flashing text on splash screen ?

[TheBionicOrange]

Is it possible to have flashing text on a splash screen ?

Timer events don't seem to work too well when I try and use them !

[beasty1711]

try using an animated gif

[beachbum]

Hi
well as far as i know VB cant handle animated gifs unless u use a third party control. Anyhow there should be no reason that timers don't work on a splash screen. Have u tried Doevents or Me.Refresh on the splash screen? Is there too much going on in the background loading the main form?
Regards
Stuart

PS If possible post relevant bits of code

[Hack]

I don't have any flashing text, but I have scrolling text on several of my Splash screens, using a Timer, and it works just fine.

[nishantp]

add a label and a timer to a form and put this in the code:

Private Sub Form_Load()
Timer1.Interval = 400
End Sub
 
Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
If Label1.Visible = True Then
    Label1.Visible = False
Else
    Label1.Visible = True
End If

-Nishant

[Tygur]

Just a quick note. You can shorten that timer code with this:

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
Label1.Visible = Not Label1.Visible
End Sub

It really doesn't matter which way you do it, but I just wanted to point out that there was a shorter way.

[MrGTI]

And yes, you can use animated GIF's in VB with the normal toolbox controls. I've done it before.

[nishantp]

Originally posted by Tygur
Just a quick note. You can shorten that timer code with this:

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
Label1.Visible = Not Label1.Visible
End Sub

It really doesn't matter which way you do it, but I just wanted to point out that there was a shorter way.

hmm. I never thought of that....i could use that in a LOT of places...

[filburt1]

Originally posted by MrGTI
And yes, you can use animated GIF's in VB with the normal toolbox controls. I've done it before.

No, you can't. I challenge you to upload an example form that uses them.

[shragel]

Originally posted by Tygur
Just a quick note. You can shorten that timer code with this:

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
Label1.Visible = Not Label1.Visible
End Sub

It really doesn't matter which way you do it, but I just wanted to point out that there was a shorter way.

Cool did not know this. could use everytime I toggle check box by a menu.

thanks

[Fishcake]

I remember a while ago someone realised a .dll to handle animated gifs on the Games and graphics forum suggest you try there.

[Nucleus]

Originally posted by filburt1


No, you can't. I challenge you to upload an example form that uses them.

Well attached is an example from VBnet.

[Tygur]

Originally posted by Nucleus
Well attached is an example from VBnet.

Nice.. It's a workaround. The Image control doesn't normally support animaged gifs, so it splits the gif into its individual frames and shows them with a timer.

I don't know if it proves filburt1 right or wrong, but I like it.

[Nucleus]

I'll leave it up to Filburt to decide, what do you think Filburt, does it qualify?

[beachbum]

Hi again
I was the one that brought up the animated gifs doubt earlier in the post. I was referring to single standard vb controls and since the original poster's problem was to do with the timer I would expect that they could solve their problem of flashing text OR animated gifs if the timer was working to their plan.

Using an Image control with a timer is emm 2 controls

Ps Nucleus, i saw ur textbox class stuff earlier (someone has gotta tell me how to make my stupit email links open up in diff IE windows) and like ur adaptive approach. I hope ppl learn things from it.

2 things... 1.. u are very optimistic if u think that the same qtn wont be asked 6 billion more times instead of ur thread being found thru a search and 2.. I still dont believe that the keypress is a good event to validate data entry. I cant remember where it was but i did read an MS article on useability that recommended against validation in this manner.. but again it is all a matter of preference and I know that you were making this class for others to learn from and adapt.. so there are no qualms about that.

U said in that thread..(too lazy to go back ) that u thought users would be confused by data changing after they typed it in. But the data only changes if not in the expected format and u can always notify them thru a warning colour etc. Look at Excel, it modifies ur input for dates, cell formats etc and it doesnt force u to type in a particular way. It just scares me sometimes (not literally!) about some qtns on this forum where ppl seek to do stuff becos they can and the poor old user is forced to adapt to a new (and sometimes downright kooky) methodology.

Oops rambling again and in wrong post... Shoots self in foot and hobbles on out...
Regards
Stuart

[beasty1711]

well i knew you could do it, just couldnt remember how.

or you could use avi

[TheBionicOrange]

Blimey. I post a thread, go home on a 1/2 day, come back, and I've got 14 responses !!!

Thanks a lot to all involved. I will now go through them and see which one works best for me. I did fail to put in the original thread that I am accessing an RMS file across a network link to grab a set of records whilst the splash screen is visible, which obviously puts an overhead on things a bit, so it will be interesting to see which method from the ones below will work best for my situation.

Anyways, thanks again to all concerned.

[TheBionicOrange]

I guess my splash screen must be too busy !

Using a timer as suggested doesn't do anything to my text !

I tried playing around with the interval setting but to no avail

This is the same as a problem I had with splash screens before. I guess that if they are doing ANYTHING else behind the scenes it conflicts with the timer in some way !!!

But I shall persevere, and will let you know if I ever succeed !

[Nucleus]

Beachbum, I don't think there was a restriction on the number of controls required to make the animated gif work, are you adding extra specs? For that I think you'll have to fill out a Request For Change (RFC) form .

Glad you liked the class stuff, I am warming to your ideas about message boxes and making the app more intelligent. Now I just need a couple of unsuspecting users to test the approach on...

[Tygur]

Originally posted by TheBionicOrange
I guess my splash screen must be too busy !

Using a timer as suggested doesn't do anything to my text !

I tried playing around with the interval setting but to no avail

This is the same as a problem I had with splash screens before. I guess that if they are doing ANYTHING else behind the scenes it conflicts with the timer in some way !!!

But I shall persevere, and will let you know if I ever succeed !

Are you expecting the code in the timer to run while you have your other code running in the background? In other words, are you expecting your other code and the code in the timer to run at the same time? Because that can't be done. What you can do is have the background code run DoEvents regulary, which lets the code stop for a short time so the timer can get a chance to fire.

[TheBionicOrange]

My application uses Sub Main() as the startup (see code below).
As you can see its pretty busy. What you said makes sense regarding trying to do the timer event as well, so I shall try and slot in a few 'DoEvents' to the code below to see if I can get the timer to kick in.

****************************************************
Private Sub Main()
Dim i As Integer

i = 0
frmSplash.Show

conn.ConnectionString = "provider=attunityConnect;"
conn.Open
conn.CursorLocation = adUseServer

#If live = 1 Then
conn.DefaultDatabase = "RMS"
#Else
conn.DefaultDatabase = "RMSTEST"
#End If

cmd.ActiveConnection = conn

DoEvents

' Retrieve branches from RMVALS to populate listbox on startup.
' Also hold Branch/Area info for later use.
On Error GoTo RMVALS_Read_Error

Screen.MousePointer = vbHourglass

cmd.CommandText = "select RMSV_KBR, RMSV_NAM, RMSV_ARN, RMSV_ARM from RMVALS WHERE RMSV_BRN between '2001' and '2999' and RMSV_ARN <> '99' "
rs.Open cmd, , adOpenStatic, adLockOptimistic

While Not rs.EOF
tmpBRN(i) = rs.Fields(0)
tmpBrnName(i) = rs.Fields(1)
tmpAreaNo(i) = rs.Fields(2)
tmpAreaName(i) = rs.Fields(3)
i = i + 1

With frmSelections.lstBranches
.AddItem rs.Fields(0) & " " & rs.Fields(1)
End With
rs.MoveNext
Wend

rs.Close
Screen.MousePointer = vbDefault
MDIMaster.stbMain.Panels(1) = ""

Exit Sub


RMVALS_Read_Error:
MsgBox Err.Description, , "RMBWST Lookup Error !"
Screen.MousePointer = vbDefault

frmSelections.Show
Unload frmSplash

End Sub
****************************************************