Need Graphical Tooltip

We investigated Tooltips a while back and found (sadly) that the .NET Tooltip
classes are not designed with extensibility in mind. We wrote our own in the
end.

You could try something like this to start with...

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace WindowsApplication34
{
public class ToolTip : System.Windows.Forms.Form
{
public ToolTip()
{
FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None;
BackColor = SystemColors.Info;
ForeColor = SystemColors.InfoText;

SetStyle(ControlStyles.UserPaint | ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer |
ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint, true);
ShowInTaskbar = false;
StartPosition = FormStartPosition.Manual;

paintSize = new Size(120, 15);
Size = paintSize;
Region = new Region(new Rectangle(new Point(0, 0), paintSize));
// can't actually have a form this small, set the paint region
}

private Size paintSize;

public new void Show()
{
ShowWindow(new HandleRef(this, Handle), 4);
SetWindowPos(new HandleRef(this, Handle), new IntPtr(-2), Left,
Top, Width, Height, 0x10);
}

protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
{
base.OnPaint(e);
e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, new Rectangle(0, 0,
paintSize.Width - 1, paintSize.Height - 1));
using (SolidBrush brush = new SolidBrush(ForeColor))
{
e.Graphics.DrawString("My Tip", Font, brush, 0, 0);
}
}

[DllImportAttribute("user32.dll", ExactSpelling=true,
CharSet=CharSet.Auto)]
static extern bool SetWindowPos(HandleRef hWnd, IntPtr
hWndInsertAfter, int x, int y, int cx, int cy, int flags);

[DllImportAttribute("user32.dll", ExactSpelling=true,
CharSet=CharSet.Auto)]
static extern bool ShowWindow(HandleRef hWnd, int nCmdShow);
}
}

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Matt Garven

> I need to make a control that behaves like a tool tip, but I need to be able
> to draw on it and I also need to show it on demand, not necessarily during a
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> I could do something with NativeWindow, but I wanted to check here for
> something easier. I'd like to avoid the windows API if possible.

Reply to this Message

We investigated Tooltips a while back and found (sadly) that the .NET Tooltip
classes are not designed with extensibility in mind. We wrote our own in the
end.

You could try something like this to start with...

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace WindowsApplication34
{
public class ToolTip : System.Windows.Forms.Form
{
public ToolTip()
{
FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None;
BackColor = SystemColors.Info;
ForeColor = SystemColors.InfoText;

SetStyle(ControlStyles.UserPaint | ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer |
ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint, true);
ShowInTaskbar = false;
StartPosition = FormStartPosition.Manual;

paintSize = new Size(120, 15);
Size = paintSize;
Region = new Region(new Rectangle(new Point(0, 0), paintSize));
// can't actually have a form this small, set the paint region
}

private Size paintSize;

public new void Show()
{
ShowWindow(new HandleRef(this, Handle), 4);
SetWindowPos(new HandleRef(this, Handle), new IntPtr(-2), Left,
Top, Width, Height, 0x10);
}

protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
{
base.OnPaint(e);
e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, new Rectangle(0, 0,
paintSize.Width - 1, paintSize.Height - 1));
using (SolidBrush brush = new SolidBrush(ForeColor))
{
e.Graphics.DrawString("My Tip", Font, brush, 0, 0);
}
}

[DllImportAttribute("user32.dll", ExactSpelling=true,
CharSet=CharSet.Auto)]
static extern bool SetWindowPos(HandleRef hWnd, IntPtr
hWndInsertAfter, int x, int y, int cx, int cy, int flags);

[DllImportAttribute("user32.dll", ExactSpelling=true,
CharSet=CharSet.Auto)]
static extern bool ShowWindow(HandleRef hWnd, int nCmdShow);
}
}

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Matt Garven

> I need to make a control that behaves like a tool tip, but I need to be able
> to draw on it and I also need to show it on demand, not necessarily during a
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> I could do something with NativeWindow, but I wanted to check here for
> something easier. I'd like to avoid the windows API if possible.

Reply to this Message

RichM - 10 Feb 2005 04:03 GMT

Hmm, deriving from Form is interesting. I didn't know about the
FormBorderStyle property.

Why did you have to override Show() with the API functions? Why did the
default not work for you?

> We investigated Tooltips a while back and found (sadly) that the .NET Tooltip
> classes are not designed with extensibility in mind. We wrote our own in the
[quoted text clipped - 72 lines]
> > I could do something with NativeWindow, but I wanted to check here for
> > something easier. I'd like to avoid the windows API if possible.

Reply to this Message

Matt Garven - 10 Feb 2005 04:13 GMT

Well sadly you can't override Show(), I just redeclared it for clarity. You
need to use the API functions so that showing the tooltip form doesn't steal
focus from the form the user is currently using.

You need to use a Form instead of Control because your tooltips may show
over the edge of the form that the tooltip is appearing on - it would look
strange to have the tooltip truncated at the edge of the form.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Matt

> Hmm, deriving from Form is interesting. I didn't know about the
> FormBorderStyle property.
[quoted text clipped - 78 lines]
> > > I could do something with NativeWindow, but I wanted to check here for
> > > something easier. I'd like to avoid the windows API if possible.

Reply to this Message

Rich,

Take a look at www.tooltips.net, it may have exactly what you need.

Steve

>I need to make a control that behaves like a tool tip, but I need to be
>able
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> I could do something with NativeWindow, but I wanted to check here for
> something easier. I'd like to avoid the windows API if possible.

Reply to this Message

Need Graphical Tooltip

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