Hi,

I have managed to create some tabs on my form but now I would like to add text to them. I have tried setting the properties "TEXT" and "VALUE" but neither apparently work. How is text assigned to the tabs?

TIA,

Marty

This article explains it (from the Knowledge Base)

http://www.revelation.com/WEBSITE/knowledge.nsf/5f13dfa1e5319ec6852566f50065bc74/a80697c2677837d885256537004a451c?OpenDocument

(Someone should really tell me how to do these fancy link things…)

Thanks. I printed that article. I guess it goes back to "When all else fails, read the instructions".

Robert

Check out the thread attached to

how to format forum

or search on "italics"

Of course I frequently mess mine up by missing an end bracket or tag or putting things together in the wrong sequence…

Scott, LMS

Marty,

Just a few things you might want to think through before you decide on how you do your tabs:

- Are you satisfied with tabs of fixed length, or should the length perhaps vary according to the length of the tab text, with shorter tabs for short text?

- Are you satisfied with the length of TAB10822?

- Are you satisfied with the looks of TAB10822?

- Will your tab texts be static or do you need them to change?

- Oystein -

Oystein,

I want the tabs to be variable in length and location on each sheet. My ultimate goal is to achieve a form that closely resembles an Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 workbook with 12 - 20 worksheets. Am I dreaming or is this really possible?

Marty

Marty ..

I don't think that's do-able. Each tab represents a page in the form. You would need a 12-20 page form. The tabs won't stack and come forward in OI the way they do in other Windows environments. They have to go across the top boundary of the form. If they are variable length, the form will have to be pretty wide horizontally to do this. You could label the tabs sequentially with numbers and this can be done programatically (with a bit of work). The major problem will be running up against the maximum number of controls on a single form. Much beyond 100 controls (text/data/images, etc.) and the whole thing becomes very unstable. You might use static tabs that link from one form (master) to others (in MDI or not). You might be able to get away with dialog boxes for these which will return to the main form when they complete. You might be able to use hidden bound controls to capture the data done there. Big project!

Don Miller

C3 Inc.

Thanks, I'll re-think what I want to accpmplish.

Hi Don & Marty

I wouldn't be so quick to say it can't be done - or at least that something like it can't be done. It's true the code I pointed you in the direction of is intended to work within the limits of a single SDI form (115 control limit), but there are ways and means around that problem - namely MDI.

I have used variations of the Tab10822 bitmap as "buttons" which automatically close the current mdichild and open the next mdichild simulating the function of the "tabbed dialog box". I wrote my routines to handle an unlimited number of pages with 20 pages currently being my record.

Robert Lee

All,

You can accomplish what you want by going away from Revelation's documented approach. Just create your own tabs using a BMP. You can even make them vertical or run along the bottom of your window if you like. The trick is capturing the BUTTONDOWN event on the window and tracking if the mouse clicked in a specific tab. If so then change the page number of the form and the IMAGENUMBER of the tab to coordinate.

[email protected]

SRP Computer Solutions, Inc.

Marty,

As Don says you can use one big bitmap control instead of many single check box ("checkbmp") controls. It's not difficult to write handlers that know where in the bitmap the user clicked. The difficult part might be to get the bitmap to look the way you want, and change according to circumstances.

Robert says you can use MDI instead of multi-page windows. That's what you might have to do if you run up against the 115 controls limit. To choose between MDI and multi-page is largely a separate matter from deciding what kind of control(s) to use for tabs. Except of course that having one big bitmap instead of many checkbmps can be what keeps you below the control limit.

But let's get back to that bitmap control and see if we can get it to show the tabs you need.

You say you want your tabs to be variable in length, but the crucial question is if the number of tabs, and the tab texts, are known at design time. If so, it's not too difficult. If you have 20 tabs, you must prepare 20 images of the tabs. The first image shows the tabs with the first tab selected, the second image with the second tab selected, etc. You can see what I mean here. Within the red rectangles in this picture are five images needed for a row of five tabs.

This picture is a screen dump from a program that I developed to help me make such tab images. You can have that program if you want. Or if it's just a matter of one set of tabs I can make them for you.

If you have problems fitting all your tabs into one row, you can e.g make your tabs higher and break the texts into two lines. (This is something my program cannot do.)

But if the tab texts need to be dynamic - i.e, they are not known at design time - it's trickier. Then your program must dynamically paint the content of the bitmap, using Windows GDI functions. (Btw - that's what I do in my tab images program.)

If you have dynamic tab texts it might be easier to make a solution with one control (checkbmp or button) per tab instead of one single bitmap.

- Oystein -

Hi Don

Good ideas. I am constantly surprised at how little we can't do with OI. Its just a case of figuring out how. So I dedicate this little poem from my childhood to Marty

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,

But he, with a grin, replied

He'd never be one to say it couldn't be done-

Leastways, not till he'd tried.

So he buckled right in, with a trace of a grin,

By golly, he went right to it.

He tackled the Thing that couldn't be done!

And he couldn't do it.

Hmmm. We'd better change the last line…

It's like current smash hit childrens program in the UK (Bob the Builder) - "Can we fix it? YES WE CAN!"

Thanks Scott

Watch our for my new improved posts.

[email protected]

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