Help with a HelpButton

[PIEBALDconsult]

It may belong under WTF or Soapbox, but I just found this:

The value of the HelpButton property is ignored if the Maximize or Minimize buttons are shown.

:mad: Does anyone here have an easy workaround that allows all three buttons to be on the Caption Bar? (Using .net 2.0)

[Mike Dimmick]

It's not an easy workaround: you'll need to paint it on the title bar yourself. For that you need to handle the WM_NCPAINT and WM_NCHITTEST messages. See DrawFrameControl for how to draw a Windows 2000-style help button (DFC_CAPTION and DFCS_CAPTIONHELP) and DrawThemeBackground/DrawThemeIcon (part WP_HELPBUTTON and the appropriate state) for Windows XP-style themed buttons. For Windows Vista it probably won't work very well since Aero draws the title bars normally, if in 3D mode; if you handle WM_NCPAINT it will turn off the standard frame painting for that window, I believe. You'd probably have to start playing with the Glass API to make it still look like a Windows Vista window. The limitation is from Windows itself: the documentation for CreateWindowEx says "WS_EX_CONTEXTHELP cannot be used with the WS_MAXIMIZEBOX or WS_MINIMIZEBOX styles." In other words, Microsoft did not intend it to be used like this. Edit: yes, I realise this is the Windows Forms forum. You need to override the WndProc method to handle messages that Windows Forms doesn't already translate to method calls/events.

Stability. What an interesting concept. -- Chris Maunder