How do i create bottom status bar thing

[rex1030]

At the bottom of firefox and most of its plugins is a bar at the bottom border of the program that gives status messages as text, icons, and progress bars that lets the user know what the program is doing without taking up a lot of screen real estate or drawing too much attention that would be distracting to the user. I would like to start putting something like this at the bottom of my applications and I am trying to figure out the best way to accomplesh it.

As far as I have been able to figure out, the only way to do this in lab view is to try to create a "one line" panel (called a frame in almost every other programming environment). I would rather not use panels because you cant get rid of that 5-10 pixel border marker. The status bar in other program seems to be more natural to the program. See the little dividers where each space could have some other text string?

Has anyone else tried to do this and figured out something that looks like the one at the bottom of most programs rather than some clunky panel thing? I would really like to be able to display text, small images (icons), and system progress bars here.

rex

[elset191]

You can resize the splitter bar in between panes.  i.e. you can make it 1 pixel instead of 5 or whatever the default is

[PhillipBrooks]

I Kudo'ed your question!

I would use a classic horizontal splitter bar and a Multicolumn listbox.

The classic controls are 'flat' and you can set their forground and background colors to make them appear 'invisible'. If you use the select tool (arrow) you can grab the upper or lower handle of the splitter bar and reduce it to 1 pixel in hight. Set the splitter to stick to the bottom. Add a multicolumn listbox, set it to fit the fram and you should be set to go!

No code required; the only object on the block diagram  would be the MCL.

[tbob]

You can use string indicators and decoration boxes to create a status bar.  See attached vi.

[TCPlomp]

You can get rid of the 5 pixel border for a panel-bar.

Here's a little video showing how to remove the splitter bar and to place a string indicator on such a pane:

Ton

[SimonH]

rex1030,

You might find this blog post useful if you haven't seen it already. There is a short video covering this topic, similar to Ton's excellent post above, along with several other UI tips for LabVIEW.

You can also download a sample "Windows" like application with a status bar (complete with progress bar, small iconic stop button etc). 

~Simon 

[GregFreeman]

Ton, please tell me that video is sped up!

[tbob]

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for(imstuck) wrote:
Ton, please tell me that video is sped up!

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I thought it was rather slow.

[TCPlomp]

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tbob wrote:

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for(imstuck) wrote:
Ton, please tell me that video is sped up!

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I thought it was rather slow.

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Whatch it tbob.

Next time I will use camtasia again. 

for(imstuck), I use a mouse tablet of A6 (or A5) format, it means that I hardly have to move my right arm, just my wrist and fingers do the most work.

For future reference, this video (created with the free Jing) is normal speed.

Ton

[GregFreeman]

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TCPlomp wrote:

For future reference, this video (created with the free Jing) is normal speed.

Ton

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I just watched again on my home computer and it looked normal speed. I don't know what was happening on my work pc but it was playing really fast. Therefore, disregard all compliments  

Message Edited by for(imstuck) on 05-24-2010 11:47 PM