unwanted desktop properties box

[arielap]

Don't know what I did, but there is now an unwanted 'desktop properties' window which always re-appears after I save the form or PRG I've been modifying, and unless specifically closed, stays on top of the app when it's run.

This is a fairly recent development and I've not found a setting to turn this behaviour off. What have I missed please?

 

[mspratt]

Right Click the title bar and uncheck Dockable.

Regards,

Mike

 

[mspratt]

That is the Title Bar of the Properties Box.

Regards,

Mike

 

[Mike Lewis]

arielap,

This drives me crazy as well.

I've found that if you close VFP while the form or class designer is open, the next time you open VFP, the desktop properties window will reappear. If you close the designer before you quit VFP, the properties will stay shut (this is true in 8.0, at least).

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My sites:
Visual FoxPro (www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk)
Crystal Reports (www.ml-crystal.com)

 

[arielap]

thanks Mikes both
Glad I'm not alone.

Mike Pratt's instructions + I clicked 'hide', appear to have sent it into limbo (this is VFP 7).
Now why hadn't I thought to try that

 

[mspratt]

But it's Dockable checked that keeps it on top. The Command Window does the same thing.

Regards,

Mike

 

[alvechurchdata]

How about:

IF WVISIBLE("Properties")
  RELEASE WINDOW "Properties"
ENDIF

somewhere in your startup code?

Geoff Franklin

http://www.alvechurchdata.co.uk

 

[Mike Lewis]

While we're in griping mood, does anyone know how to ensure that an editing window stays maximised?

I open an editing window, maximise it, then close it. Next time I open it, I would like it to remember that it was maximised.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My sites:
Visual FoxPro (www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk)
Crystal Reports (www.ml-crystal.com)

 

[Eguy]

Mike;

I open an editing window, maximise it, then close it. Next time I open it, I would like it to remember that it was maximised.

Don't maximise it. What I do is to position the window at the upper left corner and manually resize it by dragging the lower right corner to fill the screen. Fox will then remember the window size. and it only makes a difference in 1 line of visible code.

Ed

Please let me know if the suggestion(s) I provide are helpful to you.
Sometimes you're the windshield... Sometimes you're the bug.

 

[mspratt]

Hi Mike,

Do whatever you want to with the editing window and close it with Ctrl-W.

Regards,

Mike

 

[Mike Lewis]

Ed,

position the window at the upper left corner and manually resize it by dragging the lower right corner to fill the screen

Yes, that's what I do as well. It's good enough I suppose, but not ideal.

Mike

Do whatever you want to with the editing window and close it with Ctrl-W.

That doesn't work for me.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My sites:
Visual FoxPro (www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk)
Crystal Reports (www.ml-crystal.com)

 

[arielap]

Unclick dockable
click Hide

and one evening's programming free of irritation (by that thing anyway).

and on a similar 'annoyance' topic' - is there anywhere to set 'dockable' to default permanently to 'off' . Mine seem to get reset to 'on' and its not a property I use or want.

 

[mspratt]

I hadn't tried maximizing and then Ctrl-W. My VFP8 SP1 machine doesn't save that either. Hmmmm... I does save the position if I just reloacate and resize though.

Regards,

Mike

 

[Mike Lewis]

Mike,

Yes, that's exactly what I'm seeing as well.

I used to dislike the whole concept of dockable windows, but that was when I was trying to develop with a silly little 15-inch monitor. Now that I have nice big 19-inch job, I keep a tab-docked window permanently open for the property sheet, document view and data session window; this is docked on the right of the screen. I keep the command window docked at the bottom. It's great to be able to switch between these four windows without having to shift things around.

But I would like to have the code editing window maximised so that it takes up all the remaining space. I guess I'll just have to keep hitting Ctrl+F10 each time I open it.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My sites:
Visual FoxPro (www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk)
Crystal Reports (www.ml-crystal.com)

 

[mspratt]

Hi arielap,

Do you have SET RESOURCE ON in your IDE?

Regards,

Mike

 

[craigsboyd]

I believe that MS conventions for an MDI are that either all the MDI's are maximized or they're not. For instance if I have a form up and the window that contains it (designer window?) is maximized then the code snippets I open from the document view will also be maximized. If I have the form designer window in normal mode then the code snippets will come up wherever I last had them opened, but it respects the normal mode that MDI is currently in for the child windows and will not change this just because it was maximized the last time I had it open.

Mike,
I have the same setup you have as far as the tab docked windows, except I had the command window in there with them as well... I'm trying your idea of putting it at the bottom and so far I think it is a more productive way to work, thanks for the tip.

http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com

 

[Mike Lewis]

Mike,

Do you have SET RESOURCE ON in your IDE?

Definitely not. If I did, I would lose virtually all my window settings each day. Good thought, though.

Craig,

I had the command window in there with them as well... I'm trying your idea of putting it at the bottom and so far I think it is a more productive way to work

The problem is that the command window is a different "shape" to the others. With properties and document view, the information lends itselft to a vertical layout; with the command window, you are more interested in horizontal space, which is why docking it at the bottom of the screen works better, IMO.

I've just had a thought -- I wonder if you can tab-dock the Toolbox window. If so, maybe I'll add it to my vertical docked windows. I'll give that a try next time.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My sites:
Visual FoxPro (www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk)
Crystal Reports (www.ml-crystal.com)

 

[arielap]

Mike
>>Do you have SET RESOURCE ON in your IDE? <<

resource is on by default (I replace the Foxuser files with copies that just contain my preferred setting, when they get too large, or system windows misbehave).

Having only a 17" screen, I work within the FoxPro frame, and windows that suddenly spread themselves at the edges after a careless mouse movement (iyswim) are annoying. Unticking dockable seems to make no difference

 

[mspratt]

Mike Lewis,

SET RESOURCE ON is what's supposed to cause VFP to remember your steeings, layout, etc. Perhaps you have a corruptded foxuser.dbf, .dbt. Rename to foxuser.dbf.test and foxuser.dbt.test and restart VFP. they will be recreated if resource is on. If not, you can go back by deleting the new foxuser.* and renaming the backup.

arielap,

If Docable is checked the window will act as AlwaysOnTop. I find this to be annoying when using MODIFY COMMAND.

Regards,

Mike

 

[Mike Lewis]

Mike (Pratt),

I understand the issues of resource files, but I am pretty sure the that is not the problem here. As far as I can tell by my experiments, the window state of an editing window is not stored in the resource file.

Thanks anyway for the suggestion.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My sites:
Visual FoxPro (www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk)
Crystal Reports (www.ml-crystal.com)