Programming with Microsoft Visual C++.NET 6ed [Electronic resources]

Creating Floating Shortcut Menus

Floating shortcut menus are one of the latest trends in user interface design. The user clicks the right mouse button and a floating menu offers commands that relate to the current selection. It's easy to create these menus using the resource editor and the MFC library CMenu::TrackPopupMenu function. Just follow these steps:

1. Use the menu editor to insert a new, empty menu in your project's resource file.

2. Type some characters in the left top-level command, and then add commands in the resulting shortcut menu.

3. Use Class View's Properties window to add a WM_CONTEXTMENU message handler in your view class or in some other window class that receives mouse-click messages. Code the handler as shown here:

    void CMyView::OnContextMenu(CWnd *pWnd, CPoint point)
   {
   CMenu menu;
   menu.LoadMenu(IDR_MYFLOATINGMENU);
   menu.GetSubMenu(0)
   ->TrackPopupMenu(TPM_LEFTALIGN | TPM_RIGHTBUTTON,
   point.x, point.y, this);
   }

   You can use Class View's Properties window to map the floating menu's command IDs in the same way you would map the frame menu's command IDs.