Menu Speed Button Components

Contents

• Description
• Compatibility
• Installation
• Known Issues
• Update History
• License and Disclaimer
• About the Author

Description

This unit contains a set of three speed button derived components that either display pop-up menus associated with the buttons or form connected button / menu button pairs. The components are:

• TPJMenuSpeedButton -- which can display an associated pop-up menu when clicked.
• TPJLinkedMenuSpeedButton -- links to a master button and displays an associated pop-up menu when clicked.
• TPJLinkedSpeedButton -- a speed button that can link to and control a slave button that accesses a pop-up menu.

Compatibility

The unit is compatible with Delphi 4. It may work correctly in Delphi 5 but this has not been tested.

Installation

In these instructions $(DELPHI) is to be taken to represent the path where the appropriate version of Delphi was installed. For example, if you have Delphi 4 installed on the default installation path then $(DELPHI) is equivalent to C:\Program Files\Borland\Delphi4.

Installation with Delphi 4

1. Unzip the file pjmenusbtn.zip into a folder, preserving the folder structure.
2. Copy the files PJMenuSpeedButtons.pas, PJMenuSpeedButtons.dcr and PJMenuSpeedButtons.res to where you wish to install into Delphi. This will probably be a sub-folder of the $(DELPHI)\lib folder.
3. Install the unit's components into the palette by chosing the Component | Install Component menu option. The following instructions assume you are installing into the default "users components" package:
   • Select the "Into exisiting package" page of the Install Components dialogue box.
   • Browse to the folder where you saved PJMenuSpeedButtons.pas and select it.
   • Ensure that the "Package file name" edit box contains $(DELPHI)\lib\dclusrXX.dpk (where XX=40 for Delphi 4).
   • Accept that the package will be rebuilt.
   • A dialog box should be displayed saying that TPJMenuSpeedButton, TPJLinkedMenuSpeedButton and TPJLinkedSpeedButton have been added to the component palette.
4. You can now delete PJMenuSpeedButtons.pas from the place where you copied it if you wish. The component will appear on a palette called PJ Stuff. You can move the component to a different palette as required, or alter the source code (before installing the program) by finding the Register procedure at the end of the code and changing the string 'PJ stuff' to the name of the required palette.
5. The simplest way to install the help file is to use the PJSoft Component Help Installer Expert, available from my website. To install manually in Del;phi 4, proceed as follows:
   • Copy PJMenuSpeedButtons.hlp to whichever folder you wish to install it to.
   • Edit Delphi4.cfg (in $(DELPHI)\Help), adding the line :Link PJMenuSpeedButtons.hlp to the end of the section labelled "Third party help".
   • Edit Delphi4.cnt (in $(DELPHI)\Help), adding the line :Index PJSoft Menu Speed Buttons=PJMenuSpeedButtons.hlp towards the end of the index section.
   • Using RegEdit open the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Help and add a new string value named PJMenuSpeedButtons.hlp whose value is the path where you copied the help file (probably ($DELPHI)\Help).
6. Optionally install the demo project as follows:
   • Copy the files PJMenuSpeedButtonsDemo.dpr, FmPJMenuSpeedButtonsDemo.pas, FmPJMenuSpeedButtonsDemo.dfm and PJMenuSpeedButtonsDemo.res from the Demo sub-folder to a folder (or use them in the place where they were extracted).
   • Load the project into Delphi and compile it.
   • The demo project presents a simple editor in which you can enter text and change the font name and style using the speed buttons provided by these components. Examine the source code and the component properties in the Object Inspector to see how the program works.

Known Issues

No bugs reported to date.

Update History

Release 1.0 of 23/06/2001
PJMenuSpeedButtons.pas v1.0 of 23/06/2001

• Components
• Demo project
• Help file

License & Disclaimer

This unit and help file are copyright © P.D.Johnson, 2001.

The source code and help files can be freely distributed on a not-for-profit basis providing that:

1. the source code is not altered.
2. this file is distributed with it unchanged

By not-for-profit I mean that you may recover out of pocket expenses incurred in distributing the code, but should not make a profit from this.

If you discover any bugs in this implementation, or if you have any update suggestions, please contact me on peter.johnson@openlink.org.

Please do modify the code for you own use. I'd like to see any changes you make - I could incorporate them into future versions. Please notify me of changes on at the above e-mail address.

This software is provided as is - no warranty is given as to its suitability for any purposes to which you may wish to put it.

About the Author

I'm Peter Johnson - a hobbyist programmer living in Ceredigion in West Wales, UK. I write mainly in Delphi, but occasionally dabble in C, C++ and Java. My programs are available for download on my web-site: http://www.pjsoft.contactbox.co.uk/.

I can be contacted by e-mail on peter.johnson@openlink.org.