Text box or label? (newbie)

(sorry, accidently posted this on classic visual basic)...

The goal is to have 9 or 10 large "bars" across the screen that will display
user input text.

These bars will be triggered by an event.

I want the user to be able change colors and fonts easily and when finished click off on the finished box.

I was wondering if I would be better off with just using text boxes... or text boxes that would pull up a label (redundant?)

If I did just use text boxes, after the user inputs their "design", could I "lock" in the information and have any buttons disappear after all is finished?

Perhaps a couple of buttons for each bar during the setup phase that would say... "reset" (to put in new info) and "done" (to lock it in).

As a beginner, I'm just trying to think ahead so I don't pursue an unecessary path.

THANKS.

I would use labels to display the text, and then use the buttons for the options ?
this is a little confusing but i think that would work best.

How about making a container that holds a ColorPicker, FontPicker, and OKbutton. When the user enters a TextBox, the container (and its controls) move to that TextBox. When the user clicks OK, the settings are saved to the TextBox and the container vanishes.

Thanks very much.

As I make note of these items like "container" etc from advanced users at least I get pointed in some directions that otherwise I wouldn't be aware of.

Sometimes just hearing about some of the advanced features can be a real plus....as I can just jump to that material and try to soak it in.

That sounds interesting...I see the containers in the toolbox but haven't gotten there yet.

Rethinking my original question....really what I'll probably end up doing is creating 4 or 5 different templates for the user to choose from (with different screen layouts etc).

And I guess the whole "display screen" could all be created at one time and just use a single "file save"? (or each template run as seperate executables?...I don't know yet...I'm a COMPLETE novice...give me a week or
10.

Right now, I'm just trying to get a feel for writing down the right approach to doing this.

I do know from experience of PICbasic for microcontrollers that you can write a lot of different programs which all yield the same result.

I see also the color dialog and font dialog....is that what you meant?

Going to read up on these tonight.

I just installed VB 2005 express last week...now it's getting fun. You gotta love all these shortcuts.

I just started it yesterday. I've been using VB6 for a long time now and VB3 before that. Things have come so far... I feel like I don't know anything anymore. It's like learning it all for the first time.

Hi there,

I'm a little confused as to exactly what you would like to do, but as you said above these are some of the things that you are going to want to check into:

FontDialog:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...og(vs.80).aspx

ColorDialog:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...og(VS.80).aspx

I don't think you'll want your buttons to entirely disappear but only disable them after your user is done:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...l.enabled.aspx

Good luck! :thumb: