Sample34: Floating UIF

In the application's callback procedure handling right-click messages the pop-up of this  Floating UIF  is handled as follows:

DlgProc (HWND hDlg, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
  switch (message)
  {
  	:
   case WM_RBUTTONDOWN:
  		DlgMenu ("Track Menu=%x", hPopup, 
  			 "Window=%x", hDlg, "lParam=%x", lParam, 0);
		break;
	:
  }
}

This is very much the same code as in Sample33, Pop-up Menu.

A sub-menu can be  detached  from the menu hierarchy by clicking it somewhere in the title bar and dragging it to some other place on the screen (left screenshot above). The item in the parent menu it was associated with is being disabled, to remind the user that this sub-menu is detached now.
When the detached menu is in place, the title line can be removed by double-clicking in it. Later, when the menu is closed, it becomes a normal part of the menu hierarchy again, popping up with a fresh title line. The title line can be restored by right-clicking somewhere in menu.
Once detached, the sub-menu becomes the root of a new, autonomous menu hierarchy: it stays on screen permanently, even if the former parent menu is removed altogether. If it has a sub-menu of its own, it will pop up when the item associated with it is selected (such as the bottom item of the detached sub-menu, right screenshot above). Or it can be detached in turn, forming another menu hierarchy.

Try it with the sample program: Detach a sub-menu and remove the basic menu. In the detached sub-menu click any of the items, drag it in the title bar, etc. Double-click somewhere in the title line, and any of the items. Look at the statusbar: the moment you are clicking, the corresponding field will change. (Unless it was changed already; then you should click another item first.)

A detached sub-menu can be closed by clicking the "x"-button in its title bar. (If the title is hidden currently, right-click somewhere on the menu. The title will re-appear.) When closed, the formerly detached sub-menu is part of the full menu hierarchy again. The associated item in the parent menu is being re-enabled. The associated sub-menu pops up temporarily again when this item is selected. If desired, eventually it can be detached once more.

By detaching sub-menus and toolbars, just as needed, the users are completely free to re-arrange the user interface any way they like, any time they like, how often they like. Still, they can get out any feature with a minimum of cursor movements. If a menu is needed no longer, they can close it at any time and detach any other menu. Thus, with DLG's  Floating UIF  an application can have a fully flexible user interface.

In programming, a detachable menu can be created very simply, such as follows:

HWND hTb1 = CreateDlgMenu (..., "... \bDetach ...", : : 0)

"Detach"

option to make a menu detachable (the rest of coding is the same as above)

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Horizontal Menu with Graphic Items

One thing that's needed in many consumer applications is, avoiding anything appearing "purely technical". So, most UIF-elements should have not simple text labels but rather graphic symbols. In particular, all menu items should be visually appealing. With conventional menus that can be done only in some roundabout way. With DLG however, a menu can be created fully graphically, by just a few code lines.

In DLG, a menu of graphic items is created simply as a group of buttons, like in the following example. (Compare Sample 1.1, especially group of bistable/multistable buttons.)

HWND hTb21 = CreateDlgMenu (..., "...\bHorizontal ...", Control (..., "Button", ..., ..., ..., ..., ..., "{...|...|...|...\bImages=...}", 0), 0);

"Horizontal"	option to make the menu items being arranged horizontally (all items form a control group, see Sample 1.1, "group of bistable/multistable buttons")
"Button"	menu items are emulated by a group of buttons
"Images=..."	option to make a series of bitmaps being painted as the graphic faces of all items
{ ... }	for more ease of keyboard handling, the items should be coded in curly brackets

The bitmap series determining the graphic items looks like this:

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