I'm looking to add a 'close' button to my main window's menu. An example can be found in the picture here: http://ifyoucodeittheywill.com/img/crimson-editor.png
(So, there's the normal close button in the window caption area, but, there's also a close button in the window's menu bar -- on the far right).
I'm using basic win32 API's, though an example using MFC would also be fine.
Does anyone know how to do this?
Thanks,
Andrew
These buttons usually come with MDI windows. However I'm pretty sure the depicted application uses either its own, or more probably some advanced third party toolkit. Because, to be honest, what the Windows API and MFC (which is just a classed wrapper around the windows API) give you for GUI programming is unbareably limited.
If you want to design neat UIs steer clear from MFC and better have a look at something like Qt, wxWidgets or the like.
A really simple way of doing this is to use a regular menu item, using AppendMenu, but use the following flags:
MF_BITMAP with a close button bitmap, or MF_OWNERDRAW or to draw it yourself
MF_HELP (aka WM_RIGHTJUSTIFY), a not-very-well documented flag, which will justify the item to the right.
Here's one reference to MF_HELP that I found on msdn - it's actually about using the Win32 API to right-justify a menu item, but using Visual Basic.
MF_HELP (defined in winuser.h) is something of a holdover from Win16 days, back then, the convention was to right-justify the Help menu item, so it would stand apart. It was 'renamed' - an additional #define added with the same value - to WM_RIGHTJUSTIFY around Win95.
Note that bitmap menu items aren't accessible (eg. to users that are relying on a screenreader to read out where they are on the screen); if taking this approach, then at least add a regular 'Close' menu item elsewhere in the menus (eg. under File), so that a user doesn't have to rely on this item, and can also close it through usual means. Also be sure to implement the Ctrl-F4 shortcut, which is what most applications that support multiple documents or tabs use to close the current item.
By all means do not try to create this behaviour yourself. This is functionality that you get "for free" if you are using the MDI architecture of MFC. The close button "next to the menu" as you call it closes the active MDI child window. If you are not using the MDI architecture then there is no point in trying to add a close button there. Can you explain if you are using the MDI architecture?
Related
I have been trying to create a WPF control similar to how JIRA's menu works, and Googling around for the past few days hasn't really shown me anything helpful for overriding the menu template (or if that is even what I should be doing).
As a reference here is the type of menu I am trying to implement:
As one can see from the images, I don't want the standard menu that displays a popup next to the current menu item list, but it should instead take over the container host and display the current parent menu item at the top and then its child items under it.
As I said, not sure menu is even the correct control to attempt to override, but I'm not really sure what else to try to Google either. It seems tantalizing similar to menu (overriding the menu items is easy to get them to display the look and feel I want), the trouble is how to get the menu item's parent to show at the top and reuse the entire menu area... it's almost as if the menu item would somehow have to interact with the menu, but that would kind of defeat the purpose of the plug-in methodology of WPF.
If possible, it would also be nice to not have a write a completely new control, but style something else existing, if that is even possible. If writing a new control is necessary, then I would do it, but this is more an excercise in wanting to know if it is even possible to style a menu (or something else) in this way so it can be easily reused across the application.
I have inherited a large MFC application which contains a CComboBox subclass that overrides OnPaint. Currently it does all its drawing by hand (with lines and rectangles), and renders a combo box that looks decidedly Windows 98-style. However, it otherwise works great and provides a lot of useful custom functionality that we rely on, and rewriting the entire control is probably not an option.
I would like to modernize it so that the OnPaint draws in Aero style where available (falling back to the old code when modern theming is unavailable). I've done this with some other custom controls we have, like buttons, and it works great for our purposes. I know there are some tiny behaviors that it won't get right, like gentle highlights on mouse-hover, but that's not a big deal for this app.
I have access to the CVisualStylesXP ckass, so I've already got the infrastructure to make calls like OpenThemeData, GetThemeColor or DrawThemeBackground pretty easily (via LoadLibrary so we don't force Vista as a min-system). Unfortunately, I don't know the proper sequence of calls to get a nice looking combo box with the theme-appropriate border and drop-down button.
Anyone know what to do here?
Honestly, I don't know why they originally tried to override OnPaint. Is there a good reason? I'm thinking that at least 99% of the time you are just going to want to override the drawing of the items in the ComboBox. For that, you can override DrawItem, MeasureItem, and CompareItem in a derived combo box to get the functionality you want. In that case, the OS will draw the non-user content specific to each OS correctly.
I think you best shot without diving in the depth of xp theming and various system metrics is take a look at this project: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/2584/AdvComboBox-Version-2-1
Check the OnPaint of the CAdvComboBox class - there is a full implementation of the control repainting including xp theme related issues.
Not sure if it's the same situation - but when I faced this problem (in my case with subclassed CButtons), solving it only required changing the control declaration to a pointer and creating the control dynamically.
Let's assume that your subclassed control is called CComboBoxExt.
Where you had
CComboBoxExt m_cComboBoxExt;
You'll now have
CComboBoxExt* m_pcComboBoxExt;
And on the OnInitDialog of the window where the control is placed, you create it using
m_pcComboBoxExt = new CComboBoxExt();
m_pcComboBoxExt->Create(...)
Since this is now a pointer, don't forget to call DestroyWindow() and delete the pointer on termination.
This solved my particular problem - if your control is declared in the same way, consider giving it a try.
I'm working on an XmlEditor (similar to XmlNotepad, but using WPF) in which I want to implement personalized menus. I.e. only show the most popular MenuItems on first open, and show all MenuItems when the user explicitly asks for it, either by clicking on the double arrow at the bottom or waiting for a certain amount of time.
I'm specifically looking for feedback on how I should approach this problem: any thoughts are appreciated!
Since you're working on an XmlEditor. It will be a problem for this case. Try using a different editor.
When designing a form I have the option of putting a close button at the bottom of the form. The form will also have a close form "x" button in the upper right corner of the window as provided by winforms.
Based on the principle of "There should be one and preferably only one obvious way to do it" I was thinking the close button should be removed because of the forms existing default functionality.
What have the rest of you found in your experience that works best for users or has been the standard for UI setup?
I have done a considerable amount of design work, and I can't say I have heard of the principle of, "There should be one way to do [some task]." In fact, I have heard (almost) the opposite: "There should always be one obvious way to do a task, but additional methods could be used to help different user types." An example of this is the ability to hit the "Save" button to save a document. But, you can also do "File > Save" and you can also hit Ctrl + S. Three ways to do the same task.
Also, if you're programming in a Windows environment (as it appears you are), you will automatically get multiple ways of closing a window. The [X], of course, Alt + F4 is typical, you can setup Ctrl + C, etc. I wouldn't particularly put a close button on the bottom of the form unless it flows with the form's input. For example, if you want to [Submit] or [Close] the form - does that make sense? Would it be better to [Submit] or [Cancel]? Think about what your users are doing and how they are using the form.
Here are some guidelines I follow:
If the form is an application (it was launched directly from Windows), it should probably not have a close button. Users expect to be able to close the application by clicking the X in the top-right corner.
If it is a dialog (it was launched from another window within your application) that simply displays information, it should probably have a close button and you can optionally leave the Windows close button as well.
If it is a dialog that allows the user to edit data it should have a Save or Apply button and a Cancel button but no Windows X. The reason is because it is ambiguous what it means. Should it save the data? Cancel it? Display a dialog asking them what they want to do?
In general I do agree that there should be only one way to do something. The reason is that a reasonable user will have to wonder if they do different things (even if they are named the same). Even if the user discovers they do similar things, they may wonder if they are subtly different.
Of course there are exceptions to the rule. For example, most users understand that the file menu, toolbar, and keyboard shortcuts of the same name all point to the same command.
I think that principle applies mostly to coding (and not for every language, think of Perl!), for UI's usually it's good to have different ways to do things... because it allows you to do things faster.
Think about any common operation like cut or paste, you can use the edit menu, the contextual menu, the keyboard shortcut or even the icons in the toolbar. Try to remove any of those ways of doing it in any application and you'll have hordes of users screaming to get it back.
So here the main principle is to not change what the user expects. Another remark: be consistent, though there might be different ways get access to the same functionality, all of them should work in the same way (I'd be very pissed of if copying with the keyboard shortcut did a different thing than copying with the right mouse button XD).
I want to setup my WinForm to look like the Delphi7 IDE. Basically that means the window has no background (the desktop shows through), and child windows float around.
Here's a sample image:
I can handle the floating windows, but how would I go for the main window (the menu bar and the toolbar)? What are the WinForm properties required to get this layout? I can't seem to be able to get rid of the window's client area.
Thank you
Why can't you get rid of the client area? Just resize the main form so that it's as thin as you can make it.
You may be implementing the floating windows as UserControls in the main form's Controls collection. If so, there are two ways you can deal with this:
Implement the floating windows as actual windows. Show them using "frmToolWindows.Show(this);" (this will keep them always on top of your main form).
If you need to keep the floaters as UserControls, you can make the client area of your main form transparent by setting the form's TransparencyKey property to some arbitrary color (Color.Red, for example) and then setting the form's BackColor property to the same color. This will make your form transparent and able to be clicked through.
Please don't make a UI like this. It is very non-standard, and doesn't gain anything in the realm of usability. You could simplify things by keeping it all in one window like Visual Studio.