Author: Jonas Bilinkevicius

I have an application that auto-minimizes itself after 4 seconds, when maximized 
(using TTimer). The main form has a menu. I want the Timer to be disabled while the 
user browses the menu items. Is that possible?

Answer:

Solve 1:

Add this line to your form declaration:

1   protected
2   
3   procedure WMMenuSelect(var msg: TWMMenuSelect); message WM_MenuSelect;
4   
5   //and then add this procedure:
6   
7   procedure TForm1.WMMenuSelect(var msg: TWMMenuSelect);
8   begin
9     tmrAutoClose.Enabled := (msg.MenuFlag = $FFFF);
10  end;



Solve 2:

Yes. The form will get one special message when the menu is first opened 
(WM_ENTERMENULOOP) and a second when the menu is finally closed (WM_EXITMENULOOP). 
Add handlers for these and disable/ enable the timer in them.

11  { ... }
12  private
13  
14  procedure WMEnterMenuLoop(var msg: TMessage);
15    message WM_ENTERMENULOOP;
16  procedure WMExitMenuLoop(var msg: TMessage);
17    message WM_EXITMENULOOP;
18  { ... }
19  
20  procedure TForm1.WMEnterMenuLoop(var msg: TMessage);
21  begin
22    IdleTimer.Enabled := false;
23    inherited;
24  end;
25  
26  procedure TForm1.WMExitMenuLoop(var msg: TMessage);
27  begin
28    IdleTimer.Enabled := true;
29    inherited;
30  end;