Knowledge Base

PRB: MDI Child Form Drawn Incorrectly with Missing Title Bar

Article ID: 138523

Article Last Modified on 12/9/2003

Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Enterprise Edition

This article was previously published under Q138523

SYMPTOMS

If an MDI child form is maximized by setting the Windowstate property in the Load event of the MDI parent form, then the child form may be drawn incorrectly when first shown.

WORKAROUND

Resize the MDI parent form. Then the child form is drawn correctly with the Title Bar, Control Box and Restore button.

Or set the height and width of the child form to the ScaleHeight and the ScaleWidth of the MDI parent instead of using numerical values. For example, the following code sizes the child to the same dimensions as the MDI parent form, and then maximizes the form:

   MDIForm1.Width = 6000
   MDIForm1.Height = 3000
   Form1.Width = MDIForm1.ScaleWidth
   Form1.Height = MDIForm1.ScaleHeight
   Form1.WindowState = 2   ' Maximize the child window

Replace the code in the MDIForm_Load procedure with this code to ensure that the child form is painted correctly.

STATUS

Microsoft is researching this behavior and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Create a new project. Form1 is created by default.
Add an MDI parent form by clicking MDI Form on the Insert menu in Visual Basic version 4.0 or by clicking New MDI Form on the File menu in Visual Basic version 3.0.
Set the MDIChild property of Form1 to True.

In the Load event of the MDI parent form, place the following code:

   MDIForm1.Width = 6000
   MDIForm1.Height = 3000
   Form1.Width = 6000
   Form1.Height = 3000
   Form1.WindowState = 2   ' Maximize the child window

Run the code by pressing the F5 key. The child form appears to be drawn (painted) incorrectly. Refreshing the child form after it is maximized does correct the behavior.

Additional query words: 4.00 3.00 MDI vb4win vb4all

Keywords: kbprb kbcode KB138523