Center a Dialog Box with Respect to its Owner Window

Center a Dialog Box with Respect to its Owner Window

Visual C++ 6.0 provides an option - "Center Dialog" to center the dialog with respect to the screen.  This is quite convenient.  However, no option has been provided to center the dialog with respect to the owner of the dialog.  "CenterDlgToParent" function, presented in this article, centers the dialog identified by the handle to the window passed as a parameter with respect to its parent.

The function also takes into account the desktop co-ordinates. When calculating the center of the dialog, if it is found that the dialog box crosses the screen boundaries then the position is manipulated so that the dialog box remains within the screen boundaries.

Source Code

void CenterDlgToParent (HWND hwndDlg) {   // Get the parent window   HWND hwndParent = reinterpret_cast (     ::GetWindowLong (hwndDlg, GWL_HWNDPARENT));   // Get window rect of the parent   RECT rectParent;   ::GetWindowRect (hwndParent, &rectParent;);   // Calculate the width and height of the parent   int nParentWidth = rectParent.right - rectParent.left;   int nParentHeight = rectParent.bottom - rectParent.top;   // Get window rect of the dialog   RECT rectDlg;   ::GetWindowRect (hwndDlg, &rectDlg;);   // Calculate the width and height of the dialog   int nDlgWidth = rectDlg.right - rectDlg.left;   int nDlgHeight = rectDlg.bottom - rectDlg.top;   // Calculate the center of the dialog   // Note: Subtracting the dialogs calculated center from the its parent   // left and top makes sure that the dialog box is centered even when   // the parent is smaller in dimension as compared to the dialog.   rectDlg.left = rectParent.left - ((nDlgWidth / 2) - (nParentWidth / 2));   rectDlg.top = rectParent.top - ((nDlgHeight / 2) - (nParentHeight / 2));   // Get the width and height of the screen   int nScreenWidth = ::GetSystemMetrics (SM_CXSCREEN);   int nScreenHeight = ::GetSystemMetrics (SM_CYSCREEN);   // Calculate dialog's left and top   int nDlgLeft = rectDlg.left < 0 ? 0 : rectDlg.left;   int nDlgTop = rectDlg.top < 0 ? 0 : rectDlg.top;   // If dialog's right goes beyond the right boundary of the screen,   // subtract the amount by which it goes beyond from the dialog's left.   int nDlgRight = rectDlg.left + nDlgWidth;   if (nDlgRight > nScreenWidth)     nDlgLeft -= (nDlgRight - nScreenWidth);   // If dialog's bottom goes beyond the bottom boundary of the screen,   // subtract the amount by which it goes beyond from the dialog's right.   int nDlgBottom = rectDlg.top + nDlgHeight;   if (nDlgBottom > nScreenHeight)     nDlgTop -= (nDlgBottom - nScreenHeight);   // Move window to center   ::MoveWindow (hwndDlg, nDlgLeft, nDlgTop, nDlgWidth, nDlgHeight, TRUE); }

Using the Source Code

To use the function in your Win32 SDK or MFC projects, cut and paste the function to a file where you normally keep all your helper functions.  This file is typically included in all other files.  The best place to use this function in Win32 SDK is in your WM_INITDIALOG handler.  In MFC, it is off-course in "OnInitDialog".  "CenterDlgToParent" is the usually the first function in these handlers.