Some indication that a string control isn't showing the entire string.

[Lavezza]

I'd like there to be an option to show some kind of indicator on string controls that you aren't seeing the entire string. This should also apply to string constants on the block diagram.

I searched for a similar idea, but couldn't find one. Let me know if there is already a similar idea.

[Mark_Yedinak]

I like this idea. The color bars or indicators would also need to be added to show if there are lines above, below or above and below the displayed text. This should apply to string constants on the block diagram as well.

Message Edited by Mark Yedinak on 09-25-2009 04:00 PM

[Vaibhav]

Good idea!

But if you have made "Vertical Scrollbar" visible, the state of the scrollbar says if there is something more than the visible string or not. Like, if the scrollbar is disabled and grayed, it means there is nothing that is not visible. The String constants in block diagram also show a scroll bar.

But yes, it would be good to have some other indicator, without having made V.Scrollbar visible. This would make things more elegant yet without compromising with the loss of information.

I suggest a dark gray bar with an arrow showing the direction of the missing text.

The pink color will make things more beautiful, but I think the gray will be in accordance with "front" panel color. So this dark gray color would be actually the color of the front panel, but with more darkness than an Indicator (with the same color) would look like.

There are other occassions when we see such dark vertical bar on the side of a Numeric Control (Visible Items - Radix). So such a bar with some symbol would be in accordance with other similar features.

[JackDunaway]

This is another one of the "never knew that I always wanted it". I like the cleanness of Vaibhav's example. Give it a little more contrast between the black/dark grey and it would be good to go. But of course, make these buttons that can be customizable with user graphics!(!!!!)

[crelf]

This should be pretty easy to acheive with an xcontrol.

[crelf]

Also, I think a "..." instead of an arrow might be more intuative.  And, rather than making it a button, I think just an indicator would be fine - and then, when the user mouse-over's the node, the full text shows up in the tip strip.  Again - should be pretty easy to do in an xcontrol.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Note to anyone implementing this: There should definitely be a way to hide these indicators (Visible Items >> String Too Long Indicators). I know a couple UIs that would be annoyed if their string indicators highlighted additional text hiding out beyond the limits of the string... info that most users don't care about but is available for those in the know. I myself don't like such UI cleverness, but I've seen it done.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Question: What about multiline textboxes?

[muks]

Kudos for laveeza and vaibhav. Hmmm... LabVIEW is going to change for good(Hopefully)

[Lavezza]

I admit the pink I selected isn't as nice as Vaibhav's and Artistos Queue's idea (does anyone else immediately replace "Aristos Queue" with "Stephen Mercer"?)

We actually had a bug that we tracked down to a string contant on the block diagram that had some unexpected text at the end which we couldn't see. That's why the pink was in my head.

I like the idea of having an indicator along any border that had hidden text.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

> (does anyone else immediately replace "Aristos Queue" with "Stephen Mercer"?)

Man, I hope not. One of these allows you to guess my e-mail address and the other does not! I gotta hide from the mob with pitchforks! 🙂