Minimize Open Application from within MS Access?

[Ron]

Hi,

I'm trying to minimize an open program from within MS Access.

For example, if I'm trying to minimize Adobe Reader by clicking an
Access form's button, how would I go about doing so?

Thanks for your help!

-Ron

 

[Lynn Trapp]

I'm not sure if you can do it after the external application is running, but
you can call the Shell() function which opens the application in minimized
state.

Dim RetVal
RetVal = Shell("C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe", 6)

The value of 6 in the Window state argument causes it to open minimized.

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

Public Type WINDOWPLACEMENT
Length As Long
flags As Long
showCmd As Long
ptMinPosition As POINTAPI
ptMaxPosition As POINTAPI
rcNormalPosition As RECT
End Type

Public Const SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1
Public Const SW_SHOWMINIMIZED = 2
Public Const SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED = 3
Public Const SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE = 4

Public Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" _
Alias "FindWindowA" _
(ByVal lpClassName As String, _
ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long

Public Declare Function GetWindowPlacement Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long, lpwndpl As WINDOWPLACEMENT) As Long

Public Declare Function SetWindowPlacement Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long, lpwndpl As WINDOWPLACEMENT) As Long


Public Sub MinimizeWindow(sWindowTitle As String)

Dim hWndCtlApp As Long
Dim currWinP As WINDOWPLACEMENT

'obtain the handle to the control app
hWndCtlApp = FindWindow(vbNullString, sWindowTitle)

If hWndCtlApp Then

'prepare the WINDOWPLACEMENT type
currWinP.Length = Len(currWinP)

If GetWindowPlacement(hWndCtlApp, currWinP) > 0 Then

'determine the window state
If currWinP.showCmd <> SW_SHOWMINIMIZED Then

'minimized, so restore
currWinP.Length = Len(currWinP)
currWinP.flags = 0&
currWinP.showCmd = SW_SHOWMINIMIZED
Call SetWindowPlacement(hWndCtlApp, currWinP)

End If

End If

End If

End Sub

Copy the above into a new module, and save it (don't name the module
MinimizeWindow: modules cannot have the same name as routines within them)

When AdobeReader is open, its Window Title is (usually) something like
"Adobe Reader - [xxxx]", where xxxx is the name of the file. That means to
minimize the window, you'd use

Call MinimizeWindows("Adobe Reader - [MyFile.pdf]")

If you're not going to know what file is open, you can use the code in
http://www.mvps.org/access/api/api0013.htm to determine all windows
associated with Class AdobeAcrobat.

 

[Ron]

Wow! Well, at least this seems to confirm that I didn't overlook some
straightforward method or function...

Thanks very much to both of you for your responses!

-Ron

Public Type WINDOWPLACEMENT
Length As Long
flags As Long
showCmd As Long
ptMinPosition As POINTAPI
ptMaxPosition As POINTAPI
rcNormalPosition As RECT
End Type

Public Const SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1
Public Const SW_SHOWMINIMIZED = 2
Public Const SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED = 3
Public Const SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE = 4

Public Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" _
Alias "FindWindowA" _
(ByVal lpClassName As String, _
ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long

Public Declare Function GetWindowPlacement Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long, lpwndpl As WINDOWPLACEMENT) As Long

Public Declare Function SetWindowPlacement Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long, lpwndpl As WINDOWPLACEMENT) As Long


Public Sub MinimizeWindow(sWindowTitle As String)

Dim hWndCtlApp As Long
Dim currWinP As WINDOWPLACEMENT

'obtain the handle to the control app
hWndCtlApp = FindWindow(vbNullString, sWindowTitle)

If hWndCtlApp Then

'prepare the WINDOWPLACEMENT type
currWinP.Length = Len(currWinP)

If GetWindowPlacement(hWndCtlApp, currWinP) > 0 Then

'determine the window state
If currWinP.showCmd <> SW_SHOWMINIMIZED Then

'minimized, so restore
currWinP.Length = Len(currWinP)
currWinP.flags = 0&
currWinP.showCmd = SW_SHOWMINIMIZED
Call SetWindowPlacement(hWndCtlApp, currWinP)

End If

End If

End If

End Sub

Copy the above into a new module, and save it (don't name the module
MinimizeWindow: modules cannot have the same name as routines within them)

When AdobeReader is open, its Window Title is (usually) something like
"Adobe Reader - [xxxx]", where xxxx is the name of the file. That means to
minimize the window, you'd use

Call MinimizeWindows("Adobe Reader - [MyFile.pdf]")

If you're not going to know what file is open, you can use the code in
http://www.mvps.org/access/api/api0013.htm to determine all windows
associated with Class AdobeAcrobat.


--
Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP

(no e-mails, please!)

Hi,

I'm trying to minimize an open program from within MS Access.

For example, if I'm trying to minimize Adobe Reader by clicking an
Access form's button, how would I go about doing so?

Thanks for your help!

-Ron