C# toolbar stuck on bottom of screen

Using VS2005, C#, How can I get the toolbar to appear at the top of
the display rather than at the bottom by the SIP ?
Is a custom toolbar needed? If so, where do I start? Thanks for any
suggestions.

jp2msft
Wed Jun 18 08:58:00 CDT 2008

Do you mean the MainMenu strip?

If so, placing this at the top would probably be a custom toolbar.

Microsoft specifies a lot of requirements for something to have the
Microsoft Logo, and my guess is that one of those requirements is to make the
MainMenu appear at the bottom of the screen for Windows CE.

Microsoft does this so that all users have a familiar "look and feel" when
using software with their logo on it. Since Visual Studio 2005 has
Microsoft's logo, that development environment will conform to Microsoft's
requirements.

If you want something different, you will have to struggle to "reinvent the
wheel," so to speak. But, keep in mind that your application will not have
the familiar "look and feel" that Microsoft spends millions of dollars to
figure out.

"Lcubed" wrote:

> Using VS2005, C#, How can I get the toolbar to appear at the top of
> the display rather than at the bottom by the SIP ?
> Is a custom toolbar needed? If so, where do I start? Thanks for any
> suggestions.
>

r_z_aret
Wed Jun 18 12:58:24 CDT 2008

On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:56:39 -0700 (PDT), Lcubed
<Loris.Emailbox@gmail.com> wrote:

>Using VS2005, C#, How can I get the toolbar to appear at the top of
>the display rather than at the bottom by the SIP ?
>Is a custom toolbar needed? If so, where do I start? Thanks for any
>suggestions.

If you use the Pocket PC/Smartphone/Windows Mobile menu functions
(SHCreateMenuBar, etc.) or whatever C# functions call them, the menu
will be on the bottom of the screen and the Task Bar will be on the
top of the screen. If you use the Windows CE menu functions
(CommandBar_Create and relatives), the menu bar will be at the top and
the Task Bar will be at the bottom, but only if they actually work and
the menu is visible. I had this working for the first version of
Pocket PC, but the menus disappeared starting with Pocket PC 2003. I
think I managed to get them to reappear, but gave up.

Why do you think it is important to change the position of the menu
bar?

-----------------------------------------
To reply to me, remove the underscores (_) from my email address (and please indicate which newsgroup and message).

Robert E. Zaret, eMVP
PenFact, Inc.
20 Park Plaza, Suite 478
Boston, MA 02116
www.penfact.com

Lcubed
Thu Jun 19 07:52:13 CDT 2008

On Jun 18, 1:58 pm, r_z_aret@pen_fact.com wrote:
> On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:56:39 -0700 (PDT), Lcubed
>
> <Loris.Email...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >Using VS2005, C#, How can I get the toolbar to appear at the top of
> >the display rather than at the bottom by the SIP ?
> >Is a custom toolbar needed? If so, where do I start? Thanks for any
> >suggestions.
>
> If you use the Pocket PC/Smartphone/Windows Mobile menu functions
> (SHCreateMenuBar, etc.) or whatever C# functions call them, the menu
> will be on the bottom of the screen and the Task Bar will be on the
> top of the screen. If you use the Windows CE menu functions
> (CommandBar_Create and relatives), the menu bar will be at the top and
> the Task Bar will be at the bottom, but only if they actually work and
> the menu is visible. I had this working for the first version of
> Pocket PC, but the menus disappeared starting with Pocket PC 2003. I
> think I managed to get them to reappear, but gave up.
>
> Why do you think it is important to change the position of the menu
> bar?
>
> -----------------------------------------
> To reply to me, remove the underscores (_) from my email address (and please indicate which newsgroup and message).
>
> Robert E. Zaret, eMVP
> PenFact, Inc.
> 20 Park Plaza, Suite 478
> Boston, MA 02116www.penfact.com

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the reply. I'm writing a kiosk type application and the
toolbar or menubar needs to be at the top since that's where users are
used to having it.

I've tried all the menubar type options (contextmenu, mainmenu,
statusbar and toolbar) and so far have not had any success - they're
all set at the bottom.

I'll experiment some with SHCreateMenuBar & CommandBar_Create. If you
know of any others, please let me know. I usually program controls so
am new to GUI. I could be overlooking the obvious.

Lori

r_z_aret
Thu Jun 19 15:08:34 CDT 2008

On Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:52:13 -0700 (PDT), Lcubed
<Loris.Emailbox@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Jun 18, 1:58 pm, r_z_aret@pen_fact.com wrote:
>> On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:56:39 -0700 (PDT), Lcubed
>>

clip


>>
>> Why do you think it is important to change the position of the menu
>> bar?
>>

clip

>
>Thanks for the reply. I'm writing a kiosk type application and the
>toolbar or menubar needs to be at the top since that's where users are
>used to having it.

Microsoft's change in Task Bar location has puzzled many of us. For
most applications, overriding the default location is probably not
good, because it will move back to default location for other apps.
But your app will run in kiosk mode, so that is not an issue.


>
>I've tried all the menubar type options (contextmenu, mainmenu,
>statusbar and toolbar) and so far have not had any success - they're
>all set at the bottom.
>
>I'll experiment some with SHCreateMenuBar & CommandBar_Create. If you
>know of any others, please let me know. I usually program controls so
>am new to GUI. I could be overlooking the obvious.

Well, I haven't found a solution, so I sure don't think you've
overlooked anything obvious.

Last time I got CommandBar_Create and relatives to work on a Pocket PC
(for Pocket PC 2003), the Task Bar was on the bottom and the menus
were on the top. But I haven't tried for a while, so I would be
curious about your results.

>
>Lori

-----------------------------------------
To reply to me, remove the underscores (_) from my email address (and please indicate which newsgroup and message).

Robert E. Zaret, eMVP
PenFact, Inc.
20 Park Plaza, Suite 478
Boston, MA 02116
www.penfact.com

Lcubed
Thu Jun 26 13:37:05 CDT 2008

Thanks for all the help. I discovered the most expedient way to create
a toolbar on top (or anywhere) was to use full screen mode (wipes out
OS menu bar & sip) and then use picture controls to build the toolbar.
Since it is easy to control the picture controls dynamically as well,
it's not difficult to update the toolbar as needed.