Why don't I get hotkey underlines in a Delphi TMainMenu - delphi

In a Delphi 2007 program I am using a TMainMenu referencing actions in a TAction list. I have prefixed the hotkeys of all main captions with an ampersand:
&File | &Edit | Ev&aluate | ...
In design view these hotkeys are underlined as I would expect, but when I start the program they no longer are underlined but they work nonetheless. In contrast to this, for all the submenu icons
&File
&New ...
&Open ...
the underline is shown as expected.
I am aware of the Windows pisplay properties option "Hide underlined letters or keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key." and have disabled it. In all other programs this works fine, including the Delphi IDE.
If I create a new VCL appliation and just add a TMainMenu and a few menu items, it works as expected.
This has me baffled, really.
Is there any property of the TMainMenu component or maybe an application option that I must change? The "Enable runtime themes" project option is grayed out for some reason, might that be the problem? If yes, what causes this?

This may not be a Delphi issue. I have just tried this with IE8 on WinXP. On my machine, with the display properties set to require the Alt key, the underlining works as expected. However, with the checkbox unchecked, the underlining never appears on the main menu items (even when using the Alt key), but always appears on the File,Edit,View etc submenus (as you describe) ........ unless Microsoft wrote IE8 in Delphi :-)

I asked the same question last year and there were some excellent answers:
Menu Accelerator Keys Not Showing Up Delphi 2009
In conclusion, it appears to be a Delphi bug, and I reported it to Embarcadero at:
http://qc.embarcadero.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=68816
However, they have no resolution to it, so unless others (maybe you) also complain, I don't expect it will get addressed.
Step's answer to my question refers to a possibly related bug reported on the Delphi forums:
ALT Key press causes controls to disappear under Themes in Vista and XP. This one is marked as "resolved" with several possible fixes listed in the comments. I have not had the opportunity to go through these.
By the way, since I asked that question last year, I got a new computer with Vista. The same problem still happens, even when the Vista Ease of Access Centre setting: "Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys" is set. So the Delphi bug still exists.
I was very surprised to find the default was that this was unchecked. I guess in Vista, they want a cleaner looking menu with the assumption that not many people ever used the accelerator keys.

The easiest way to fix this problem seems to use TJvMainMenu from the jvcl instead of TMainMenu. I tried the current version 3.38, but it is possible that the problem was fixed already in earlier versions. Since I was using the jvcl anyway it does not add much to my program's size. Your mileage may vary though, the jvcl is a huge library.

Uses an empty image list for main menu, if it is possible. In this way you can force delphi to paint menu correctly. (But looks ugly in vista and w7)

Are you sure you don't have OwnerDraw set to true in the MainMenu?

Related

Does CancelEdit work on TListItem in a TListView in Delphi?

If I try
ListView1.items[0].EditCaption;
it works as expected allowing me to edit the first items caption, however if while editing I try
ListView1.items[0].CancelEdit;
It does not cancel the editing. Is there some concept I'm missing, is it a bug, or is the help wrong?
This seems to be a problem in Delphi 2007 and XE2 (and probably others).
I think this is a problem with the native control, the VCL does as documented (calls ListView_EditLabel(Handle, -1);), but to no effect. According to the documentation of ListView_GetEditControl, sending the list view a WM_CANCELMODE should also work, which it doesn't.
A test here shows the below works,
winapi.windows.SetFocus(ListView1.Handle);
interestingly ListView1.SetFocus doesn't.

TRibbon does not show tabs

I am running Delphi 2010 on both a 64 bit windows machine (Win 7), and a 32 bit windows machine (XP).
I am trying to learn how to use the TRibbon control.
I have been following the example in Marco Cantu's 2009 Handbook and watching YouTube Demos, but my control is not working like that as explained in the book or demos.
I added two tabs, by right clicking the control. However, the TRibbon looked as exactly as it does in my screenshot, when i drop it on the main form. It is not as high as the ones in the books or youtube demos.
I have tried the same thing on my Win 32 laptop running Windows Xp and Delphi 2010 and get the exact same results
here is what it looks like on my machine
here is what it is suppose to look like in a demo
Once again. When it drop it on the form, it does not take the shape and height as that as i see in the demos. Even when i add tabs. Did i do something wrong during my Delphi 2010 installation?
I managed finally to reproduce the problem in Delphi XE (Update 1) on Win7 64 with Aero enabled. It seems that the size gets set wrong in the .DFM file, and because the Ribbon doesn't support manual resizing you can't visually fix it in the IDE (although it appears correctly at runtime) or in the Object Inspector. It occasionally appears correctly at runtime, but it seems that's sporadic as well.
It's a nasty bug, because it makes it impossible to design the Ribbon. You can add RibbonGroup items, and assign the ActionManager, and try and design it completely using the Structure Pane, but of course that's not a practical solution.
Fortunately, there's a pretty easy workaround, although it's annoying to have to do. :)
I managed twice to get the following workaround to function, but starting over it failed to work several times, so it's a possible way around it (no promises - worked in XE, consistently failed in XE2 Update 2):
Right-click on the Ribbon and add at least one tab.
Right click on the form in the IDE, and choose View as Text from the context (pop-up) menu.
Find the Ribbon control in the .dfm text, and change the Height from the 26 that the IDE assigned to 200. (The next step will adjust it, but that's fine - the 200 fixes the immediate problem.)
Right-click again, and choose View as Form, and the Ribbon should display correctly.
(I reported it in QC against XE2 Update 2, as the problem also exists there - QC #101642)
I traced it to TCustomRibbon.GetCaptionHeight, specifically
FCaptionHeight := Max(GetSystemMetrics(SM_CYCAPTION), 26);
It seems like the GetSystemMetrics call is returning something less than 26 on certain Win7 configurations (although I can't figure out why yet). There are a couple of commented lines in that method that seem to alter the result, but as I said they've been commented out.
The strange part is that in the TCustomRibbon.Create, the Height is set by a call to GetRibbonMetric(rmFullHeight), which sets the Result := cRibbonHeight + GetCaptionHeight;, and cRibbonHeight is a constant defined as cRibbonHeight = 117;.
Finally think I've tracked this down. In the declaration of TRibbon, there's a published property declaration:
published
...
property Height default TCustomRibbon.cRibbonHeight;
Because this is the default, it appears that any other value means that the call to GetRibbonMetric mentioned above doesn't happen (see the TCustomRibbon.Create mentioned above), and the strange result from the call to GetSystemMetric causes the erroneous value 26 to be saved as the 'other value`. Wierd; will update the QC in the AM.
Addendum: Updated QC report with additional details.
Addendum: QC report opened in May 2012, but does not appear to have been resolved as of XE5 Update 1 (checked Jan 2014).

Delphi: Win7 side effect with forms

Win7/x64, Delphi 6 Prof.
Win7 drives me crazy with his side effect. I describe it:
When I force the suggestion with Ctrl+Space, or Delphi do this automatically, the Delphi don't show the suggestion dropdown listbox, he is only bring my all opened forms to front, one by one.
This causes that what I typing is not going to editor window: it is going to any property of the active form, of the active control.
For example.
Ctrl+Space+"ShowMes..."
I don't got ShowMessage with suggestion listbox, I type ShowMess into my main form's caption.
Many times I need to make update pack's because the buttons, caption, etc got "ShowMes" or "Excep" or other property, because I type into these windows...
This function is sometimes broken on win7.
May I can restore the normal working mode without "bring all opened form to front"?
Thanks:
dd
You can disable UAC in Windows 7, see here:
http://www.petri.co.il/disable-uac-in-windows-7.htm
Also running Delphi 6 in Windows XP compatibility mode should do the trick.
See this discussion on the embarcadero forums, it's about Delphi 7, but it's the same issue:
https://forums.codegear.com/thread.jspa?messageID=204928&tstart=0
Finally see here how to run a program in XP compatibility mode:
See: http://www.w7forums.com/application-compatibility-mode-t314.html
Or: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/316-compatibility-mode.html

How to set Delphi bookmarks on Vista 64-bit

In Delphi (2007) I'm used to setting a bookmark with CTRL-SHIFT-0,1,2 etc.
Since I've upgraded to Vista x64 the above no longer works. I can still set a bookmark with CTRL-K-0,1,2 etc but I'm habituated to the traditional way (plus it's quicker).
Does anyone know why it's not working for me?
I had the same problem. Some more investigation showed that it is caused by a change in Vista.
Input method editor keyboard shortcut (CTRL+SHIFT+0) switches the input language in Vista. The following link shows how to disable this shortcut and thereby make it available to other applications (including Delphi) again: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967893.
I am running on Windows 2008 Server 64-Bit (which is based on Vista) and I use CTRL+SHIFT+1 to set book marks and it works fine. At home I have Vista 32-Bit and that works fine too.
You might check to make sure your OEM didn't install some crazy keyboard hook on that or something. I've had that happen before where some key combinations were remapped by a background program and it prevented them from working in Delphi.
Programmers use a lot more key combinations then most "normal" users.
Verify that you don't have system wide hot keys that conflict with those. I had the same problem with Trillian hijacking some Delphi shortcuts.
As already mentioned, Vista is using that key combination.
If you don't want to disable it, Ctrl+K CTRL+0 is the old school method to set bookmark 0.

Focus not moved to inputbox() and box remains behind of apps (Vista)

How can I make my delphi systray app using standard vcl inputbox() function to request focus, now dialog box seem to remain in taskbar and dialog does not open to front of other apps. This is Vista issue I think. Creating own form would solve it I believe.
ps: I can edit dialogs.pas if needed, it seem to be using Tcustomforms.showmodal
You are probably using older version of delphi.
Some Vista specific workarounds for older delphi versions can be fond here.
Try Application.ProcessMessages; just before inputbox call.
Have you tried an application.BringtoFront() before you launch the inputbox?
Editing dialogs.pas seems to be a bad ide. I would rather make my own inputbox-form.
Applications stealing focus can be quite annoying, though... How do you launch the inputbox? On a timer, or on a userrequest (e.g. clicking on the icon)?

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