How do I make a Win32 API button selected programatically?

Question

I have a button, if i were to say click a checkbox, it should then give one of two buttons focus.

I am not sure how to use BM_SETSTATE - if that is the way to do it.

// snip...
    case WM_COMMAND:
    switch (LOWORD(wParam))
    {
    case IDC_CHECK:
        if (IsDlgButtonChecked(hDlg, IDC_CHECK))
        {
            EnableWindow(GetDlgItem(hDlg, IDOK), TRUE);
            EnableWindow(GetDlgItem(hDlg, IDCANCEL), TRUE);
            BM_SETSTATE // ... ?? 
        }
        else  
// ... snip

any help is greatly appreciated! thanks much!

Brian R. Bondy · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-24 20:04:51Z

5

I'm not sure if you understand exactly what you're asking, but maybe.

The highlight state indicates whether the button is highlighted as if the user had pushed it. It does not indicate whether the button has focus nor does it indicate whether the button is checked or not.

If you really want to do this though, use the Button_SetState macro.

Just in case:

If you want to set the check state on a button use the Button_SetCheck macro.
If you want to set the focus on a button use the SetFocus Win32 API.
Note: Above I mentioned a couple macros, you can instead use SendMessage and pass the appropriate message as documented on the message in MSDN.

edited Sep 24, 2010 at 20:04

answered Sep 24, 2010 at 19:59

Brian R. Bondy

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3 Comments

Jonathan Weinraub Over a year ago

Yes, I want the focus, so that if the end user hits enter, I want it to have a default action (in this case, the one with less consequences)

Brian R. Bondy Over a year ago

@Jonathan: In that case you want the second bullet point under the horizontal bar (SetFocus).

Jonathan Weinraub Over a year ago

Thanks Brian, that did the trick. I couldn't find the documentation on SetFocus anywhere for some reason!

MOHW · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-15 09:20:07Z

2

To make a button default in win32 (which i guess is your question) can simply be done by sending the button a BM_SETSTYLE message with BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON as the WPARAM...

HWND hwndButton = CreateWindow("button", "OK", WS_VISIBLE |...);

SendMessage(hwndButton, BM_SETSTYLE, (WPARAM)BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON, TRUE);

Hope this helps... ;-)

answered May 15, 2012 at 9:20

MOHW

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1 Comment

bobwki Over a year ago

It helped me! But I was surprised the button that was the default style continued to look defaulted. I found this, which solved my issue: SendMessage( hDlg, DM_SETDEFID, (WPARAM) IDOK, 0);

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