UI COmponents problem 1

[Oppenhiemer]

Hi all..

I am developing a new app and looking for a more inovative UI than just menus and speedbuttons. I really like the idea of an outlook bar, problem is that I cant seem to get one that will allow you to use shortcut keys effectively.

Some will allow you to define Captions using the &Caption format to display the shortcut for the user, but then I have to build in a rather complicated key-handling routine to activate pages/items etc..

Any help much appreciated. I have tried the Orpheous,JEDI and Powertools versio of an Outlook bar. All to no avail (unless IM missing something.)

Cheers..

Opp.

 

[Oppenhiemer]

Think I have solved problem (just that controls a bit fiddly.) And thats the Outlook component that ships with JEDI. Seems to do all that I need at the moment.
Thanks,,
Opp.

 

[footpad]

Opp,

If you run into further problems, a slightly different tack might be in order, When I run into situations like this, I generally resort to the old "hidden popup menu" trick, e.g:

1. Drop a popupMenu on your form and set its AutoPopup property to FALSE.

2. Assign your popupMenu to the form's PopupMenu property.

3. Add menu items you your popup menu that trigger the hotkey behavior you want.

4. Assign the keyboard shortcuts to each menu item.

Even though the menu is never displayed to the user, the shortcuts still work.

I'll admit it's a bit crude and far more tightly coupled than some might be comfortable with; however, it can frequently solve some difficult problems.

Hope this helps...

-- Lance

 

[richardchaven]

Lance

Is it cruder than having a separate "THotKeys" component that did the same thing?

As for tightly coupled: It's a UI! It has to be tightly coupled!

Cheers

 

[Oppenhiemer]

Ok thanks guys, some good stuff there. As I say, I seem to be able to get the JEDI Outlook bar to behave as I wanted with regards shortcut keys; so thats a big step forward.

Have you used JEDI components btw ? Some good components there. Not sure if they are still developing them, but lst I heard there was talk of a Version 3 on its way. Thanks again..
Cheers..

Opp.