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ToolStripMenuItem strange behavior on visible property [duplicate]

This question already has an answer here:
How to set a ToolStripMenuItem Visible in code?
(1 answer)
Closed 1 year ago.
I have encounter that issue a long time ago and again now. I cannot figure out what special thing had to be done to edit the ToolStripMenuItem control a Visible property while inside a form load.
in designer.cs
private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem mnuExport;
//
// mnuExport
//
this.mnuExport.Name = "mnuExport";
this.mnuExport.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(116, 22);
this.mnuExport.Text = "Export";
this.mnuExport.Visible = false;
this.mnuExport.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.mnuExport_Click);
in the form code
public partial class MainBuilder : Form
{
private void MainBuilder_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
mnuExport.Visible = true;
}
}
In the code above export is a menu item of type ToolStripMenuItem which trough the property grid in the form design mode I have modified it's Visible property to false. So in the form load I want to switch to the visible state to true. I thought it be easy so I coded all the logic around and it failed. So I decided to remove all my code and simply hardcode the set to true and to my surprise this does not work.
When I put the breakpoint on the line in the form_load I clearly see it's false and if it let the line run the value is still false.
I recall seeing this issue in the past but cannot find anything about it. I also tried with 4-5 other menu item in that window and they all show the same behavior.
EDIT
just tried to put visible = true in the designer.cs instead and in the form_load still tells me the value is false. There is some major issues here.

As mentioned in the comments the property Visible getter does not reflect the actual inner property value until later in the lifecycle. It is still unavailable in the form_loaded event. My main problem is that one menu visibility state was based on if all sub menus are not visible then it should not either. To do so I was iterating on it's child and checking the Visible property. The problem is them having Visible to false due to the way it works the parent set it's own Visible to false as well.
I don't like the solution but that's the only way to make it work
// get all sub menus
var subMenus = mnuExport.DropDownItems.Cast<ToolStripItem>().ToList();
// create a list of bool that will store the visible state I want the controls to have. put them to true by default
var menusVisibleStates = Enumerable.Repeat(true, menus.Count).ToList();
// set the visibility state of each sub menus
for (int i = 0; i < menus.Count; i++)
{
// some logic is here that choose true or false but is irrelevant here
var visibleStateIWant = true;
// set the visible state stored
menusVisibleStates[i] = false;
// set the actual control value that will change later on
menus[i].Visible = false;
}
/// now here I use the state I have specified and NOT the menu object property
mnuExport.Visible = menusVisibleStates.Any(o => o);

How do I display default text in EditControls?

What is the easiest way to recreate the effect where a text box displays a certain string (in italics and different font) until the user has clicked into the control and/or written his own text into the field? For an example, look at the "search" box at the top right of SO.
I have tried consuming the Paint event:
private void textEdit1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
if (textEdit1.Text.Length == 0 && !textEdit1.Focused)
{
textEdit1.Font = new Font(textEdit1.Font, FontStyle.Italic);
textEdit1.Text = "123";
}
else
{
textEdit1.Font = new Font(textEdit1.Font, FontStyle.Regular);
textEdit1.Text = string.Empty;
}
}
However, that's not working. By default, it shows no text, and if I click into it, I seem to get an infinite loop of setting the text to "123" and string.empty, until I give another control focus.
So, is that approach even the best, and if yes, what's the correct 2nd condition instead of .Focused?

Try the TextEdit.Properties.NullValuePrompt property. This property provides the text displayed grayed out when the editor doesn't have focus, and its edit value is not set to a valid value.

First of all, you shouldn't use the paint event, you should use the FocusChanged event if you want to do it by modifying the text property. However, the simplest method is not to modify the text property, but draw a string on top, like this:
private void textEdit1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
if (textEdit1.Text.Length == 0 && !textEdit1.Focused)
{
Font some_font = new Font(...parameters go here...);
Brush some_brush = Brushes.Gray; // Or whatever color you want
PointF some_location = new PointF(5,5); // Where to write the string
e.Graphics.WriteString("some text", some_font, some_brush, some_location);
}
}
So, if there is no text, and text box is not focused, draw this string. There are many overloads of the WriteString function, so you can pick which one you want.

You can use the Enter event. Set Text property to "search" for example. Use your font like others reported. Then catch the Enter event and set the Text property to string.empty.
textedit1.Text = "search";
private void textEdit1_Enter(object sender, EnterEventArgs e)
{
textedit1.text = string.empty;
}
But i think the best practice is the NullValuePrompt.

choosing to hide or show tooltips based on bool

so I figured I'm making just a stupid mistake here. In the first of what will be many controls, I need to either show a balloon tooltip when a bool is true or not show them when the bool is false. I know that ShowAlways is not what I need to modify and I've tried various solutions already. Does anyone spot the problem? The bool is set by a checked dropdown item in a Help Menu Strip Item.
It will open with the application with the correct display, but as soon as I check that option to show it, it always shows there after.
public void changeBalloonProperties(bool boolSet)
{
ToolTip helpDeskInfoButtonToolTip = new ToolTip();
if (boolSet)
{
helpDeskInfoButtonToolTip.ToolTipTitle = "HelpDesk Information Button";
helpDeskInfoButtonToolTip.UseFading = true;
helpDeskInfoButtonToolTip.UseAnimation = true;
helpDeskInfoButtonToolTip.IsBalloon = true;
helpDeskInfoButtonToolTip.ShowAlways = true;
helpDeskInfoButtonToolTip.AutoPopDelay = 5000;
helpDeskInfoButtonToolTip.InitialDelay = 1000;
helpDeskInfoButtonToolTip.ReshowDelay = 500;
helpDeskInfoButtonToolTip.SetToolTip(helpDeskButton, "Click to launch HelpDesk user info page in default browser.");
}
else
{
helpDeskInfoButtonToolTip.RemoveAll();
}
}

You are creating a new ToolTip instance each time the changeBalloonProperties is called so the code isn't removing the caption associated with the original ToolTip that was used with the helpDeskButton. Try moving the ToolTip declaration outside of your changeBalloonProperties method so the same ToolTip object is used with RemoveAll().
Also note you can use that same ToolTip object to add captions for multiple controls (as shown in the sample here) and it's probably better to set helpDeskInfoButtonToolTip.Active = false to disable them all at once instead of setting and removing the captions (and other properties) each time you toggle.

Change the Textbox height?

How do I change the height of a textbox ?
Neither of the below work:
this.TextBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(173, 100);
or
this.TextBox1.Size.Height = 100;
I wanted to be able to change the single line text box height to fit a font size on it without using multi-line if possible.

Go into yourForm.Designer.cs
Scroll down to your textbox. Example below is for textBox2 object.
Add this
this.textBox2.AutoSize = false;
and set its size to whatever you want
this.textBox2.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(142, 27);
Will work like a charm - without setting multiline to true, but only until you change any option in designer itself (you will have to set these 2 lines again).
I think, this method is still better than multilining. I had a textbox for nickname in my app and with multiline, people sometimes accidentially wrote their names twice, like Thomas\nThomas (you saw only one in actual textbox line). With this solution, text is simply hiding to the left after each char too long for width, so its much safer for users, to put inputs.

There are two ways to do this :
Set the textbox's "multiline" property to true, in this case you don't want to do it so;
Set a bigger font size to the textbox
I believe it is the only ways to do it; the bigger font size should automatically fit with the textbox

You can set the MinimumSize and/or the MaximumSize properties of the textbox. This does not affect the size immediately, but when you resize the textbox in the forms designer, the size will automatically be adjusted to satisfy the minimum/maximum size constraints. This works even when Multiline is set to false and does not depend on the font size.

Just found a great little trick to setting a custom height to a textbox.
In the designer view, set the minimumSize to whatever you desire, and then completely remove the size setting. This will cause the designer to update with the new minimum settings!

set the minimum size property
tb_01.MinimumSize = new Size(500, 300);
This is working for me.

Try the following :)
textBox1.Multiline = true;
textBox1.Height = 100;
textBox1.Width = 173;

Steps:
Set the textboxes to multiline
Change the height
Change the font size. (so it fit into the big textboxes)
Set the textboxes back to non-multiline

public partial class MyTextBox : TextBox
{
[DefaultValue(false)]
[Browsable(true)]
public override bool AutoSize
{
get
{
return base.AutoSize;
}
set
{
base.AutoSize = value;
}
}
public MyTextBox()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.AutoSize = false;
}
}

May be it´s a little late. But you can do this.
txtFoo.Multiline = true;
txtFoo.MinimumSize = new Size(someWith,someHeight);
I solved it that way.

AutoSize, Minimum, Maximum does not give flexibility. Use multiline and handle the enter key event and suppress the keypress. Works great.
textBox1.Multiline = true;
private void textBox1_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
{
e.Handled = true;
e.SuppressKeyPress = true;
}
}

You can put it inside a panel that has the same back color with your desired height. This way has this advantage that the text box can center horizontally, which is not provided by other solutions.
You can make it even more natural by using the following methods
private void textBox1_Enter(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
panelTextBox.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.FixedSingle;
}
private void textBox1_Leave(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
panelTextBox.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.None;
}

The Simplest Way to do that
Right click on the TextBox.
Go to properties.
Set Multiline = True.
Now you will be able to resize the TextBox vertically as you wish.

for me, the best approach is remove border of the textbox, and place it inside a Panel, which can be customized as you like.

The following code added in your constructor after calling InitializeComponent() will make it possible to programmatically set your text box to the correct height without a) changing the Multiline property, b) having to hardcode a height, or c) mucking with the Designer-generated code. It still isn't necessarily as clean or nice as doing it in a custom control, but it's fairly simple and robust:
if (txtbox.BorderStyle == BorderStyle.None)
{
txtbox.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.FixedSingle;
var heightWithBorder = txtbox.ClientRectangle.Height;
txtbox.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.None;
txtbox.AutoSize = false;
txtbox.Height = heightWithBorder;
}
I decided to make it cleaner and easier to use by putting it in a static class and make it an extension method on TextBox:
public static class TextBoxExtensions
{
public static void CorrectHeight(this TextBox txtbox)
{
if (txtbox.BorderStyle == BorderStyle.None)
{
txtbox.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.FixedSingle;
var heightWithBorder = txtbox.ClientRectangle.Height;
txtbox.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.None;
txtbox.AutoSize = false;
txtbox.Height = heightWithBorder;
}
}
}

Some of you were close but changing designer code like that is annoying because you always have to go back and change it again.
The original OP was likely using an older version of .net because version 4 autosizes the textbox height to fit the font, but does not size comboboxes and textboxes the same which is a completely different problem but drew me here.
This is the problem I faced when placing textboxes next to comboboxes on a form. This is a bit irritating because who wants two controls side-by-side with different heights? Or different fonts to force heights? Step it up Microsoft, this should be simple!
I'm using .net framework 4 in VS2012 and the following was the simplest solution for me.
In the form load event (or anywhere as long as fired after InitializeComponent): textbox.AutoSize = false Then set the height to whatever you want. For me I wanted my text boxes and combo boxes to be the same height so textbox.height = combobox.height did the trick for me.
Notes:
1) The designer will not be affected so it will require you to start your project to see the end result, so there may be some trial and error.
2) Align the tops of your comboboxes and textboxes if you want them to be aligned properly after the resize because the textboxes will grow down.

This is what worked nicely for me since all I wanted to do was set the height of the textbox. The property is Read-Only and the property is in the Unit class so you can't just set it. So I just created a new Unit and the constructor lets me set the height, then set the textbox to that unit instead.
Unit height = txtTextBox.Height;
double oldHeight = height.Value;
double newHeight = height.Value + 20; //Added 20 pixels
Unit newHeightUnit = new Unit(newHeight);
txtTextBox.Height = newHeightUnit;

You can make multiline : false and then just change the text size on the text box then the height will automatically increment

you can also change you can also change MinimumSize

So after having the same issue with not being able to adjust height in text box, Width adjustment is fine but height never adjusted with the above suggestions (at least for me), I was finally able to take make it happen. As mentioned above, the issue appeared to be centered around a default font size setting in my text box and the behavior of the text box auto sizing around it. The default font size was tiny. Hence why trying to force the height or even turn off autosizing failed to fix the issue for me.
Set the Font properties to the size of your liking and then height change will kick in around the FONT size, automatically. You can still manually set your text box width. Below is snippet I added that worked for me.
$textBox = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$textBox.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(60,300)
$textBox.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(600,80)
$textBox.Font = New-Object System.Drawing.Font("Times New Roman",18,[System.Drawing.FontStyle]::Regular)
$textBox.Form.Font = $textbox.Font
Please note the Height value in '$textBox.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(600,80)' is being ignored and the FONT size is actually controlling the height of the text box by autosizing around that font size.

All you have to do is enable the multiline in the properties window, put the size you want in that same window and then in your .cs after the InitializeComponent put txtexample.Multiline = false; and so the multiline is not enabled but the size of the txt is as you put it.
InitializeComponent();
txtEmail.Multiline = false;
txtPassword.Multiline = false;

I think this should work.
TextBox1.Height = 100;

Why is text in TextBox highlighted (selected) when form is displayed?

I have a form containing a TextBox in C# which I set to a string as follows:
textBox.Text = str;
When the form is displayed, why does the text in the texbox appear highlighted/selected?

The text box has a TabIndex of 0 and TabStop set to true. This means that the control will be given focus when the form is displayed.
You can either give another control the 0 TabIndex (if there is one) and give the text box a different tab index (>0), or set TabStop to false for the text box to stop this from happening.

The default behavior of a TextBox in Windows Forms is to highlight all of the text if it gets focused for the first time by tabbing into it, but not if it is clicked into. We can see this in Reflector by looking at the TextBox's OnGotFocus() override:
protected override void OnGotFocus(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnGotFocus(e);
if (!this.selectionSet)
{
this.selectionSet = true;
if ((this.SelectionLength == 0) && (Control.MouseButtons == MouseButtons.None))
{
base.SelectAll();
}
}
}
It's that if statement that is causing the behavior that we don't like. Furthermore, to add insult to injury, the Text property's setter blindly resets that selectionSet variable whenever the text is re-assigned:
public override string Text
{
get
{
return base.Text;
}
set
{
base.Text = value;
this.selectionSet = false;
}
}
So if you have a TextBox and tab into it, all the text will be selected. If you click into it, the highlight is removed, and if you re-tab into it, your caret position (and selection length of zero) is preserved. But if we programmatically set new Text, and tab into the TextBox again, then all of the text will be selected again.
If you are like me and find this behavior annoying and inconsistent, then there are two ways around this problem.
The first, and probably the easiest, is to simply trigger the setting of selectionSet by calling DeselectAll() on form Load() and whenever the Text changes:
protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnLoad(e);
this.textBox2.SelectionStart = this.textBox2.Text.Length;
this.textBox2.DeselectAll();
}
(DeselectAll() just sets SelectionLength to zero. It's actually SelectionStart that flips the TextBox's selectionSet variable. In the above case, the call to DeselectAll() is not necessary since we are setting the start to the end of the text. But if we set it to any other position, like the start of the text, then calling it is a good idea.)
The more permanent way is to create our own TextBox with the desired behavior through inheritance:
public class NonSelectingTextBox : TextBox
{
// Base class has a selectionSet property, but its private.
// We need to shadow with our own variable. If true, this means
// "don't mess with the selection, the user did it."
private bool selectionSet;
protected override void OnGotFocus(EventArgs e)
{
bool needToDeselect = false;
// We don't want to avoid calling the base implementation
// completely. We mirror the logic that we are trying to avoid;
// if the base implementation will select all of the text, we
// set a boolean.
if (!this.selectionSet)
{
this.selectionSet = true;
if ((this.SelectionLength == 0) &&
(Control.MouseButtons == MouseButtons.None))
{
needToDeselect = true;
}
}
// Call the base implementation
base.OnGotFocus(e);
// Did we notice that the text was selected automatically? Let's
// de-select it and put the caret at the end.
if (needToDeselect)
{
this.SelectionStart = this.Text.Length;
this.DeselectAll();
}
}
public override string Text
{
get
{
return base.Text;
}
set
{
base.Text = value;
// Update our copy of the variable since the
// base implementation will have flipped its back.
this.selectionSet = false;
}
}
}
You maybe tempted to just not call base.OnGotFocus(), but then we would lose useful functionality in the base Control class. And you might be tempted to not mess with the selectionSet nonsense at all and simply deselect the text every time in OnGotFocus(), but then we would lose the user's highlight if they tabbed out of the field and back.
Ugly? You betcha. But it is what it is.

The answers to this question helped me a lot with a similar problem, but the simple answer is only hinted at with a lot of other complex suggestions. Just set SelectionStart to 0 after setting your Text. Problem solved!
Example:
yourtextbox.Text = "asdf";
yourtextbox.SelectionStart = 0;

You can also choose the tab order for your form's controls by opening:
View->Tab Order
Note that this option is only available in "View" if you have the Form design view open.
Selecting "Tab Order" opens a view of the Form which allows you to choose the desired tab order by clicking on the controls.

To unhighlight a text field, with VS 2013, try init with:
myTextBox.GotFocus += new System.EventHandler(this.myTextBox_GotFocus);
And add the method:
public void myTextBox_GotFocus(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
myTextBox.SelectionLength=0;
}

I haven't tested this on C# but I ran into the same issue using a C++ WIN32 dialog box. Is seems like you can change the behavior by returning FALSE from OnInitDialog() or WM_INITDIALOG. Hope this helps.

Here is what worked for me
public void SetNotes(string notes)
{
notesTextBox.Text = notes;
notesTextBox.Select();
notesTextBox.SelectionLength = 0;
notesTextBox.SelectionStart = notes.Length;//place cursor at end of text
}