Real estate

[Shawn K. Hall]

Hello all,

I'm going to write a simple app for my grandma (in VB) which is
basically a mailing list for relatives and friends that includes
configureable boolean fields (eg; "Is he dead yet?", "Did I invite him
to Christmas dinner?") and am dealing with some display problems.

I expect to have a very small user base (like maybe two or three
people) but the users are essentially computer illiterate. She has her
screen set to the lowest possible resolution (640x480), even though
she's got a 21" monitor so screen real estate is at a premium.
Furthermore, she has bad wrists and therefore *hates* to use the mouse
(so page tabs are out). I've tried to convince her how to use
accelerator keys and she simply does not get it.

My proposed "solution" is to design a text control wrapper class that
has a label property. If the control value (.Text) is empty and the
label property is non-empty it draws an off-gray field
name/description inside the control - essentially eliminating the need
for labels beside the controls. The field contents (when there) would
be black, and the label would be drawn in gray so there would be a
visual cue as to when the field had data and when it did not. If
you've used Apex TDBGrid there is a property/even combo for owner
drawn cells - this would be kinda similar.

The layout of the controls will be roughly equivalent to an address
label you get on a magazine subscription so the layout is suggestive
of content as well, but I don't want to rely on just the layout to
expect her to fill it out correctly.

Any thoughts?

TIA,

Shawn K. Hall
Programmer / Analyst
*Please* post/respond in the newsgroups!

[Jason Langston]

Shawn,
You've probably gotten the app written by now, but I think it's a great
idea. I'm just wrapping up a Wizard like tool where I had the same problem
with screen real estate. I did a similar thing with several fields, though I
was lazy and didn't bother creating a control wrapper class with the label
property (that's probably the best way to implement it). I did a hack with
checking GotFocus/LostFocus and checking the .Text value against the
default. But same idea as yours, when there is no user text in the field, it
displays the "label" in the box in italics and using the system default for
disabled text (usually gray) to give the hint that this is a prompt or
label. When the user enters the box, the "label" disappears and their text
is shown in the black, normal font. (or whatever their Windows default is
for normal/button text).
BTW, I've seen this done elsewhere, for instance Quicken/Quickbooks in the
check register. So others think it works as well.
-Jason L.

Shawn K. Hall <shawnkhall@iname.com> wrote in message
news:38ed0956$1@news.devx.com...
> Hello all,
>
> I'm going to write a simple app for my grandma (in VB) which is
> basically a mailing list for relatives and friends that includes
> configureable boolean fields (eg; "Is he dead yet?", "Did I invite him
> to Christmas dinner?") and am dealing with some display problems.
>
> I expect to have a very small user base (like maybe two or three
> people) but the users are essentially computer illiterate. She has her
> screen set to the lowest possible resolution (640x480), even though
> she's got a 21" monitor so screen real estate is at a premium.
> Furthermore, she has bad wrists and therefore *hates* to use the mouse
> (so page tabs are out). I've tried to convince her how to use
> accelerator keys and she simply does not get it.
>
> My proposed "solution" is to design a text control wrapper class that
> has a label property. If the control value (.Text) is empty and the
> label property is non-empty it draws an off-gray field
> name/description inside the control - essentially eliminating the need
> for labels beside the controls. The field contents (when there) would
> be black, and the label would be drawn in gray so there would be a
> visual cue as to when the field had data and when it did not. If
> you've used Apex TDBGrid there is a property/even combo for owner
> drawn cells - this would be kinda similar.
>
> The layout of the controls will be roughly equivalent to an address
> label you get on a magazine subscription so the layout is suggestive
> of content as well, but I don't want to rely on just the layout to
> expect her to fill it out correctly.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> TIA,
>
> Shawn K. Hall
> Programmer / Analyst
> *Please* post/respond in the newsgroups!
>
>
>