A Multiple Document Interface application (MDI) consists of a parent window that holds the menu, toolbars, and status bar, and any number of MDI child windows. Adding the ActiveBar control to an MDI parent is much the same as adding it to an SDI application.

This walkthrough is split up into the following activities.

Adding the ActiveBar control to an MDI form
Adding tools to the parent form
Creating popup menus and adding the MDI parent menu bar
Adding MDI child menus
Adding code to the ActiveBar ToolClick event
Running the MDI application

This walkthrough instructs you in how to create a basic MDI application. When you have completed the walkthrough, your MDI application will resemble the following.

Adding the ActiveBar control to an MDI form

To add the ActiveBar control to an MDI form

Create a new Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Standard EXE project.
From the Project menu, select Add MDI Form, set its Name property to mdiparentForm, and set its Caption property to MDI Parent Form.
Select Form1 and set its Name property to mdichildForm and its Caption property to MDI Child Form.
In the Project Explorer, right-click the project and select Project Properties.
On the General tab under Startup Object, select mdiparentForm and click OK.
Select mdichildForm and set the MDIChild property to True.
Add the ActiveBar control to mdiparentForm.
Right-click the ActiveBar control on mdiparentForm and select Properties to open the ActiveBar Designer.
In the ToolbarStyle property of the ActiveBar, select a look and feel for your application.

Adding tools to the parent form

To add tools to the parent form

Open the ActiveBar designer and right-click the Categories node in the Designer tree view and choose Insert. Name the new category Commands.
Insert a second category and name it Menu.
Right-click the Commands category and select Button. Set the Name property to newMIFile and the Caption property to &New.
Right-click the Menu category and add the following controls.

Control Name Caption

Button fileMenu &File

Button windowMenu &Window

Control	Name	Caption
Button	fileMenu	&File
Button	windowMenu	&Window

Creating popup menus and adding the MDI parent menu bar

To create popup menus and add the MDI parent menu bar

Right-click the Bands node and add the following bands.

Band Name Caption

Menu Bar mdiparentBand MDI Parent Band

Popup Menu filePopup File Menu

Popup Menu windowPopup Window Menu
From the Menu category, drag fileMenu and windowMenu onto mdiparentBand.
Right-click windowPopup and select Window List. Set the Name property to mdichildWindowList and the Caption property to Child Windows List.
From the Commands category, drag newMIFile and drop it onto filePopup.
Under mdiparentBand, select fileMenu and set its SubBand property to filePopup.
Select windowMenu and set its SubBand property to windowPopup.
Click Apply to see the bar and menus appear on mdiparentForm.

Band	Name	Caption
Menu Bar	mdiparentBand	MDI Parent Band
Popup Menu	filePopup	File Menu
Popup Menu	windowPopup	Window Menu

Adding MDI child menus

To add MDI child menus

Right-click the Bands node in the Designer tree view, select Child Menu Bar. Set the Name property to mdichildBand and the Caption property to MDI Child Band.
Using your mouse and the SHIFT or CTRL key, select fileMenu and windowMenu in the Menu category and drag them onto mdichildBand.
Under mdichildBand, select fileMenu and set the SubBand property to filePopup.
Select windowMenu set the SubBand property to windowPopup.
Click OK to close the Designer.

Go to the code view of mdichildForm and add the following code to the Form_Load event to attach the child menu.

' The mdichildForm Load Event. Private Sub Form_Load() mdiparentForm.ActiveBar31.RegisterChildMenu Me.hWnd, "mdichildBand" counter = counter + 1 Me.Caption = "MDI Child Form " & counter End Sub

Adding code to the ActiveBar ToolClick event

To add code to the ActiveBar ToolClick event

In the mdiparentForm, double-click the ActiveBar control to go to the code view and create the ToolClick event.

Add the following code to the event to show a new MDI child form and set its name when the newMIFile button is clicked.

Dim counter As Integer Private Sub ActiveBar31_ToolClick(ByVal Tool As ActiveBar3LibraryCtl.Tool) If Tool.Name = "newMIFile" Then counter = counter + 1 Dim newMDIChild As New MDIChildForm newMDIChild.Caption = "MDI Child Form " & counter newMDIChild.Show End If End Sub

From the Object drop-down list, select MDIForm to create the MDIForm_Load event and add the following code to reset the counter each time the parent form is loaded.
```
Private Sub MDIForm_Load()
    counter = 0
End Sub
```

Running the MDI application

To run the MDI application

Click the Save button in Visual Studio and press F5 to run the application.
From the File menu, select New to open a new MDI child window inside the MDI parent window.
Click the Window menu to view the list of open child windows.

Walkthrough: Multiple Document Interface