockingArea property specifies where on the form the toolbar appears.
The DockingOffset property sets the amount of space between the form and the docked band.
The DockLine property determines the amount of space between a band and the form.

In addition to setting these properties in the ActiveBar designer, you can drag the toolbar to the desired location on the form.

GrabHandleStyle Property

The GrabHandleStyle property enables and disables the GrabHandle, and sets one of the eight different GrabHandle styles.

DisplayMoreToolsButton Property

ActiveBar's DisplayMoreTools button behaves similarly to the Microsoft Office 2000 DisplayMoreTools button. When clicked, the drop-down list displays the Add and Remove Button for quick toolbar customization. If no tools display in the band, an indicator appears in the band to let the user know more tools are available if they increase the width of the form. Be aware that this button will not appear on the band unless the DisplayMoreToolsButton property to True.

MouseTracking Property

The MouseTracking property specifies how a tool looks when the mouse hovers over it. When set to Bevel, ActiveBar emulates the Bevel state of Microsoft Office applications. When set to Color, a tool image appears unavailable until the mouse pointer moves over the tool. The ActiveBar Color state renders identically to that of Internet Explorer. In addition, each tool can have an image that changes depending on one of four states, Normal, Pressed, Hover, and Disabled. To match tool images with tool states just create or load a different image for each state.

When setting the WrapTools property to True, tools will wrap on the toolbar if the form width is smaller than the toolbar width.

Flags

The Flag property allows you to add to or remove specific toolbar functionality from your bands.

Docking Flags

You can check or uncheck one of the Docking flags to set a toolbar to dock to the top, bottom, left, or right side of a form. The default setting is Top. You can also set the Flag property to Float to create a Floating Toolbar. When floating, the toolbar defaults to the top left (0, 0) of the screen unless you specify different Left and Top values.

Customize and Hide Flags

The Customize flag specifies whether the user can customize the tools that populate a toolbar. Customization options include removing the tool from the toolbar or moving the tool to a different toolbar. The Hide flag indicates whether a toolbar becomes invisible either by clearing the toolbar selection on the system context menu or clicking the Close button on the toolbar.

Sizer, Stretch, and Close Flags

Setting the Sizer, Stretch and Close flags adds extended functionality to your toolbars.

When you set the Sizer flag for a band, the user can drag the edge of the toolbar to resize it.
The Stretch flag makes the toolbar extend to the full width of the form.
The Close flag adds an X or Close button to the GrabHandle. This button allows the user to easily hide the toolbar.

Levels of Customization

Choosing from one of the five following levels allows you to limit or broaden the amount of access your users have to application customization.

Level 1 - Prevent user from customizing (deleting, moving, renaming) band tools.

Clear the selection for the band Customize flag.

Note: Clearing the selection for these flags prevents the DisplayMoreTool button from displaying.

Level 2 - Prevent user from customizing tools and hiding the band.

Clear the selection for the Customize and Hide flags.

Note: Clearing the selection for the Hide flag removes the band from the System Customize menu and the Toolbars tab in the Customize dialog.

Level 3 - Prevent user from customizing tools, hiding, and moving the band.

Clear the selection for the band Customize and Hide flags
Check the band Fixed flag
Optionally, set the Toolbar GrabHandleStyle property value to ddGSNone.

Level 4 - Disable all user customization options.

Clear the selection for the Customize band and Hide flags.
Check the Fixed flag
In the BandOpen event, when the system customize menu appears, set the Cancel property to True.

If Band.Name = "SysCustomize" Then ' Stops system customize menu from being displayed. Cancel = True End If

Set the UserDefinedCustomization property to True. Setting this flag prevents the default Customize dialog from displaying if the user double-clicks to the right of the top-aligned toolbars.

Level 5 - Display personalized customize dialog.

Set the ActiveBar UserDefinedCustomization property to True.
In the CustomizeBegin event call the Customize method to set ddCTCustomizeStart and display your Customize dialog.

Private Sub ActiveBar31_CustomizeBegin() ' Start user customization. ActiveBar31.Customize ddCTCustomizeStart customizeForm.Show End Sub

Designing Bands