This is on OS X.
I have a stack in which I want a field to reach all the way to the bottom of the window. This field is to contain text which will usually more than fill the field, so I need a scrollbar. The stack needs to be resizable, so when the field reaches to the bottom, the resize box of the window covers the down arrow at the bottom of the fields scrollbar.
Is it necessary to have the field flush with the bottom of the window? The OS X HIG suggests leaving a 20-pixel margin between the edge of a window and the controls within it.
While this may seem a waste of real estate at first, the more I work with OS X (and the higher res displays on the more recent computers that ship with it) the more I like having that white space to visually distinguish between the work I'm doing in that window and the other windows behind it.
If the window has only a text field, we can join Apple in blowing off their HIG and making the field flush with the edge of the window. Because Rev scrollbars are bound to the height of the field, you might consider moving the bottom of the field up 15px and using that space for status information (a lot of my text apps include a character and word count in that space, both solving my layout issue and providing an additional benefit for the user).
Whatever the solution, I can't recommend using the field's native scrollbars enough. Their binding to the field's text record is automatically handled in fully compiled code in the engine, so it's not merely convenient but about as efficient as it can get.
If there's any reason the docs let you down on this one it's likely just because so few consider using a separate scrollbar control for a single field, since the field has it built-in and in a rather efficient way.
It would be nice to also specify bounds for the scrollbar separately from the field rect, but in the meantime hopefully this will be helpful.
-- Richard Gaskin Fourth World Media Corporation __________________________________________________ Rev tools and more: http://www.fourthworld.com/rev _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
