Tool Tips For Menu Items

Question

The Tool Tip available to use with menu items in Visual Basic 2010  does not have the capability of Baloon shape or any formatting of the text. If I drag a Tool Tip control to the form, menu items don't recognize it and provide noability to improve the appearance.

Is there any way to fix this, or am I doing somethingwrong.

Milt

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sirmilt

Answer 1

Perhaps this will help you although using the balloon tip doesn't point in the right direction unless you put the balloon on top.

Option Strict On

Public Class Form1

    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Me.CenterToScreen()
    End Sub

    Private Sub HelloToolStripMenuItem_MouseHover(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles HelloToolStripMenuItem.MouseHover
        Dim tooltip1 As New ToolTip
        tooltip1.IsBalloon = False
        tooltip1.ToolTipIcon = ToolTipIcon.Warning
        tooltip1.ToolTipTitle = "Hellos ToolTip"
        tooltip1.Show("Hellos tool tip information", _
                     MenuStrip1, New Point(CInt(HelloToolStripMenuItem.Width / 2 - 20), +30), 5000)
    End Sub

    Private Sub GoodbyeToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles GoodbyeToolStripMenuItem.MouseHover
        Dim tooltip1 As New ToolTip
        tooltip1.IsBalloon = False
        tooltip1.ToolTipIcon = ToolTipIcon.Warning
        tooltip1.ToolTipTitle = "Goodbyes ToolTip"
        tooltip1.Show("GoodByes tool tip information", _
                     MenuStrip1, New Point(CInt(GoodbyeToolStripMenuItem.Width / 2 - 20), +50), 5000)
    End Sub

End Class

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Please BEWARE that I have NO EXPERIENCE and NO EXPERTISE and probably onset of DEMENTIA which may affect my answers! Also, I've been told by an expert, that when you post an image it clutters up the thread and mysteriously, over time, the link to the image will somehow become "unstable" or something to that effect. :) I can only surmise that is due to Global Warming of the threads.

Answer 2

For a ToolstripMenuItem, there is the .ToolTipText property, but it only draws an ordinary rectangular tooltip. It isn't the same as a ToolTip control. For anything else, I think you will have to devise your own solution. You might be able to get some useful bits of code from A ToolTip with Title, Multiline Contents, and Image.

--
Andrew

Answer 3

This will make the tooltip on the first item disappear when you move the mouse to the second item (from hello to goodbye) and vice versa.

Option Strict On

Public Class Form1

    Dim tooltip1 As ToolTip
    Dim tooltip2 As ToolTip

    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Me.CenterToScreen()
    End Sub

    Private Sub HelloToolStripMenuItem_MouseHover(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles HelloToolStripMenuItem.MouseHover
        tooltip1 = New ToolTip
        tooltip1.IsBalloon = True
        tooltip1.ToolTipIcon = ToolTipIcon.Warning
        tooltip1.ToolTipTitle = "Hellos ToolTip"
        tooltip1.Show("Hellos tool tip information", _
                     MenuStrip1, New Point(CInt(HelloToolStripMenuItem.Width / 2 - 20 + 10), -73), 5000)
    End Sub

    Private Sub HelloToolStripMenuItem_LostFocus(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles HelloToolStripMenuItem.MouseLeave
        tooltip1.Active = False
    End Sub

    Private Sub GoodbyeToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles GoodbyeToolStripMenuItem.MouseHover
        tooltip2 = New ToolTip
        tooltip2.IsBalloon = True
        tooltip2.ToolTipIcon = ToolTipIcon.Warning
        tooltip2.ToolTipTitle = "Goodbyes ToolTip"
        tooltip2.Show("GoodByes tool tip information", _
                     MenuStrip1, New Point(CInt(GoodbyeToolStripMenuItem.Width / 2 - 20 + 10), -53), 5000)
    End Sub

    Private Sub GoodbyeToolStripMenuItem_LostFocus(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles GoodbyeToolStripMenuItem.MouseLeave
        tooltip2.Active = False
    End Sub

End Class

---

Please BEWARE that I have NO EXPERIENCE and NO EXPERTISE and probably onset of DEMENTIA which may affect my answers! Also, I've been told by an expert, that when you post an image it clutters up the thread and mysteriously, over time, the link to the image will somehow become "unstable" or something to that effect. :) I can only surmise that is due to Global Warming of the threads.

Answer 4

Thank you both for the help.   Following your suggestions, the ToolTip worked fine. The only issue I have is the position of the resulting ToolTip from the line of code:

 MenuStrip1, New Point(CInt(GoodbyeToolStripMenuItem.Width / 2 - 20 + 10), -53), 

Other than the width, I am not sure what the other numbers represent.

Milt

---

sirmilt

Answer 5

Thank you both for the help.   Following your suggestions, the ToolTip worked fine. The only issue I have is the position of the resulting ToolTip from the line of code:

 MenuStrip1, New Point(CInt(GoodbyeToolStripMenuItem.Width / 2 - 20 + 10), -53), 

Other than the width, I am not sure what the other numbers represent.

Milt

---

sirmilt

The other number represents how far up or down from the MenuStrip the tool tip appears. So if you have numerous menu items you will have to move the tooltip for that menu item down to hover over the one that the mouse is over. The greater the second number increases the lower the ToolTip will go. It's originally at -73 to place the balloon tip of the tool tip over the first menu item. So thats -73 pixels,  or points Y I suppose, for the top of the ToolStrip item to be above the MenuStrip I think and it's 73 pixels high including the balloon tip I guess so its balloon tip is right over the first menu item, -53 for the second menu item and so on.

See my second post to use a good version of what my first post contained as the second post shows the balloon version and instantiates multiple ToolTips so you can activate or deactive a non in use tool strip when the mouse leaves that menu item and hovers over a different menu item.

---

Please BEWARE that I have NO EXPERIENCE and NO EXPERTISE and probably onset of DEMENTIA which may affect my answers! Also, I've been told by an expert, that when you post an image it clutters up the thread and mysteriously, over time, the link to the image will somehow become "unstable" or something to that effect. :) I can only surmise that is due to Global Warming of the threads.