09-20-2017 06:10 PM
In an application, I have "description and tip" filled out for various controls such that when the user selects context help a description is available to them if they hover over the control.
However I have a string indicator that I want to use solely as a "dynamic label". Basically it is just a label whose string can change. This indicator does not need a description or tip. Is there anyway to turn off the description for a particular control while leaving the other controls' descriptions as is? To put it another way, I do not want context help to respond a particular control.
Thanks for your help.
regards,
mcduff
Solved! Go to Solution.
09-20-2017 07:20 PM
If you leave the tip strip blank, then it shouldn't show up when you hover over it.
09-20-2017 08:42 PM
Sorry for not being clear, it is not the tip strip it more the description.
Let me try to give an example. Assume I have a tab control, whose tab is selected with a Radio button control, (tabs are not visible). On my tabs I have graphs, indicators, knobs, whatever. Whenever I hover over those controls I want a description when I have Context help on, what I don't want is a description of the tab control when the mouse hovers over it when context help is on.
Not sure if that makes sense, maybe this picture will make sense.
Cheers,
mcduff
09-20-2017 11:58 PM
Disable Context Help and Add your Description in TIP STRIP for the needed controls or indicators.
Show tip Strips can be handled during runtime
09-21-2017 03:23 AM
So the context help is something different that tip strings... I'd prefer tip strips over the Context Help.
If you really what to disable the Context Help for some control, you might try to enable\disable the Context Help, based on a mouse enter\mouse leave event of the control. See attached VI. It's a hack to get an obsolete usage working if you'd ask me.
You might also chose to hide by default, and show if there is a description. Different scenario's are possible... Hint: look into dynamic event registration.
09-21-2017 06:50 AM
Context help is meant for the programmer. It isn't really intended for the user and shouldn't be visible to a user during normal program operation.
09-21-2017 07:04 AM
@RavensFan wrote:
Context help is meant for the programmer. It isn't really intended for the user and shouldn't be visible to a user during normal program operation.
I'm inclined to agree, however... is this a fact? Back in the LV4 days it was used a lot in executables as well. It didn't age well, but the original intent might not be limited to development.
09-21-2017 07:43 AM
@RavensFan wrote:
Context help is meant for the programmer. It isn't really intended for the user and shouldn't be visible to a user during normal program operation.
I don't completely agree. There's plenty of NI made tools that have context help which helps users of their software. I remember opening the context help in the application builder settings dialog getting help on the settings and what they do. Ever use some of the DAQ test panels? I think they too have this feature. Also the NI ELVIS software built for things like the myDAQ have a context help window so the user can get help on each mouse over function.
I don't really use the context help window in this way but I've seen it done successfully. And recreating this functionality seems like a lot of work for not much improvements.
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09-21-2017 10:25 AM
@wiebe@CARYA Thanks for the hack.
@RavensFan Maybe because I am not a programmer, I always thought Context Help was like " Clippy", there to explain things the user may not know. Or maybe I just did not want anyone to call me.
mcduff
09-22-2017 08:18 AM
@mcduff wrote:
wiebe@CARYA Thanks for the hack.
@RavensFan Maybe because I am not a programmer, I always thought Context Help was like " Clippy", there to explain things the user may not know. Or maybe I just did not want anyone to call me.
mcduff
I think Context Help is much more useful than Clippy ever was. But I think of Context Help as being meant for the "User" of the LabVIEW development environment, i.e., the LabVIEW programmer. Not truly meant for the user of the program that was created by the LabVIEW programmer. I'm not saying it can't be, but I don't believe that was ever NI's intention. If you look at context help, there are things in there that would be meaningless to the ordinary user of the created program. What would your user want to see what the datatypes were of a cluster, or that a numeric value is a U16, or I32? They would not understand what any of that means.
Now maybe context Help could be adapted in a way that the LabVIEW programmer could use it help the user of the LabVIEW program such as turning off datatypes, making it show something else or truly nothing for a front panel control that doesn't have a description in which case you could propose a new idea on the LabVIEW Idea Exchange.
But I opinion based on how I see the Context Help functioning now is that it was only meant to help the LabVIEW programmer, not the user of the program created by the programmer.