Internet Explorer 3.0 and Office 97 brought in a revolution in toolbars. The now extremely popular 'popup button' toolbars are taking over almost any new application which has toolbars - and I can see why. I mean, it's got style, a simple look and adds an attractive side to your application.  Visual Basic 5.0 didn't bring these controls in as a part of its new control set, but you can do it yourself with the old Common Controls Toolbar, and an API call.

1. Create a new project, and add the Common Controls ActiveX control to it.
2. Draw the Toolbar onto a form. Add your buttons.
3. Place the following into the General Declarations section:

    Private Declare Function FindWindowEx Lib "user32" _
    Alias "FindWindowExA" (ByVal hWndParent As Long, ByVal _
    hWndChildWindow As Long, ByVal lpClassName As String, _
    ByVal lpsWindowName As String) As Long

    Const TB_SETSTYLE = WM_USER + 56
    Const TB_GETSTYLE = WM_USER + 57

    Const WM_USER = &H400

    Const TBSTYLE_FLAT = &H800
      

4. Add this Sub to the General Declarations Section as well:

    Public Sub SetTBar97(TBar As Toolbar)
        Dim lTBarStyle As Long, lTBarHwnd As Long
        lTBarHwnd = FindWindowEx(TBar.hWnd, 0&, _
        "ToolbarWindow32", vbNullString)
        lTBarStyle = SendMessage(lTBarHwnd, TB_GETSTYLE, _
        0&, 0&)
        lTBarStyle = lTBarStyle Or TBSTYLE_FLAT
        SendMessage lTBarHwnd, TB_SETSTYLE, 0, lTBarStyle
        TBar.Refresh
    End Sub
      

5. Add a Module and add this to it:

    Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias _
    "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As _
    Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long
      

6. You can make the Toolbars Office 97 Style with:

SetTBar97 Toolbar1

Toolbar1, of course, being your toolbar control's name.