I am writing a program in Delphi XE2. At one point in my program the user will be presented with output text, which I display through a simple "showmessage('The text of interest')" dialog.
I would like for the user to be able to copy and paste this text if they like to. It's not a key part of the program at all but I know that it might be nice for them to be able to do so.
At the moment, as far as I can see, it is not possible to select all or parts of the text from this type of message box, which brings me to my question: is there some way to make the message box text selectable for the user, or will I have to move on to other ways of displaying the text if I want this functionality? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
When you call ShowMessage a system message dialog is shown. This dialog does not support highlighting of individual portions of text. However, the dialog does respond to CTRL + C by placing the entire content of the dialog on the clipboard.
If you absolutely must have selection of individual portions of text then you will need to create the dialog yourself using Delphi controls.
Related
The docs doesn't mention this, but does anyone know if it's possible to only show the DatePicker on icon click (or button), and not when the input field receives focus?
Users will primarily enter dates using the keyboard and doesn't want the DatePicker displayed, unless specifically asked for.
You can have a look here for the complete API which has some options that are not documented on the AntDesign site. But there is no option to achieve what you are looking for.
You need the combination of a text input with a button to popup the picker, which is a different paradigm from the one <DatePicker> uses. It could be "hacked" by combining a normal <Input>, <DatePicker> with custom CSS that only shows the button, and some Javascript event handlers.
I'm trying to activate Hint from control of different application created from delphi upon focus, I'm using hook to identify the focused control, and then use WM_MOUSEMOVE, which I think will activate the Hint of that control, the handle would be the Control itself and the lParam is the Left and Top of the Control. The Control activate the OnMouseMove Event, but the Hint never shows. but when I use SetCursorPos, Hint show, but I need to show the Hint with out the cursor move on that Control. Can you please help me with this? Thank you in advance... by the way I'm using Delphi XE4
Among the really asked question is how to show the hint of a control that resides on another application (i am afraid without hook that application can not be done), the title is "Delphi - Activating the Hint from another control of Application".
First is first: That can be done without knowing what language the other app was done, but it is very complex to put it here (and i am not an expert on such way of coding, also i hate apps that work that way).
Second: The main idea is to hook the other application, search on Google some code of that apps, that can show you a rectangular hole square of the object the mouse is passing over, that application while doing it is iconized (i do not remember the name of it).
Waht such app does: As you move the mouse over the screen it overlays a rectangular over the control that mouse is over, then if you press the key to print screen, that small region is the only thing that goes to clipboard; on of such apps i saw had an extra funcion, they can move such controls if you press cursors on keyboard, also can hide/enable/disable such control... more, it can also make controls that are invisible to be visible, etc... i saw it working on my computer, and hey, for fun it is pretty and to DeBug or get extra things on some apps is also great (make some menús to be visible and enabled and then can use such funtions).
Please, please, understand i am agaist piracy and also against using such apps to let code to be run... some apps need pay for letting some menus enabled, but they have the code there, no need to change EXE to have/use that menus; just using this kind of apps makes that limited apps to be unlimited (just enable or show hidden menus and voila).
Note: To unhide menus, mouse point is not needed to be over the app, can be anywhere and is not moved.
The idea i want to say is: Any app can move, alter any control on any other app (at least on Windows) that is running, so maybe there can be a way to show such hint.
In the past i had use such app (sorry i do not remember the name) for DeBug my own apps, so i do not need to recompile in such cases where something was wrongly hidden, also work with buttons, labels, texts, combos, memos, etc.
Now my small problem is: I just need exactly what title say, but i can not make it to work.
Must be:
Mouse position must be irrelevant (it also must be able to be outside the application)
Just when a button that has focus is pressed with keyboard (Space or Enter) or just after some code somewhere on my application, i want to show the Hint of a specific TEdit for a short period of time.
I did not get Hint to be shown; not unless mouse point is over such TEdit but i want/need mouse pointer to not be over it, neither it to jump to the TEdit.
Idea Conept for that Hint to be shown: After doing some code that changes something, show extra info associated.
Example:
A button with that loads a file using an open dialog, filename is put on a ReadOnly TEdit (so it let user copy the text, but not change it); i want extra info that i punt on .Hint of such TEdit to be shown inmediatly.
That hint use is for not overload window with a lot of fields (TLabels) for showing such file data.
Simple idea: such Hint shows TimeStamp and size of the selected file.
P.D.: Not much related (since i am trying with a normal plain text hint), but hints can also store a full HTML page and with 3rd party tools be shown as an HTMLhint, so they can show a lot info of that file (also its content, etc) in a web based format; as i say i first try with standard plain text hints.
In order to show hint programatically you need to call TApplications ActivateHint method to which you specify the position parameter.
http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/Libraries/XE3/en/Vcl.Forms.TApplication.ActivateHint
Based on position parameter Application automatically finds which controll is at that position and shows its hint.
NOTE: Position parameter screen coordinates in pixels and not your controll coordinates. So you will have to use ClientToScreen method to change your coordinates apropriately.
You can see simple example of how to use this here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15031208/3636228
Now if you need to do this from another application then you will have to add some comunication mechanizm to these two application so that one could send a proper message to tell the other to show the hint at specific position. But this does require you to be able to change both applications.
EDIT: This works with VCL applications but I'm not sure if it would work with FireMonkey applications.
I'm developing a POS (pet project) and I'm thinking of adding a bar code scanner to capture the sales faster. I do not have a scanner at the moment with me, and would like to ask some questions, as I'm stuck a bit.
On the sales screen my initial idea was to have an TEdit component and when a person scans the product it would fill the TEdit with the string. Now the problem I'm encountering is that I want to make the TEdit invisible so that the person does not see it. But once you make the TEdit invisible, you cannot set focus on it, so that plan cannot work.
So can anyone suggest what I can use to "capture" the scanned string? How would I make the component to listen and wait for the scanner? I assume that the scanner would be like a normal keyboard event, like button down or up.
There's KeyPreview property on TForm. Set it to true, so all key presses are processed by form first before controls.
Article about keyboard processing in Delphi: http://delphi.about.com/od/objectpascalide/a/keyboard_events.htm
Related SO question: How does Delphi's KeyPreview work?
What I have done is use the KeyPreview to monitor for a function key like F9 which the bar code scanner is set to prefix scans with. When this is received, I pop up a dialog with a single edit box and OK button. This then receives the rest of the barcode information, and the scanner ends the entry with the Enter key. I can then determine the purpose of the scanned data (in my case, one type starts with a prefix) and then put the data into the appropriate field on my main form.
I chose F9 because it seems inert in most applications, so you can use the scanner in other ways, but I support other keys too for flexibility. My application also has a scanner test mode where it shows the keys sent.
You can use a TEdit with a height and width of 0 so it won't appears and make sure it get focused when you scan your barcode.
You can also place the TEdit outside of the visible window, setting the component's Top and Left properties to something like -50. You can then set focus to it just like a regular visible TEdit box, but it will be invisible to the user.
How do I create this custom print dialog and get the values of the red options when the user clicks ok?
The print dialog below is not created manually, the app I took this screenshot from is probably modifying the default print dialog.
The items circled in red is associated with some data found in the app I took the screenshot from.
The class name of this dialog is #32770 (Dialog) which is the same print dialog found in notepad, wordpad, and vb6 common dialog print. So it is clear that it is modifying the dialog, adding controls to it somehow
You could look at Customizing Common Dialog Boxes but don't expect this to be simple from VB6. it is clumsy enough in C++.
You could just create your own dialog Form.
Update:
Perhaps consider using the download in HOW TO: Raise and Control Print Dialog Boxes from Visual Basic?
How to sync Webbrowser (in Edit Mode) line with TMemo containing raw html? The position of the caret is not necessary but would be a nice feature. Plenty of google searches failed to show how to accomplish this task.
It sounds like you want a way to click somewhere on an HTML page and edit the HTML source of wherever you clicked.
An internet search returned possibilities as Detect cursor position in TWebBrowser at edit mode or http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/re-finding-cursor-t1855943.html. These aren't Delphi specific answers but might get you started with how to interact with the DOM to do what you are looking for.