A balloon is the area in which the Microsoft Office Assistant displays
headings and text, similar to a message box. In addition to headings and
text, a balloon may contain other types of controls, such as check boxes,
buttons, and labels, which are similar to option buttons.
To determine which label or button a user clicked, or which check boxes a
user selected in a balloon, you must create a Callback procedure and set
the
Callback property of the balloon to the name of that procedure. A Callback procedure is a procedure that runs whenever a modeless balloon is displayed.
To display a balloon with multiple buttons, labels, and check boxes, follow
these steps:
- Create a module and type the following line in the Declarations
section:
- On the Tools menu, click References, and then click Microsoft Office 9.0 Object Library to add it as a reference. If you do not see it in the list, search your hard disk for the file, MSO9.DLL.
- Type the following procedure:
Sub OpenBalloon()
Dim offBalloon As Office.Balloon
Set offBalloon = Application.Assistant.NewBalloon
With offBalloon
' Show the Office Assistant.
.Parent.Visible = True
' Set the heading and text of the balloon.
.Heading = "Welcome to the Microsoft Office 97 Assistant!"
.Text = "Click one or more of the check boxes below, and " _
& "also click either a label or a button."
' Make the balloon modeless.
.Mode = msoModeModeless
' Display the Back, Next, and Close Buttons.
' To determine the constants for other buttons you can place
' on a balloon, view the Microsoft Office 8.0 Object library
' in the Object Browser.
.Button = msoButtonSetBackNextClose
' Display two check boxes.
.Checkboxes(1).Text = "Checkbox 1"
.Checkboxes(2).Text = "Checkbox 2"
' Display two labels.
.Labels(1).Text = "Label 1"
.Labels(2).Text = "Label 2"
' Define which Callback procedure to run.
.Callback = "WhichButton"
.Show
End With
End Sub
- The following is an example of a Callback procedure written to use with the procedure demonstrated above.
Note that the Callback procedure accepts three arguments: bln, iBtn, and iPriv. All Callback procedures that you write for use with balloons must accept these three arguments. The first argument, bln, defines the Balloon object that called the procedure. The second argument, iBtn, defines the value of the button or label that the user clicked. By using the iBtn argument, you can determine which button or label the user clicked. The third argument, iPriv, defines the value that uniquely identifies the balloon that called the procedure. The difference between the bln and iPriv arguments is that a programmer can use the iPriv argument to uniquely identify which balloon called the procedure. This allows a programmer to write one Callback procedure to use with all balloons, rather than having to write a separate Callback procedure for each Balloon. -
Type the following procedure:
Sub WhichButton(bln As Balloon, iBtn As Long, iPriv As Long)
Dim cBox As Office.BalloonCheckbox
bln.Close
For Each cBox In bln.Checkboxes
If cBox.Checked Then
MsgBox "Selected " & cBox.Item
End If
Next
Select Case iBtn
Case 1
MsgBox "Clicked Label 1"
Case 2
MsgBox "Clicked Label 2"
Case msoBalloonButtonBack
MsgBox "Clicked Back Button"
Case msoBalloonButtonClose
MsgBox "Clicked Close Button"
Case msoBalloonButtonNext
MsgBox "Clicked Next Button"
End Select
End Sub
- To test these procedures, type the following line in the Immediate window, and then press ENTER:
Note that the Microsoft Office Assistant is displayed with a new balloon that contains multiple check boxes, labels, and buttons.
Click one or more of the check boxes and either a button or a label. Note that you receive message boxes indicating which check boxes you selected and which button or label you clicked.