Page 1
Page 2
The Pocket PC is an ideal platform for carrying information
around that you need to review often and occasionally edit. This leaves
a developer with a dilemma - do I optimize the display for entry or for
displaying information. Microsoft solved this problem for the contacts
function by having two screens. Unfortunately, the screens are completely
different and editing requires the user to scroll through all the fields.
I've found that there is an alternative. This article presents a simple
technique to create eVB forms that allow users to edit information without
jumping to another screen.
The example in Figure 1 shows a hypothetical
screen designed to display statistics for a football player. This might
be something a fantasy football fan would keep handy to compare his or
her players with friends. The important thing to note (besides the fact
the player is a very good running back) is that there is a lot of information
crammed on the screen and it is laid out to optimize it's utility to the
viewer. All of the text display elements in this example are Label controls.
To allow the user to update the information on this player, I want to
allow them to tap and edit without jumping to an entirely different layout
or form. Using a few simple steps we can allow the user to tap on any
of the fields and edit it.
Figure 1
By manipulating and repositioning controls we can
make a text box, combo box, or other control element appear ready for
input from the user without leaving the screen. Figure 2 shows
how the application responds when the user taps on the player's name "Ed
V. Barber" (his friends call him edVB). The text box appears with the
name highlighted. Once the user taps on a different part of the form or
the "OK" button the text box disappears.
Figure 2
To demonstrate how this is accomplished, I'll use
a simple text box and one of our fields on the player statistics form.
However, the routines provided are easily modified to work with combo
boxes, check boxes, or other controls.
To follow along create a form with the following controls:
a Text Box named txtEntry and a command button named cmdOK
with a caption of "OK", a Frame called Frame1, and finally two
labels called lblNameDisplay and lblNameHeader which are
placed into Frame1. lblNameHeader is the label that say
"Name:" and lblNameDisplay will contain our information (edVB's
name).
Listing 1 on the next page shows the functions
we need to handle moving and displaying the list box.
Next Page