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Created By Wesley Griffin
 
 
 Animate the way in which a form is shown or hidden.
 
  Home > Source Code > Forms and Controls > Animate Window
 
  A very good way to make your applications more professional  is to animate your forms as they become shown or hidden.  The windows api provides a function for exactly this behaviour.  Copy the following code into the code window of a form:
 
 
Const AW_HOR_POSITIVE = &H1 'Animates the window from left to right. This flag can be used with roll or slide animation.
Const AW_HOR_NEGATIVE = &H2 'Animates the window from right to left. This flag can be used with roll or slide animation.
Const AW_VER_POSITIVE = &H4 'Animates the window from top to bottom. This flag can be used with roll or slide animation.
Const AW_VER_NEGATIVE = &H8 'Animates the window from bottom to top. This flag can be used with roll or slide animation.
Const AW_CENTER = &H10 'Makes the window appear to collapse inward if AW_HIDE is used or expand outward if the AW_HIDE is not used.
Const AW_HIDE = &H10000 'Hides the window. By default, the window is shown.
Const AW_ACTIVATE = &H20000 'Activates the window.
Const AW_SLIDE = &H40000 'Uses slide animation. By default, roll animation is used.
Const AW_BLEND = &H80000 'Uses a fade effect. This flag can be used only if hwnd is a top-level window.
Private Declare Function AnimateWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal dwTime As Long, ByVal dwFlags As Long) As Boolean
 
  To call use the function use the following syntax either in the forms load or unload procedures:
 
 
AnimateWindow Me.Hwnd, 200, <FLAGS>
 
  Time

The time, the second parameter of the AnimateWindow function is measured in milleseconds.  200 is the typical value for an animation.

Flags

The flags are the constants listed in the declaration section for example, AW_ACTIVATE.  Combine the flags to experiment different animation effects.  When combining flags remember OR is used instead of AND. For example to activate a form and roll in from left to right you would use the following syntax
 
 
AnimateWindow Me.Hwnd, 200, AW_ACTIVATE or AW_SLIDE or AW_HOR_POSITIVE 
 
 

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