Adding tooltip text to
dialog box controls is a tedious process. TipMaker.exe is a tool that makes
that process considerably faster and less error prone.
Just load your project’s resource file (myproject.rc) using the ‘Open’ menu
command in TipMaker. TipMaker will parse the file and populate the list control
at the top of the application window, as shown in the screenshot above.
Each dialog box in your resource file is shown with its ID and, if available,
its Caption, as a separate row in this list control.
Click on a dialog box in the list control and the program code required to
generate tooltips for each control in it is instantly generated in the (bottom)
edit box. The tooltip text defaults to the control’s label where a control has
a text label, such as a button,
Just copy the boilerplate text to the dialog class’s OnInitDialog() function
(use the Copy menu option to copy it to the clipboard) and complete the TODOs
in the commented text. Then enter your own tooltip text into the second parameter
of each m_tooltip.AddTool() line of code.
Then compile and test your project.
Notes:
TipMaker does NOT tinker with the project’s resource file – it only ever opens
the file in read-only mode.
TipMaker assumes that the resource file does not change between when you open
it with TipMaker and when you click on a dialog box in its top list control
window. If you use Developer Studio to change the resource file you must re-open
it in TipMaker.
Version History
- Version 1.00 – February 1, 2000
- Version 1.01 – February 7, 2000
- Now accepts command line arguments, so you can add it to the VC
Tools menu (using the arguments “$(WkspDir)\$(WkspName).rc” in the VC
Tools setup dialog field) - Made the dialog slightly smaller so that it should fit on all 800×600
screens or higher - Made the comment text generated in the code window slightly more helpful
- Now accepts command line arguments, so you can add it to the VC
