I am developing an add in for excel. At some point, I can receive async events. I need to be able to show the Excel window if hidden on these events.
I am able to store the Hwnd property, which I believe must be an immutable int/reference to identify my Excel window.
Can someone elaborate on this Hwnd ? and explain how I can show a hidden window from C# using it ?
Thanks in advance folks ;)
UPDATE : shortly, that was the piece of code that sorted my problems :
/// <summary>Enumeration of the different ways of showing a window using
/// ShowWindow</summary>
private enum WindowShowStyle : uint
{
/// <summary>Hides the window and activates another window.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_HIDE</remarks>
Hide = 0,
/// <summary>Activates and displays a window. If the window is minimized
/// or maximized, the system restores it to its original size and
/// position. An application should specify this flag when displaying
/// the window for the first time.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWNORMAL</remarks>
ShowNormal = 1,
/// <summary>Activates the window and displays it as a minimized window.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWMINIMIZED</remarks>
ShowMinimized = 2,
/// <summary>Activates the window and displays it as a maximized window.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED</remarks>
ShowMaximized = 3,
/// <summary>Maximizes the specified window.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_MAXIMIZE</remarks>
Maximize = 3,
/// <summary>Displays a window in its most recent size and position.
/// This value is similar to "ShowNormal", except the window is not
/// actived.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE</remarks>
ShowNormalNoActivate = 4,
/// <summary>Activates the window and displays it in its current size
/// and position.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOW</remarks>
Show = 5,
/// <summary>Minimizes the specified window and activates the next
/// top-level window in the Z order.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_MINIMIZE</remarks>
Minimize = 6,
/// <summary>Displays the window as a minimized window. This value is
/// similar to "ShowMinimized", except the window is not activated.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE</remarks>
ShowMinNoActivate = 7,
/// <summary>Displays the window in its current size and position. This
/// value is similar to "Show", except the window is not activated.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWNA</remarks>
ShowNoActivate = 8,
/// <summary>Activates and displays the window. If the window is
/// minimized or maximized, the system restores it to its original size
/// and position. An application should specify this flag when restoring
/// a minimized window.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_RESTORE</remarks>
Restore = 9,
/// <summary>Sets the show state based on the SW_ value specified in the
/// STARTUPINFO structure passed to the CreateProcess function by the
/// program that started the application.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWDEFAULT</remarks>
ShowDefault = 10,
/// <summary>Windows 2000/XP: Minimizes a window, even if the thread
/// that owns the window is hung. This flag should only be used when
/// minimizing windows from a different thread.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_FORCEMINIMIZE</remarks>
ForceMinimized = 11
}
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, WindowShowStyle nCmdShow);
static void ContentClick(object obj, EventArgs ea)
{
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application oExcelApp = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application)System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");
oExcelApp.Visible = true;
ShowWindow( (System.IntPtr) Globals.ThisWorkbook.Application.Hwnd, WindowShowStyle.ShowMaximized);
}
Answer
hWnd means Window Handle. It's an identifying handle for the window instance.
As for showing it, you could use the user32.ShowWindow API. Here's the P/Invoke signature, courtesy of pinvoke.net:
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, ShowWindowCommands nCmdShow);
And here's the ShowWindowCommands enum:
/// <summary>Enumeration of the different ways of showing a window using
/// ShowWindow</summary>
private enum WindowShowStyle : uint
{
/// <summary>Hides the window and activates another window.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_HIDE</remarks>
Hide = 0,
/// <summary>Activates and displays a window. If the window is minimized
/// or maximized, the system restores it to its original size and
/// position. An application should specify this flag when displaying
/// the window for the first time.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWNORMAL</remarks>
ShowNormal = 1,
/// <summary>Activates the window and displays it as a minimized window.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWMINIMIZED</remarks>
ShowMinimized = 2,
/// <summary>Activates the window and displays it as a maximized window.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED</remarks>
ShowMaximized = 3,
/// <summary>Maximizes the specified window.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_MAXIMIZE</remarks>
Maximize = 3,
/// <summary>Displays a window in its most recent size and position.
/// This value is similar to "ShowNormal", except the window is not
/// actived.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE</remarks>
ShowNormalNoActivate = 4,
/// <summary>Activates the window and displays it in its current size
/// and position.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOW</remarks>
Show = 5,
/// <summary>Minimizes the specified window and activates the next
/// top-level window in the Z order.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_MINIMIZE</remarks>
Minimize = 6,
/// <summary>Displays the window as a minimized window. This value is
/// similar to "ShowMinimized", except the window is not activated.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE</remarks>
ShowMinNoActivate = 7,
/// <summary>Displays the window in its current size and position. This
/// value is similar to "Show", except the window is not activated.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWNA</remarks>
ShowNoActivate = 8,
/// <summary>Activates and displays the window. If the window is
/// minimized or maximized, the system restores it to its original size
/// and position. An application should specify this flag when restoring
/// a minimized window.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_RESTORE</remarks>
Restore = 9,
/// <summary>Sets the show state based on the SW_ value specified in the
/// STARTUPINFO structure passed to the CreateProcess function by the
/// program that started the application.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_SHOWDEFAULT</remarks>
ShowDefault = 10,
/// <summary>Windows 2000/XP: Minimizes a window, even if the thread
/// that owns the window is hung. This flag should only be used when
/// minimizing windows from a different thread.</summary>
/// <remarks>See SW_FORCEMINIMIZE</remarks>
ForceMinimized = 11
}