Script Tips

GUI, Scripted

Turn to HTAs to give your scripts that Windows-like feel, without the programming overhead.

• By Don Jones
• 01/03/2005

As you may know, an HTA is a special HTML page that includes both HTML formatting codes as well as your VBScript. It's a sort of low-end Windows application or high-end script depending on how you look at it, and it offers the ability to have a robust graphical user interface, which VBScript normally lacks.

The key to it all is the special HTA tag which is embedded at the start of an HTA file:

<HTA:APPLICATION
  Applicationname = "MyApplication"
  Scroll="no"
>

Most scripters will use a simple HTA that meets the minimum requirements; get more complicated, though, and you can gain some real control over what your HTAs look like and how they perform.

This simple tag uses two attributes: One to define the application's name, and another to turn off the Internet Explorer scroll bars (since most Windows applications don't have them, this leads to a more professional look). But there are bunches more attributes you can add:

• Border: Set to thick, dialog, none or thin to define the window border style.
• Caption: Set to no to turn off the title bar and title bar buttons; use yes to keep them.
• Contextmenu: Set to no to suppress the normal IE right-click menus.
• Icon: Provide a path to an ICO file to specify a custom system menu icon.
• Innerborder: Set to yes to display a 3D inner border, or no to do without.
• Maximizebutton: Control the appearance of this button by setting to yes or no.
• Minimizebutton: Set to no to hide the button (and remove the capability to minimize the window); set to yes to show it.
• Navigable: Set to yes to allow any hyperlinks to open in the same window; set to no and hyperlinks will pop open a new IE window for browsing, just like a "real" application.
• Scrollflat: If scroll bars are shown (set with the Scroll attribute), set this to yes to make them appear flat or no to show the 3-D effect.
• Selection: Set to no to prevent text selection within the HTA window; yes allows it.
• Showintaskbar: Set to yes to emulate "real" application behavior and show a task bar button; set to no to emulate dialog box behavior and hide the task bar button.
• Singleinstance: Want to ensure only one copy of your application runs at a time? Set this to yes; set to no to allow multiple copies.
• Sysmenu: Set to no to hide the title bar system menu; set to yes to show it.
• Windowstate: Set to minimize, normal, or maximize to control the initial window appearance.

Use these attributes to define an HTA that looks like a system dialog box, an application, or whatever you like. Suddenly your scripts will look a lot more professional!