How to Stop Your Program For a Period of Time

Posted on December 15th, 1999 in General | No Comments »

This procedure will let your programs process Windows messages. The only thing is that this function may stop only this procedure while not stopping the rest :-)

var
  dtNow: TDateTime;
begin
  { Before pause }
  dtNow := Now;
  repeat
    Application.ProcessMessages; { Process Windows messages }
  until dtNow + 5 / SecsPerDay < Now; { Pause for 5 seconds }
  { After pause }
end;

How to Focus the Next Control After Pressing Enter

Posted on December 15th, 1999 in General | No Comments »

By default the focus is passed to the next control by pressing the Tab key. Well, sometimes (when filling out forms) you may want to pass to the next control after pressing Enter. Well, here’s the code: For TEdit controls only:
Select all the TEdit controls you want to include (using the Shift key), then select the Object Inspector, choose the Events tab and double click the OnKeyPress event. This way all the selected TEdit controls will use the same code. In the code editor write this code:

if Key = #13 then begin
  Perform(WM_NEXTDLGCTL, 0, 0);
  Key := #0; { Eat the key }
end;

For all the controls on the form:
This method will work for all controls because the form will take care of the event. All you have to do is set the form’s KeyPreview property to True and add this code to your form’s KeyUp event:

if (Key = VK_RETURN) and (Shift = []) then
  Perform(WM_NEXTDLGCTL, 0, 0);