VB6/RC6 Question: The tooltips on RC6 being exceedingly small

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Extracted from this thread: https://www.vbforums.com/showthread....=1#post5612930

Question for you Olaf, I am using your code and methods described in the OP so it is relevant to that thread.



First of all this image shows the RC6 stopwatch (left) and the old Yahoo widget version (right).

Note the clarity of the RC6 version versus the non-DPI aware Yahoo widget version. All good. The UI elements are all interacting with the user 90% perfectly. Some more to do.

My question: Note the tooltips on RC6 (on the left) being exceedingly small so that they are unreadable. They resize along with the resizing of the gauge as a whole, that functionality is something that is rather unwanted on a dynamically resizable program like mine. On the right is a static tooltip, system-like that does not change in size. That is what is needed really for useful operation in a UI. Is it possible to constrain the tooltip size so that it appears static or is it possible to use standard system tooltips rather than the RC6 types.

I do like the tooltips I just don't want them to be smaller than how they will be useful.

Your thoughts please.

PS For reference purposes to show the actual scale of the resized versions, this is an image of the two versions side by side on my desktop. The top image is just a crop of that, with the tooltips shown.

[SearchingDataOnly]

Is it due to the font-size of Tooltips?

[yereverluvinuncleber]

OK, I will test that, thankyou.

[Schmidt]

My question: Note the tooltips on RC6 (on the left) being exceedingly small so that they are unreadable.

First of all - this is normal...
(the default-tooltips of the RC6 Widget-Form-Engine follow the current Zoomfactor of the underlying Forms WidgetRoot).

Background:
Cairo renders (with its default scale ... or the default WidgetRoot.Zoom = 1) always at 96dpi -
so this matches with the default-rendering of a given Win-OS with an unchanged "DPI-Scaling of 100%".

If you want to ensure System-DPI-Scaling in a Widget(Form)-based App, then you have to ensure:
- in your Sub Main(): Cairo.SetDPIAwareness
- and in your Cairo-WidgetForms (the cfClasses): a Form.WidgetRoot.Zoom = Form.WidgetRoot.CurrentMonitor.Zoom

The Widgets will then be still be rendered with their same Pixel-Sizes and Pixel-Offsets,
but these "Widget-Pixels" are DIPs (Device-Independent-Pixels) - and can remain constant
(nevertheless will the Widgetform-Engine now render all WidgetContents,
according to the new Form.WidgetRoot.Zoom - which is usually larger than 1 (rarely below 1)...

Your PSD-rendered Widgets are a special case, because the PixelSize of the Alpha-Form they "run in",
is following the Pixel-Dimensions of the *.psd-File - which is usually quite large,
to ensure enough "Pixel-Resolution-reserve" when the Layer-Contents are rendered.

E.g. your PSD has about 800x600 Pixel IIRC... and the default-Zoom the Alpha-Form starts with is 1.

This (without downscaling) shows the PSD-contents in that upstarting Alpha-Form without any scaling (in their original PixelSize, quite sharp).

Now, since you usually "down-scale" from that "original resolution" of your PSD -
(to make it look like a "somewhat oversized Icon" on your Desktop)
you are using Form.WidgetRoot.Zoom factors which are "a lot smaller than 1" ...
and the default-Widget-Tooltips simply "follow along" (with these ZoomFactors, which in normal Apps are always >= 1).

So, that's (in a nutshell), why you "see what you see".

To change that, I'd not try to manipulate the Default-Tooltip-Widget (regarding Font-sizes) -
but instead "roll your own" ToolTip-Widget which works independently from your "main-cfAlphaForm-zoomfactor".

I will upload an appropriate cwUserTooltip.cls in the original Codebank-Thread tomorrow...

Here's how this will look like (the current "speech-bubble-path" can of course be influenced)...


HTH

Olaf

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Lovely stuff Olaf, thankyou.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Ok, getting somewhere.

I have re-used Elroy's mod_tooltips module to add a rather tasty balloon tooltip, this works on the whole widget form but not yet on the individual widgets that comprise the gauge. This is because it requires a hwnd and a mouseOver event on each component to pass that hwnd to the tooltip code.

I do have one tooltip for the whole gauge and that looks good but I'd like to extend that functionality.



I'd like to see your tooltip class Olaf and see if I can get working per widget, did you manage to post it?

[ColinE66]

Might want to take a look at this...

https://www.vbforums.com/showthread....s-vbRichClient

[Schmidt]

Sorry, totally forgot to update the example in the Codebank-thread with the latest changes
(new PSD-file-binding and new cwUserTooltip-class).

https://www.vbforums.com/showthread....=1#post5615045

Olaf

[yereverluvinuncleber]

That's fine, I have plenty to be working on and a good list of tasks to complete in the meantime. I will experiment with all three. Thankyou all.