well now i have a lil more time to work on projects, i've finally finished debugging this one . its the first of a load o' generic controls i'll be creating for nk5, and like everything else of mine its open-source freeware .

currently it adds shape, transparency, and topmost properties to forms... well... actually there properties of the control, but they effect the form its sat on... and if i can work out how to return the colour of individual pixels in a picture object (object, not control!!!) then it won't need to change the forms picture property any more, and should be a lil faster .

just stick it on a form, point the shape property to an image file, preferably a bmp, and run the project . all properties are explained in the lil description box thingy so it should be easy to use. there also all functional at runtime too, not just design time .

send the ocx to regsvr32 or just recompile its source before trying to use. will then appear in the project-components dialog as "advanced window properties - freefornow.co.uk" somewhere at the top of the list.

have fun .

http://62.164.176.91/temp/AutoSkin.zip

API Guide - VB/MySQL - W3Schools - WinsockVB

These is a nice control.......but i am having problems with the shape part.
It gets the correct shape but it is not lined up correctly.
Is there a trick making the shape file.bmp?

And i have an idea for some thing to add to it.
have it show the form when you move the mouse over the transparent part (like windows media player) so that users can still click on the [x] to exit.


KlinerDraken

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KlinerDraken

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http://new.kd-radio.com

could you post a screenshot? i'm not 100% sure what you mean by "not lined up correctly".

note however, that because using the forms picture property is only temporary, and with any luck the image and shape will soon be completely seperate properties, i've purposefully allowed all borderstyles to be used. i do recommend setting to 0 though (borderless).

unfortunately windows media player doesn't quite work in the same way. that doesn't actually reshape a window, it simply turns some parts transparent (in appearence), meaning the mouse events can still be trapped in these 'transparent' areas. my control actually cuts away chunks of window, which effectively masks where mouse events for that window can be handled. would be a nice feature if it was possible, but i'm 99% sure its not.

API Guide - VB/MySQL - W3Schools - WinsockVB

I think you would probably have to capture mouse movements outside the form and reload the forms image because like ric said it doesn't make the form transparent, it actualy 'cuts' the form down to size.

Ric are you going to be adding a drag property to the control? also it's very similar to a control I saw around here before, can't think what it is or who made it......lol

It was the border that was messing up the shape. Thanx

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KlinerDraken

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http://new.kd-radio.com

i was planning on adding drag events but when i looked back at nk4 (which is what i'm taking apart to build this control) it seems i used modules and called handles from standard vb events to do that, which makes it near impossible to convert to an automated control.

and yes lol, it is pretty similar to yours . i can honestly say nothing was copied from your version though . actually the code i used for nk4 was ripped from another control, and this control is being written from code i've ripped (and cleaned up) from nk4, so really i'm just rebuilding a more complex version of the control i first took apart anyway, only this is being written with the primary goal of making nk5 one hell of a lot easier to write and work with, while at the same time keeping it generic so i can release it as a seperate freefornow project . i could have used your control as it was already available to me, but then it wouldn't be exactly what i need... kinda like people still write f1 games even though there all pretty much the same anyway.

API Guide - VB/MySQL - W3Schools - WinsockVB