hi Ian:
I've used two approaches that cut down on the number of sprites:
1) extra field:
*Place a "checkmark" field beside your data field.
*The "checkmark" field only has to be as wide as a single character.
*On startMovie, set all lines in the "checkmark" field = " ". It can be
bgtransparent, or placed flush with your data field.
*When a student needs a checkmark, use the line in the data field to set
the corresponding line in the "checkmark" field to a checkmark, a
bullet, a hyphen or whatever, depending on the character set of the font
you're using.
*You can check the character set in the OS UI, and use numToChar to set
the non-standard character. NOTE: Beware of nonstandard fonts, as
special character's ASCII-codes may vary.
2) spaces in data field:
*Pretty much the same as 1).
*Here you only need the data field:
*Start all lines with a couple of spaces. when your code reads the
string, remove char[1..2] of the string before using the student name.
*When a student needs a checkmark, set the first character of the
student's line in the data field to a checkmark, a bullet, a hyphen or
whatever, and so on, as in 1).
HTH and was understandable,
Clars
A bit of lots
Ian Jempson wrote:
>
> I'm trying to come to grips with the UI elements available to me in Lingo.
> We're using Director asa database front end. I'm currently displaying a
> list of students in a scrolling field. They are colour coded according to
> the marks they receive. This part is all working quite nicely, but what I
> would like is to be able to display a graphic checkmark beside those
> students in the list where data entry is complete. What's the best approach
> to this? The number of students in the list will vary depending on the
> number returned by the query to the database server.
>
> My guess is that I'm going to have to draw my own UI element in an
> offscreen buffer using vector graphics and text then copy it into the
> onscreen sprite. Is that the best approach or am I (as is most likely)
> missing something blindingly obvious?
>
> thanks
> Ian
>
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