FaceID and icons

amc · August 28th, 2004, 07:24 PM

I am starting development in Windows Forms .NET and I would like to know if there is any means to "extract" the FaceID from Office (say, Access, Excel,...) and convert to individual graphic files (gif, bmp,...), in order to reuse them in the .NET environment....

thanks

thanks
antonio

marpashuk · August 31st, 2004, 01:09 PM

Hi. I'm not sure what you mean by extracting FaceID. FaceID is just a number, like 17 or 19. If you mean you need the image on the button, then there's a way. First of all, standard MS images for icons consist of a picture itself and so called mask - "The mask image determines which parts of the button image are transparent. Always set the mask after you have set the picture for a CommandBarButton object" (from MS Excel VBA Help)
Here's a procedure to send both: a picture and a mask of a button to .bmp files :

Code:

Sub GetButtonImageAndMask()
    Dim picPicture As IPictureDisp
    Dim picMask As IPictureDisp
    'This will reference the first button of the first commandbar.
    With Application.CommandBars.FindControl(msoControlButton)
        'Get the button image and mask of this CommandBarButton object.
        Set picPicture = .Picture
        Set picMask = .Mask
    End With

    'Save the button image and mask in a folder.
    stdole.SavePicture picPicture, "C:\...(your path)...\ImageName.bmp"
    stdole.SavePicture picMask, "C:\...(your path)...\MaskName.bmp"
End Sub

If you need to reference specific buttons, use FindControl method of the CommandBars collection.

The second routine creates a new command bar with a button and sets button's face using a picture from a file.

Code:

Sub ChangeButtonImage()
    Dim c As CommandBar
    Dim cb As CommandBarButton
    Dim picPicture As IPictureDisp
    Dim picMask As IPictureDisp   'you can also change the mask    
    Set picPicture = stdole.StdFunctions.LoadPicture( _
        "c:\...(your path)...\iconName.bmp")
    'optional - only of you have a mask file
    Set picMask = stdole.StdFunctions.LoadPicture( _
        "c:\...(your path)...\maskName.bmp")
    On Error Resume Next
    Application.CommandBars("BarName").Delete
    Set c = Application.CommandBars.Add("BarName", msoBarFloating, False, True)
     c.Enabled = True
     c.Visible = True
    Set cb = c.Controls.Add(msoControlButton, 1)
        cb.Style = msoButtonIcon 
        cb.Tag = "ButtonTest"
       'Set the picture  
        cb.Picture = picPicture
       'Set the mask
        cb.Mask = picMask
        cb.OnAction = "ThisWorkbook.Test"
        Set cb = Nothing
        Set c = Nothing
End Sub

Hope it helps.

Regards,
Maria

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