I have a Numbers (iWork 09) spreadsheet where I want to be able to populate a Pop-up Menu cell with values to enable easy analysis of selected data.
I have the AppleScript to generate the values that I want put into the Pop-up Menu, but need a means of interacting with the Pop-up Menu's list of values.
Is it possible to use AppleScript to dynamically populate a Pop-up Menu cell?
If so, what is the code to populate the Pop-up Menu with options dynamically?
Applescript just automates what the application can already do on its own. So my question to you would be... can you populate that menu in Numbers? Of course Numbers populates the menu, but does Numbers give you the ability to determine what that menu holds. If not then there's no chance you can do it with applescript.
But you really don't need it. If you're running an applescript to generate the values then just popup a choose-from-list dialog box so you can choose the one you want to insert. Then after you choose one use applescript to insert the value into the currently selected cell in Numbers.
Related
I have a window which shows a table on the left half. On the right half I display properties of the item which is selected in the table. The user can now change these properties.
The properties are represented by different kinds of controls: textFields, sliders, numberSteppers and popUpButtons.
The user can - besides using the mouse - use the tab key to navigate through the UI Elements. When the table has the focus tab will select the first editable item on the right side, then tab walks through the items and after the last item will go to the table again.
When the table has focus and I change the value of a popUpButton or move a sliderthe default behaviour of the API (Apple's Cocoa) is to change the value but keep the focus on the table.
My intuition would tell me that after changing a control element it should have the focus (i.e. become firstResponder). But I checked some of macOS' preference panes and they behave similarly.
In Apple's Human Interface Guidelines I do not find mention of that specific topic.
So my question is:
Is there a guideline or at least best practice an app should follow regarding if a control element like a popUpButton or slidershould get the focus when clicked or edited?
I want to do an automation using Excel VBA. First of all I am not sure if its possible so I need to explain the problem first.
I would launch an application which has a list of reports , that one can run by right clicking on any of these and selecting an entry from the popup menu caled say "Run this report". The problem is the report names are displayed in a listbox.
There are so many entries I only need to run a few of them based on their names.
To achieve this I thought about placing the mouse cursor on the text displaying the appropriate report name and then trigger the right click event. These can be done using Windows APIs.
The challenge I am facing is how to hover my mouse on any particular list item based on its display text.
I can enumerate all the windows controls based on the handle of the application's window, but is it possible to get the location of any item on the screen based on the text displayed on list item.
I'm trying to have a feature to allow users choose two different methods of cost calculation: either they can enter a yearly cost breakdown on a datasheet (2010: $10,000, 2011: $12,000, etc) or they can enter a flat yearly cost multiplied by the number of years they select.
If I were developing another kind of web application, I'd have radio buttons to select two different options. One option would display the datasheet, and the other option would display two text fields to enter values into. However, I understand that you can't have radio buttons in Access 2010 web databases. Also, is it possible to make elements appear and disappear based on a combo box selection?
If not, perhaps I could have two different combo box options: "enter yearly cost breakdown"
or "enter flat yearly cost," which open the correct respective forms as pop-ups.
So, 1) can I have Ajax-like appearing and disappearing elements as triggered by a combo box (or ideally, radio buttons), and 2) if not, can anyone think of another clever way of doing it?
Sure, you get a nice effect by using a tab control. You can place controls and even a sub form on that tab control.
So, you build a screen like this:
Then, simple set the visible property of the second tab = No. This will hide the tab (don't change this until you built the page since it will hide it! (use property sheet to hide/un-hide during development).
Now, add some code to the after update event of the list box. Like this:
In the above, I have named the tabs PYear and PFlat.
The result is this (this is a animated gif I inserted):
Of course, you really probably could just dump the whole "list box" selection, and use a screen like this with the tabs (tabs are good UI, and users tend to grasp them quick):
So, you can hide a "set" of controls, and it really far less work and hassle then writing a bunch of JaveScript anyway. As noted, the "set" of controls you drop into each of the tabs can be sub forms, and also that of continues forms. So, the "hiding" as a set does work well in this case. I did have some format issues and found that I had to "start out" with the 2nd tab dispaled first (the first one being hidden). As noted, the listbox selecting is nice, but one could likly just go with using tabs in the first place.
Simple version
Is there any way to maintain focus on menu after clicking a menu command?
Detailed version
Specifically, I've made a menu with some menu item with checked property. The problem is that each time I click checked menu item the menu lose its focus. It can be pretty annoying when there is a number of menu item with checked property and I want to manipulate them at once.
The most elegant solution for the problem would be maintaining focus on menu, but I can't find a way to apply it. Is it possible? And if so, what's the way to do that?
Even if there would a solution for it, sooner or later you will enter a situation in which a numerical or string property is changed via the menu, and then it becomes even impossible to keep the focus on the menu (while the dialog requesting the number or string is on the screen).
The first, simple alternative would be to put the checkable menu items on a toolbar or ribbon (just like Word does with Bold, Italic, Underline, ...). Numerical/string properties can then also be added on the toolbar or ribbon.
A second alternative could be to have a more complete configuration dialog in which the user can change all the configuration items. The configuration dialog can co-exist with the current checkable items, so users simply changing one check and users changing many properties all get a quick way of doing what they want.
You might also pose this question on https://ux.stackexchange.com/ (this sibling site is more oriented towards good user interface practices).
I have a CListCtrl control that has 2 columns and any number of rows. I want the user to be able to click(or maybe double-click) a "cell" and be able edit the text therein.
What I mean is that I want to be able to click and edit any of the places where it says "TEST" by clicking on the text to make it editable.
How should I go about this? I suppose I should use a mouse click event but how would I make the cell editable?
This looks like a list control in report mode, which is different from a list box. A list box doesn't support editing contents at all. You can write code entirely on your own to get the contents of a line, copy that to an edit control, display the edit control exactly where the existing content was shown, allow the user to edit, and copy data back when/if the user hits return.
A list control allows editing of one (and only one) field. If you want to support more, you have a couple of choices. One would be about like above, creating your own edit control in the right place. The obvious alternative would be to look up one of the many grid controls. CodeProject has a number of variations.