How can I create a modeless window which takes Office main window as the owner?

Question

How can I create a modeless window which takes Office main window as the owner?

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Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 1

We can call Form.Show(IWin32Window) function to show the form to the user with the specified owner. To pass the correct IWin32Window type parameter, we create a NativeWindow object and call NativeWindow.AssignHandle(IntPtr) function which binds the native window object with Office native window. The following code shows how to achieve this in Word:

        public partial class NativeMethods

        {

            [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImportAttribute("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "FindWindowW")]

            public static extern System.IntPtr FindWindowW([System.Runtime.InteropServices.InAttribute()] [System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalAsAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] string lpClassName, [System.Runtime.InteropServices.InAttribute()] [System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalAsAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] string lpWindowName);

        }

 

        private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

        {

            IntPtr wordWindow = NativeMethods.FindWindowW("OpusApp",this.Application.ActiveWindow.Caption+" - Microsoft Word");

            NativeWindow nativeWindow = new NativeWindow();

            nativeWindow.AssignHandle(wordWindow);

 

            Form childWindow = new Form();

            childWindow.Show(nativeWindow);

        }

As for the Excel and Outlook version, please refer the following links:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/vsto/thread/2498af9b-2172-43cf-8616-1863f293ccb8/

http://www.outlooksharp.de/Resources/HowTos/tabid/67/Default.aspx

(Related forum thread, http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/vsto/thread/45a82d73-dfe2-4ad1-a0a6-bac35ae5bd64/ )

For more FAQ about Visual Studio Tools for Office, please see Visual Studio Tools for Office FAQ

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Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 2

Add VB version codes,

Public Class ThisAddIn
    Private Sub ThisAddIn_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Startup
        Dim wordWindow As IntPtr
        wordWindow = NativeMethods.FindWindowW("OpusApp", Me.Application.ActiveWindow.Caption + " - Microsoft Word")
        Dim nativeWindow As New System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow
        nativeWindow.AssignHandle(wordWindow)
        Dim childWindow As New System.Windows.Forms.Form
        childWindow.Show(nativeWindow)
    End Sub
End Class

Partial Public Class NativeMethods
    Declare Function FindWindowW Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As System.IntPtr
End Class

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