S
Simon Harvey
Hi everyone,
I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction for handling the
following sort of scenario:
In many applications, in particular Outlook, many aspects of the interface
can change somewhat dramatically according to the currernt state of the
application.
For example, in Outlook if I am current looking at my email, say my inbox,
then the toolbar buttons displayed will be aimed at allowing me to do email
related functions, eg send new mail, forward, reply, reply all etc. In
addition to that the centre area of the screen will be occupied by some sort
of control that displays message headers.
OK
Now, when I choose to view my contacts, various aspects of the screen can
change to a fairly large degree. For example, the toolbar buttons change to
according to the now appropriate functions required. Also, the centre area
of the screen changes to a quite different view from that of displaying
emails. Its now showing a totally different view of my contacts in some sort
of custom control that Microsoft has stashed away from the rest of us
developers.
I have two questions
Given that I am using visual studio, what is the best way to create a
central area of the screen that can change quite dramatically according to
what the user is doing.
I'm thinkg that the answer may involve using Panels and then hiding them
according to what the user is doing or something. Maybe its done using user
controls that are loaded dynamically and hidden as needed?
What is the best way to manage the toolbars changing?
Again, is this a case of creating the toolbars programatically in code and
adding then on the fly?
These questions may seem stupid to programmers that deal with making
interfaces all the time but bear in mind that I am just begining to learn
more advanced aspects of making user interfaces. The most complicated stuff
I've done is drag textboxes and stuff onto the form and arranged them in a
nice manner. Not very advanced yet but I'm learning!
Any help that you can offer would be very greatfully received oh wise ones!
Take care all
Simon
I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction for handling the
following sort of scenario:
In many applications, in particular Outlook, many aspects of the interface
can change somewhat dramatically according to the currernt state of the
application.
For example, in Outlook if I am current looking at my email, say my inbox,
then the toolbar buttons displayed will be aimed at allowing me to do email
related functions, eg send new mail, forward, reply, reply all etc. In
addition to that the centre area of the screen will be occupied by some sort
of control that displays message headers.
OK
Now, when I choose to view my contacts, various aspects of the screen can
change to a fairly large degree. For example, the toolbar buttons change to
according to the now appropriate functions required. Also, the centre area
of the screen changes to a quite different view from that of displaying
emails. Its now showing a totally different view of my contacts in some sort
of custom control that Microsoft has stashed away from the rest of us
developers.
I have two questions
Given that I am using visual studio, what is the best way to create a
central area of the screen that can change quite dramatically according to
what the user is doing.
I'm thinkg that the answer may involve using Panels and then hiding them
according to what the user is doing or something. Maybe its done using user
controls that are loaded dynamically and hidden as needed?
What is the best way to manage the toolbars changing?
Again, is this a case of creating the toolbars programatically in code and
adding then on the fly?
These questions may seem stupid to programmers that deal with making
interfaces all the time but bear in mind that I am just begining to learn
more advanced aspects of making user interfaces. The most complicated stuff
I've done is drag textboxes and stuff onto the form and arranged them in a
nice manner. Not very advanced yet but I'm learning!
Any help that you can offer would be very greatfully received oh wise ones!
Take care all
Simon