VB6 Tip: Changing text alignment for forms and picture boxes

by Peter Aitken | Oct 22, 2004 7:03:00 AM

Tags: Microsoft development tools, Programming languages, Peter Aitken, Peter Aitken, Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, CurrentY, picture box, Microsoft Visual Basic, hDC, Visual Basic Tips Newsletter

Takeaway: Change the displayed alignment of text on a form or picture box in Visual Basic 6 with a Windows API call.

A Visual Basic 6 program can display text on a form or a picture box using the Print method. The text's location is determined by the destination object's CurrentX and CurrentY properties. The text is always left-aligned at this position, starting at the location (CurrentX, CurrentY) and extending to the right. VB doesn't have a provision for changing this alignment setting, but you can do it with a Windows API call.

You'll use theSetTextAlign API function, whose declaration is:

Declare Sub SetTextAlign Lib "gdi32" (ByValhDC As Long, ByValwFlags As Long)

hDC is the destination object's device context, which you obtain from its hDC property. wFlags is a value that specifies the desired alignment.

You specify the horizontal alignment using one of the following constants (which you must define in your program):

• TA_LEFT (value = 0),
• TA_RIGHT (value = 2), or
• TA_CENTER (value = 6)

You can also specify the vertical alignment with these constants:

• TA_TOP (value = 0),
• TA_BOTTOM (value = 8), or
• TA_BASELINE (value = 24)

Top alignment is the default; in other words, the top of the text is aligned with the CurrentY position. The other two options are:

• Bottom: The lowest any character descends, such as the descender on a "y" or "g."
• Baseline: The bottom of characters that don't have descenders, such as "a" and "w."

To apply both a horizontal and a vertical alignment, simply use the Or operator to combine the two flags. This code sets the alignment for Form1 to center, baseline:

Call SetTextAlign(Form1.hDC, TA_CENTER Or TA_BASELINE

Note that changing alignment doesn't affect text that is already on the form or picture box.

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