"Description and Tip" for Tab Control not working

[Edjsch]

Sam,

Apparently this is a bug and is sitll present in version 8.5. See:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Possible-bug-with-Tab-Control-and-Context-Help/m-p/479615

I'm not sure if the work-around mentioned applies. I'll have to experiment. Do you know?

Ed

[Edjsch]

Apparently the issue in my previous post is for the context help, not the description itself. So I haven't been able to find what I am seeing, that the context description for each individual tab (page) is suppressed at run time, and the tab control's description is displayed instead. But, as I said, when the vi is stopped, the individual tab page description does pop up.

The fact that the tip pop up is not directly above the mouse pointer, as I am seeing, is mentioned by others.

[Kristoff2]

Edjsch,

I have been unable to reproduce your error in LabVIEW 2009 or 2010 and it sounds like this is limited to a specific VI you are working with.  Have you tried mass compiling the project?

Regards,

Sam K

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[Edjsch]

Sam,

I tried mass compiling, but no difference. Have you tried opening my vi's in version 8.5?

Are you telling me that at run time (in versions 2009 and 2010) you get each individual page's "Description and Tip" context menu pop up? I do not. The "Description and Tip" that pops up for both vi's I sent you is for the tab control (which I have left blank).

To reiterate about the Tip: The Tip does pop up, but on the "Tab Control Test Original.vi" the tip is about 2" above the tab (and mouse cursor). On the "Tab Control Test New.vi" the pop up is in the proper location, just above the mouse pointer which is in the tab for the page.

Thank you again for your patience and persistence on this rather minor problem.

Regards,

Ed

[Kristoff2]

Edjsch,

When you right click and choose Description and Tip while the VI is running you will always get the Tab Controls description and tip, not an individual page's description and tip.  This is expected behavior although I agree that it might be useful to have each individual page show its respective description and tip.

I was able to see the 'offset' you described with the actual tip window in your example.  Does this always happen in that specific VI for you or does it this happen in every VI you create?  Will new tab controls in the same bad VI exhibit this behavior?

Regards,

Sam K

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[Edjsch]

Sam,

Oh, so you are confirming that what I'm seeing (your first paragraph) is "expected behavior". To me that is totally unexpected behavior (prompting this post). What is the point of having an individual Description and Tip for each page at design time when you cannot access them at run time? This definitely should be addressed in future LabView versions. Don't you agree? (The tab control's Description and Tip would also be available when the mouse is hovering over prescribed areas of the control but not on a tab.) (Should I add this as a product improvement suggestion?)

To answer your questions in your second paragraph: That offset is NOT there in my Tab Control Test New.vi (a totally new vi with a new tab control), but is in the other vi, Tab Control Test Original.vi, for both the "original" (larger) and the "new" (smaller) tab control. Remember, that larger tab was copied from my application and pasted into this vi (I deleted all the controls in all the tabs). This was to demonstrate the issues I am having with the tab control. Then when I added a new tab control to that vi, it somehow "inherited" the same behavior (the pop-up being a few inches higher than the tabs instead of right above the mouse pointer).

So to summarize and answer your questions:

"Does this always happen in that specific VI for you (- YES) or does it this happen in every VI you create?" - NO. 

"Will new tab controls in the same bad VI exhibit this behavior?"" - YES

Thanks again for your help.

Ed

[Kristoff2]

Edjsch,

The individual tab descriptions still show up on the context help window.  I agree that it would be beneficial to have the right click access to individual tab description and tip as you described.   I highly recommend you post this on the idea exchange for the LabVIEW developers to consider in the next version of LabVIEW.

As for your specific VI exhibiting the strange offset is it possible to simply move your code to a new VI to fix the issue?  If this is not an option please let us know and we can look for other solutions, however it sounds like this is isolated to that specific VI so it may be hard to track down the cause.

Regards,

Sam K

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[Edjsch]

Sam,

You say, "The individual tab descriptions still show up on the context help window." but that is only true at design time, not run time. Correct, or do you mean something else?

I will post this suggestion (or maybe a "bug report"?).

My application is too large to easily move the code to a new vi, so I'll just keep the tab's RTM disabled, as it is currently. (I thought it would be a good enhancement to add a run-time description and tip, but as we discovered this is not possible. I think that's why I originally omitted it, and didn't have time to look into it.)

Thanks again for your assistance,

Ed

[Kristoff2]

Deduce,

The context help windows shows the individual page descriptions when you hover over their respective tabs while the VI is running.

This is not a bug, but I encourage you to submit a product suggestion on this as I see the benefit to the functionality you describe.

Regards,

Sam K

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[Edjsch · Accepted solution]

Sam K,

(Who is "Deduce"?)

Anyway, I did submit this as a product suggestion in the LabVIEW Idea Exchange. Then Aristos Queue filed this as a bug report under CAR #285134. See http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Tab-Control-Run-Time-Menu-for-Each-Tab-page/idc-p/1453...

Thanks again. Cheers.

Ed