Microsoft KB Archive/171808

Knowledge Base

FIX: MDI Child Form Does Not Become Active

Article ID: 171808

Article Last Modified on 12/10/2003

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Control Creation Edition
• Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Learning Edition
• Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition
• Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition

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This article was previously published under Q171808

SYMPTOMS

MDI child forms with UserControls on them may not receive focus when the UserControls' constituent controls are selected.

CAUSE

Windows MDI child activation is based on the MDI client window getting the WM_PARENTNOTIFY message, which is being suppressed.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This bug has been fixed in Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2.

For more information on the Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

170365 : INFO: Visual Studio 97 Service Packs - What, Where, and Why

For a list of the Visual Basic 5.0 bugs that were fixed in the Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

171554 : INFO: Visual Basic 5.0 Fixes in Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. In Visual Basic, create a new ActiveX control project. UserControl1 is created by default.
2. Add a CommandButton control to the UserControl and close the UserControl's design window.
3. Select File | Add Project to add a Standard Exe project. Form1 is created by default.
4. Select Project | Add MDI Form to add a MDI form. MDIForm1 is created by default.
5. Select Project | Add Form to add a regular form. Form2 is created by default.
6. Change the MDIChild property on both Form1 and Form2 to TRUE.
7. Add UserControl1 to Form1.

8. In the form_load event of Form1, place the following code:

         Private Sub Form_Load()
                   Me.Show
                   Form2.Show
               End Sub
     
                           

9. Run the Project.
10. Size Form2 so that you can see Form1 (and the UserControl on it) in the background.
11. Click the CommandButton on the UserControl while Form2 has the focus. Note that the button presses but Form1 does not get the focus as it should.
12. Click the UserControl in an area other than where the CommandButton is. Note that Form1 now gets the focus.

Additional query words: kbDSupport

Keywords: kbbug kbfix kbvbp500sp2fix kbvs97sp2fix KB171808

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