I'm updating an ActiveX control that calls up Word, and I need to find out if
that instance of Word has an open pen input panel and if it does, I need to
call a method on that panel.

Is there a way to either find a panel opened by a particular app or iterate
through all open panels and see who owns what? The first would obviously be
easier. I would need to get the object so I could invoke a method on it.

Thanks

Sorry, but I'm doing this in conjunction with someone else and they have the
tablet and I don't. It was described to me that what they had sounded like a
pen input panel. As it turns out, it's something different.

Here's the scenario: In Word (instantiated by my control), they're
inserting ink annotations. You're supposed to click the "stop inking" button
when done, but when they tell my control to shut things down, if they forgot
to click the stop inking button, their annotations are lost.

I was given to believe they had a regular input panel, but I guess not. The
stop inking button apparently is on one of the Word command bars, or a bar
that's integrated with Word.

What I want to do is invoke the equivalent of a "CommitPendingInput" on
whatever is doing the collecting for Word. If I don't have a penInputPanel
to talk to, what do I want to talk to, and how can I get the object to talk
to it?

Thanks

Well, if it's Word 2003 I can help you. Word 2007 will be completely
different unfortunately because of the ribbon and I'm not sure how to
automate it.

What you need to do is look up a "CommandBar" class and CommandBarButton.
You write some code to enumerate the CommandBars and CommandBarControl
children and write out their ID's. Then you can use methods of the CommanBar
to find the button by its ID and there's a method on that button to simulate
a click. Sorry I don't have specific method names for you at the moment. I
can look it up later on when I get home.

--
Josh Einstein (Tablet PC MVP)
Einstein Technologies
Tablet Enhancements for Outlook - Try it free: www.tabletoutlook.com


"Tab" <Tab@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:69DDCA5A-273A-4B8E-99DE-286DE2FF6EF9@microsoft.com...
> Sorry, but I'm doing this in conjunction with someone else and they have
> the
> tablet and I don't. It was described to me that what they had sounded
> like a
> pen input panel. As it turns out, it's something different.
>
> Here's the scenario: In Word (instantiated by my control), they're
> inserting ink annotations. You're supposed to click the "stop inking"
> button
> when done, but when they tell my control to shut things down, if they
> forgot
> to click the stop inking button, their annotations are lost.
>
> I was given to believe they had a regular input panel, but I guess not.
> The
> stop inking button apparently is on one of the Word command bars, or a bar
> that's integrated with Word.
>
> What I want to do is invoke the equivalent of a "CommitPendingInput" on
> whatever is doing the collecting for Word. If I don't have a
> penInputPanel
> to talk to, what do I want to talk to, and how can I get the object to
> talk
> to it?
>
> Thanks
>

Well, I've been working on that anyway, in part using various spy utilities
to help.

Word doesn't seem to use the tablet input panel, but instead puts up its own
bar, just called "MsoCommandBar" (presumably meaning Microsoft Office Command
Bar) and I've yet to find any telling IDs that I can call reliably, but I'm
still working on it.

Can you explain about the ribbon stuff in Word 2007? I'm not familiar with
that yet - still trying to slog through the problem with Word 2003.

Thanks

- Tab



"Josh Einstein" wrote:

> Well, if it's Word 2003 I can help you. Word 2007 will be completely
> different unfortunately because of the ribbon and I'm not sure how to
> automate it.
>
> What you need to do is look up a "CommandBar" class and CommandBarButton.
> You write some code to enumerate the CommandBars and CommandBarControl
> children and write out their ID's. Then you can use methods of the CommanBar
> to find the button by its ID and there's a method on that button to simulate
> a click. Sorry I don't have specific method names for you at the moment. I
> can look it up later on when I get home.
>
> --
> Josh Einstein (Tablet PC MVP)
> Einstein Technologies
> Tablet Enhancements for Outlook - Try it free: www.tabletoutlook.com
>
>
> "Tab" <Tab@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:69DDCA5A-273A-4B8E-99DE-286DE2FF6EF9@microsoft.com...
> > Sorry, but I'm doing this in conjunction with someone else and they have
> > the
> > tablet and I don't. It was described to me that what they had sounded
> > like a
> > pen input panel. As it turns out, it's something different.
> >
> > Here's the scenario: In Word (instantiated by my control), they're
> > inserting ink annotations. You're supposed to click the "stop inking"
> > button
> > when done, but when they tell my control to shut things down, if they
> > forgot
> > to click the stop inking button, their annotations are lost.
> >
> > I was given to believe they had a regular input panel, but I guess not.
> > The
> > stop inking button apparently is on one of the Word command bars, or a bar
> > that's integrated with Word.
> >
> > What I want to do is invoke the equivalent of a "CommitPendingInput" on
> > whatever is doing the collecting for Word. If I don't have a
> > penInputPanel
> > to talk to, what do I want to talk to, and how can I get the object to
> > talk
> > to it?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
>