Win32 Programming: Using Menu and icons

How to create a Menu in your application

The images above demonstrate the use of menu in a win32 application. To create Menu you need two file.

• resource.h
• ProgramName.rc

In our case they are resource.h and tut6_CreatingMenuItem.rc (files are attached with this post)

tut6_CreatingMenuItem.rc has following contents

// Microsoft Visual C++ generated resource script.

//

#include "resource.h"

#include "afxres.h"

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

//

// Menu

//

SAW_MENU1 MENU

BEGIN

    POPUP "&Menu"

    BEGIN

        MENUITEM "&About",                       ID_ABOUT

        MENUITEM "&Exit",                        ID_EXIT

    END

END

//IDI_PROGICON    ICON "prog.ico"

resource.h has following contents

//{{NO_DEPENDENCIES}}

// Microsoft Visual C++ generated include file.

// Used by tut6_CreatingMenuItem.rc

//

#define IDC_STATIC                      -1

#define SAW_MENU1                       40101

#define ID_ABOUT                        40102

#define ID_EXIT                         40103

In your main program tut6_CreatingMenuItem.cpp add the following line in top of your program.

#include "resource.h"

Now add the rc file in your program as shown in images below.

And change this line in your program

wcex.lpszMenuName   = NULL;
to

wcex.lpszMenuName   = MAKEINTRESOURCE(SAW_MENU1);

How to take action when a Menu item is clicked

When a menu item is clicked application receives a WM_COMMAND message. Hence we have to handle this message to perform necessary actions.

Add these lines in your callback function

case WM_COMMAND:

      switch(LOWORD (wParam)) {

            case ID_ABOUT:

                  MessageBox(hWnd, "Tutorial 6: Working with menu and icons",

"SA-OS Win32 Tutorial", MB_OK | MB_ICONINFORMATION);

                  break;

            case ID_EXIT:

                  PostMessage(hWnd, WM_CLOSE, 0, 0);

                  break;

            default:

                  break;

      }

      break;

Posting WM_CLOSE message in message queue closes the application.

How to set an icon for your windows application

You have to use 16x16 or 32x32 icon file to make this work. In our case it is prog.ico

• Add the following line in tut6_CreatingMenuItem.rc
  SAW_PROGICON    ICON "prog.ico"


• Add the following in resource.h
  #define SAW_PROGICON                    40104
  


• And change this line in your WinMain function

wcex.hIcon = LoadIcon(hInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDI_APPLICATION));
to
wcex.hIcon = LoadIcon(hInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(SAW_PROGICON));

Build the program and run again.

How to disable/gray a Menu Item

To disable or make a Menu item gray add following lines in your code where necessary

HMENU hmenu = GetMenu(hwnd);        // hwnd is the handle of the window containing the menu

EnableMenuItem(hmenu, ID_EXIT, MF_GRAYED);

Files are attached with this post. Click to download.

          tut6_CreatingMenuItem.cpp
          tut6_CreatingMenuItem.rc
          resource.h
          prog.ico