Windows Developer Documentation

Common Dialog Box Library

The Common Dialog Box Library provides a set of standard dialog boxes that you can use to perform common operations in your Windows applications. These dialog boxes ensure a consistent user experience across different applications by adhering to established Windows UI paradigms.

Overview

These dialog boxes handle tasks such as:

• File opening and saving
• Color selection
• Font selection
• Printer selection and setup
• Page setup
• Finding and replacing text

By using the Common Dialog Box Library, developers can save time and effort by not having to implement these functionalities from scratch. They also contribute to improved usability and accessibility for end-users.

Key Dialog Boxes

Using the Dialog Boxes

To use a common dialog box, you typically follow these steps:

1. Define a structure that holds the initialization parameters and receives the results from the dialog box.
2. Initialize the structure with default values or desired settings.
3. Call the appropriate dialog box function (e.g., GetOpenFileName).
4. Check the return value to determine if the user clicked "OK" or "Cancel".
5. If the user clicked "OK", retrieve the results from the structure.

Example: Opening a File

Here's a conceptual example of how you might call the GetOpenFileName function (syntax may vary slightly based on language binding):

#include <windows.h>
#include <commdlg.h>

// ...

OPENFILENAME ofn;
char szFile[MAX_PATH] = {0};

ZeroMemory(&ofn, sizeof(OPENFILENAME));
ofn.lStructSize = sizeof(OPENFILENAME);
ofn.lpstrFilter = "Text Files (*.txt)\0*.txt\0All Files (*.*)\0*.*\0";
ofn.lpstrFile = szFile;
ofn.nMaxFile = sizeof(szFile);
ofn.Flags = OFN_EXPLORING | OFN_FILEMUSTEXIST;

if (GetOpenFileName(&ofn)) {
    // User clicked OK, szFile now contains the selected file path
    MessageBox(NULL, ofn.lpstrFile, "Selected File", MB_OK);
} else {
    // User clicked Cancel or an error occurred
    DWORD dwError = CommDlgExtendedError();
    if (dwError != 0) {
        // Handle error
    }
}