Change default context window

[Atola]

A user of my application is complaining that the default context window does not make sense to him. I agree that it doesn't make sese for a user of an application. Is there a way to change this?

I open the context window when the application opens.

Default window is below.

[tyk007]

Are you using this to provide guidance about what a control does? I prefer tooltips for this instead.

[Atola]

Yes, but more than that. 

[GerdW]

Hi Atola,

A user of my application is complaining that the default context window does not make sense to him. I agree that it doesn't make sese for a user of an application. Is there a way to change this?

Well, sure!

There's one simple conclusion from your sentences: Don't use the default context help window!

Create your own "context help", either in a seperate window or in a string indicator in your main app window!

[Atola]

Creating my own context window. Seems like a complex solution to a simple problem.

[tyk007]

The Context Window was designed for developers, not end users (customers) who have no developer experience.

The solutions suggested are no different than most other development environments I'm afraid. You'll most likely have to pick one.

[GerdW]

Hi Atola,

Seems like a complex solution to a simple problem.

You haven't made your problem clear so far. Saying "something is senseless" isn't a good problem description…

And saying "Yes, but more than that." isn't a good description of what you are looking for…

[Atola · Accepted solution]

Well, what I ended up doing was creating an event case that will open the context menu the first (and only the first) time a user mouses over a control on the front panel - instead of opening the context menu on application start. Since the mouse is over a control the default context window is avoided. Still a little klunky in the code but it works. I'm not real happy with it so if someone has more elegant solution.

Here is a snippit of the code on the block diagrame.

[aleclspin]

My understanding of the problem is that you want a window to pop-up whenever the user mouses over a control, and this window needs to contain information about what the control does among other things. Is this correct?

If so I definitely would not use the context-help window as it probably doesn't contain all the information you would like and maybe some informationt that isn't really relevant to the user experience. In my opinion it probably also looks a little unproffesional to a customer. My solution in this case would be to create my own pop-up window subVI that is opened whenever a control is moused over. The front panel of the new subVI could be populated with whatever information you wanted rather than being constrained by the format of the context-help window. The implementation on the main VI would be very similar to what you have now.

EDIT: I created a quick vi to show you what I mean. Obviously you'd spend some time making it look more presentable but you probably get the general idea.