If I throw a bevelbutton on a form, I can give it a nice helptag and it works as expected.
When I have 4 bevelbuttons in a controlset within a very simple containercontrol having also a listbox, everything with the bevelbutton still works fine except the helptag is not appearing. I did try assigning the helptag in the open-event of the containercontrol, not error of course but also no helptag shown up.
Does anybody have the same experience ?
I tried two ways :
1 -
- Drop a BevelButton
- Add a help tag
- Turn in into a control set
The help tag shows. If I add members, all have the same help tag. I can also in code or in the Inspector change the help tag for a member.
2 -
- Drop a BevelButton
- Make it a control set
- Duplicate it to create members
- Select one member and add a help tag in the Inspector
Both work. 2015R2.4 under Windows 10.
Oh no… creating a nice Windows desktop gui is like hopping from one surprise to another.
I have figured out why the helptags of my button on the Containercontrol don’t appear. You won’t believe and I am not amused about it.
If I have my containercontrol on a Window, like Michel tested for me also (thanks), it works fine.
But my containercontrol is is meant to be a popup actionlist for the user, which can be partly on top of a pagepanel control, and than helptags are not appearing anymore.
Looks like a bug report is in order.
In another app where I found the help tag to be too slow, I have used an opaque label that I move together with the mouse. I guess that can be done with a canvas as well.
ToolTip.Show(“Blah…”, System.MouseX, System.MouseY + 20, True)
in the MouseMove
and
Tooltip.Hide
in the MouseExit.
You don’t have the nice fadeout but I think it works a lot better and it feels a lot more responsive.
Yes Michel, I was thinking about what you suggest too, but I get tired from building work-arrounds for just this sort of stupid and unexpected behavior. Last week I dealt with a blinking label, now I it’s this unexpected behavior. I just want to be productive. 
BTW: Michel thank you for being so helpful.
New : I just made a small test project with a container control containing a BevelButton controlset on a PagePanel.
Help tags show. There must be something else.
The blinking thing was not run of the mill, to be honest. Anything that is out of the ordinary is bound to take a bit of time.
This help tag thing is of a different nature. There is no reason it works in the project I am attached and not elsewhere. I am sure you will get the end of it.
About productivity, there is this idiom that says it takes 80% of the time to make the UI, and only 20% for the logic. I would be tempted to go up to 90%. Thanks to OOP, though, these are things you mostly reuse eventually.
I know, from RubberViews I had in my toolkit for years, it took me about a full month to get it ready for market. And this is an UI class already !
Michel,
Tried your example (on OS X).
Initially, the Helptags don’t show up. I need to hover a couple of times for something to happen. And when they do, it takes way too long for the first Helptag to show up.
A while ago, I had the same problem Joost has (also with containers). Since then, it’s only Tooltips for me.
I just created the control from scratch (2 mins work) and find the helptag working, even when I move it outside the pagapanel. When I research the source-file I the only difference I see is the sequence I have put the controls on the CC.
The test-project
The tooltip / helptag is indeed appearing very lousy and it depends where you access the button if it appears at all. Since I am already using MouseEnter and MouseExit it’s easy to implement what Marco suggested.
[quote=212363:@Marco Hof]Michel,
Tried your example (on OS X).
Initially, the Helptags don’t show up. I need to hover a couple of times for something to happen. And when they do, it takes way too long for the first Helptag to show up.
A while ago, I had the same problem Joost has (also with containers). Since then, it’s only Tooltips for me.
help.xojo_binary_project[/quote]
Joost issue was under Windows. In OSX, indeed, Help tags take much too long to appear.
Ha ha Michel… Your testproject has the same problem with the helptag. If you move the Containercontrol half off the pagepanel, not helptags are appearing anymore.
Marco, can you post your help-project again please. If possible as a zip-file. My network firewall is not accepting it.
If you reinstate the PagePanel as parent, then the HelpTags work again.
I just downloaded Marco’s project. No ToolTip under Windows.
Place the code in MouseEnter instead :
Sub MouseEnter(index as Integer)
ToolTip.Show("Help: " + index.ToText, System.MouseX, System.MouseY + 20, True)
End Sub
As tooltip, it disappears after a second.
[quote=212369:@Michel Bujardet]Place the code in MouseEnter instead :
Sub MouseEnter(index as Integer)
ToolTip.Show("Help: " + index.ToText, System.MouseX, System.MouseY + 20, True)
End Sub
As tooltip, it disappears after a second.[/quote]
This also what I did right away and also wanted to mention it’s disappearing after a second. But it is showing up immediately, and that’s a benefit.
Another issue could be, for those who want to be perfect according to the Windows standard, that the user can modify his tooltip-looklike in his Windows configurationpanel. Helptag shows up according to the Windows setting, this tooltip is allways the same black on light yellow.
Hee Michel, at least we have learned something from Marco. 
It doesn’t disappear under OS X.
The syntax is: ToolTip.Show ( tip As String, x As Integer, y As Integer, autoHide As Boolean )
autoHide doesn’t do anything under OS X. Maybe if you set it t False it will not disappear under Windows.
Instead of MouseEnter, I like MouseMove better so it ‘sticks’ when you’re hovering over the button. But maybe that’s an OS X thing also.
Thanks Marco… in Windows the autohide bool works fine, tooltip doesn’t disappear automatically when set to false.
I really was not aware of this alternative for helptag and will start using from now since it is much faster and I think more reliable.
I am a perfectionist:
Using ToolTip.Show(strTip, System.MouseX, System.MouseY + 10, False)
makes that the tooltip can go partly off the screen if you have you’re window maximized. To be perfect it requires some logic which was not necessary using the helptag.
i try using tooltip on mac for pushbutton and it work exactly like the helptag.
When i run it on window7 machine, help tag show up but not the tooltip. all i got it a grey box for the tooltip but without the wordings.
[quote=212397:@Richard Duke]i try using tooltip on mac for pushbutton and it work exactly like the helptag.
When i run it on window7 machine, help tag show up but not the tooltip. all i got it a grey box for the tooltip but without the wordings.[/quote]
From what I see on Windows, ToolTip works fine in MouseEnter or MouseDown, but not in MouseMove.