form caption as hypertext

[samsnead]

is it possible to add an icon to the form caption titlebar so that form caption would have Title of program and also an icon for help (as well as minimize, maximize, close options)

 

[Mike Lewis]

Hi Samsnead,

The easiest way to do this is to enable WhatsThisHelp for the form. To do that, set the WhatsThisButton property to .T. (you need to do that at design time, not in program code).

When the user clicks the button, the mouse pointer changes to a Help icon. The user can then click any part of the form, and VFP will invoke the Help topic specified by the WhatsThisHelpID property.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[samsnead]

Thanks Mike - we were going to do that but can't use if min max buttons on form (and of course we have those!) We may build a formset where the titlebar is off and create a dummy title bar then able to put anything on we want.

 

[Imaginecorp]

The only problem with creating your own Titlebar is you cannot move the form with the mouse, plus too much of coding for functions (min, close etc) that are already there... IMO a real PIA… and not worth the effort. But then again it’s only my opinion.

A suggestion: leave the title bar on and put a Help button just below it. (if you need the Min & Max buttons as well). Normally, and users are used to it, help is always enabled with FI. You dont have to use the standard help, but create your own, i.e. when the mouse hovers over a control, you can open a help form...

 

[Mike Lewis]

Samsnead,

I agree with ImagineCorp's remarks about creating your own title bar. The only time I ever do that is for a splash screen, or my enhanced tooltip windows.

Instead, consider placing a home-made hyperlink on the form, just below the Min and Max buttons. Use an ordinary label, but make it underlined, and change the mouse pointer to a hand when it is over the label. That way it will look like a web hyperlink, which you users are familiar with. In the label's Click, call the Help viewer for the relevant topic.

Also, as Imagine rightly says, ensure your users can use F1 to invoke Help. Most users are familiar with that.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[samsnead]

thx guys - I agree so we are going to put on form just below min max.

 

[Koen Piller]

Samsnead,
ALternatively I would suggest to leave the WhatisThis Button and the close button on the titlebar, and if your GUI requires a min/max possibility, make a class with these two buttons and and them on the form in an convenient place. With the anchor method in VFP9 you can easily position these.
Good luck
Jockey2

 

[Olaf Doschke]

I can only acknowledge to make your own WhatThisHelp button or min/max buttons. There is an example in the solution.app in the "new in vfp9" section. "Binding to windows message events"->GDI+ titlebar. It shows how to modify the titlebar and add somthing graphical to it via GDI. But that does not work with Vista Aero titlebars.

A ? button is quite simple, just put THISFORM.WhatsThisMode() in the click and of course set the forms WhatsThisHelp .T.

Bye, Olaf.