Fast Find - Keyboard Design Question

[Dubya]

Hey Jorm,

First, please bear with my stupidity... This is the first time I've really done any windows coding... I'm really keen on learning though. So anyway I thought I would dig into Fast Find and try and redesign the keyboard. Having said that I was wondering if you might be able to tell how I can go about centering the text inside the buttons on the on screen keyboard.

Once again sorry for the dumb question.

Thanks,

Dubya

[jorm]

Centering the text on the buttons in the keyboard. Lets see. In KeyboardWidget you will see a drawRoundedRectangle where we draw the button itself with the x, y, width, height as arguments. Then later we call drawString which draws the text in the box. The x and y to the draw string has to be spaced. The last x is what you would change. If you need help I can send you a highlighted section of code. Showing you the line to change.

[Dubya]

Hey Jorm,

So I think it's this section:

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">if ( currentValue != null &amp;&amp; bShowText )
{
g.DrawString(currentValue, EnteredTextFont, EnteredTextFontBrush, new Rectangle(currentValueWidth, currentValueHeight, currentValueLocationx, currentValueLocationy));

//g.DrawString(currentValue, EnteredTextFont, EnteredTextFontBrush, new Rectangle(KeyboardStartX, KeyboardStartY+30, (23*currentValue.Length), 25));

}
[/QUOTE]

Where the currentValueLocationx has to be changed... but what would l change it to? I tried things like TextAlign.Center and Center but no worky.

Thanks!

Dubya

[reven]

draw string can take another argument of type StringFormat. this is where you can do alignments
so
StringFormat txtAlign = new StringFormat();
txtAlign.Vertical = StringFormat.Center();

then just use
g.DrawString(currentValue, EnteredTextFont, EnteredTextFontBrush, new Rectangle(currentValueWidth, currentValueHeight, currentValueLocationx, currentValueLocationy),txtAlign);

just note, this code
txtAlign.Vertical = StringFormat.Center();
is completely wrong, i cant remember the correct code off hand, but if you are using visual studio it will tell you and if you arent just look in the msdn library and that will tell you, you need to set to variables, one for the vertical alignment, and one for the horizontal alignment. if you need help just let me know.

[jorm]

That looks easier. So I have been doing it the hard way....

[reven]

Quote[/b] ]That looks easier. So I have been doing it the hard way....

lmao, yup

[Dubya]

I'm trying to make the keyboard in Fast Find look all pretty... I've made some progress so far... But I'll keep ya'll posted.

Thanks for the help,

Dubya

[jasonf]

Quote[/b] (reven @ Mar. 13 2005,14:40)]just note, this code
txtAlign.Vertical = StringFormat.Center();
is completely wrong, i cant remember the correct code off hand...

StringFormat object has a &quot;Alignment&quot; property that controls the horizontal, and a &quot;LineAlignment&quot; property that controls the vertical.

Each of these are a StringAlignment enumeration. Possible values are:

StringAlignment.Near
StringAlignment.Center
StringAlignment.Far

[Dubya]

Alright guys I soooo close but still so far... Here's what I got so far...

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">StringAlignment txtAlign = new StringAlignment();
txtAlign.center = StringAlignment();[/QUOTE]

I'm kinda confused why you need the first line though... Can't you just say...

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">txtAlign = new StringAlignment();[/QUOTE]

And then when I go to use it in below just do this?

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">g.DrawString(keys[eachKey], SelectedKeyboardKeyFont, SelectedKeyboardKeyBrush, new Rectangle(KeyboardStartX+offset+7, KeyboardStartY+verticalOffset+4, displaywidth, boxwidth,),txtAlign.center);[/QUOTE]

I tried it with the two lines and I keep getting complier errors. Do you guys know a good website for beginners?

Thanks,
Dubya

[jasonf]

That last parameter of DrawString is actually a StringFormat object, not a StringAlignment. StringFormat has 2 different properties that are of type StringAlignment (an enumeration). In addition, you can use a StringFormat to control things, like how truncated text is handled (i.e., if it's too long, you can have it put elipses at the end, etc).

See my earlier post for the horizontal and vertical alignments.