Text Objects

Text Object Appearance
Interactivity
Lesson: Text Objects as Popup Labels
Lesson: Page Scrolling in Text Objects
Text Object Properties, Methods, and Events

Text objects allow you to display text in your applications. This can be a character, a word or multiple paragraphs of text. You may find it useful to create a small Text object that serves as a label for another object, such as a Graphic. Or, you may make the Text object much larger so that it displays a larger description of another object. Use the Text object tool to draw a Text object. The tool appears as follows:

Note: The user cannot type in a Text objects at runtime. If your application requires an area in which the user can type, use the Text Field object.

Text Object Appearance

There are two ways to enter text in a Text object. You can set the object's Filename property to an ASCII text (. txt) file. Or, you can set the object's Text property. When you click in the Value field for the Text property, Jamba displays the Text Properties dialog box where you can type in the characters you want to display. When you click on OK, the text is automatically returned to the Value field.

The Font property controls the character size and style used by the object and the TextColor and BackgroundColor properties control the colors. Optionally, you can use the DisplayEffect property to use a special effect when the object displays.

Interactivity

Although a user cannot type in a Text object, he or she can still interact with a Text object in several ways.

You can set up the Text object's To Do List so that one or more types of interactions trigger an event. For example the user can trigger an event by clicking, or moving the cursor on or off of the object.
The object itself can trigger an event when it is first created or when it first comes into or out of view via the Visible property.
The Text object can have one or more of its properties or methods set when another object is affected. For example, the user can click on a Check Box to change the Visible property of the Text object to False.

For more information on available events, see the section entitled "Text Object Properties, Methods, and Events."

Lesson: Text Objects as Popup Labels

In this lesson you set up a Graphic of Africa and a Push Button labeled "Show Labels." When the user clicks the button, two Text objects appear that identify the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator.

Note: A completed version of this lesson, called lesn_14, is located in the \Jamba\lessons directory.

Start a new project (set the Page Size to 400 x 400) and open the StartPage.
Draw a Graphic object (called Graphic1), a Push Button (called PushButton1) and a two Text objects (called Text1 and Text2).

First set up the Graphic object.

Right-click on Graphic1 and select Properties from the popup menu.
Click in the Value field for the Filename property.
Use the Open dialog box to search for Jamba\lessons\Graphics\africa.gif.
Click on Open to load the graphic into the object.
Position and resize the rest of the objects so the page appears similar to the following:

Next, you'll set up the two Text objects.

Click on Text1.
Click in the Value field for the Text property.

The Text Properties dialog box appears.

In the "Text to display" area, type Tropic of Cancer.
Click on OK to close the dialog box.

The text appears in the object. Next you'll make the object's background transparent and its text white, so that it appears to rest right on the Graphic when its over it. You'll also make the object invisible so that it is not seen when the page first displays.

Set the Transparent property to True.
Click in the Value field of the Font property to display the Font dialog box.
Set Font Style to bold and choose Yellow from the Color list. (Hint: You could also use the TextColor property to change just the color of the characters.) Click OK to close the dialog box.
Set the Visible property to False.

Now you'll use the same techniques to set up Text2.

Click on Text2.
Click in the Value field for the Text property.

The Text Properties dialog box appears.

In the "Text to display" area, type Equator.
Click on OK to close the dialog box.
Set the Transparent property to True.
Click in the Value field of the Font property to display the Font dialog box.
Set Font Style to bold and choose Yellow from the Color list. Click OK to close the dialog box.
Set the Visible property to False.

Now set up the Push Button.

Click on PushButton1.
Set the Label property to "Show Labels."

Now you'll set up PushButton1's To Do List so that it affects the Text objects when the user clicks.

Click on the To Do List tab.

The default event is Click. Because you want the To Do List actions to occur when the user clicks, you'll leave the default as is.

Leave the event set to Click.
Click on the New To Do Item button.
Choose Text1 from the Object drop-down list.
Set the What To Do field for Text1 to Visible.
Set the Value for Text1 to True.

When the user clicks on PushButton1, Text1 will become visible. Now do the same for Text2.

Click on the New To Do Item button.
Choose Text2 from the Object drop-down list.
Set the What To Do field for Text2 to Visible.
Set the Value for Text2 to True.
Save and run the application.
To see an example of what the completed applet should look like, click on the start button.

Keep in mind that if you wanted the text labels to show all the time, it would be more efficient to incorporate them into the graphic being displayed. Also, for instructions on how to make a Text object visible only when the cursor is over a particular object, see the lesson for the Hotspot object.

Lesson: Page Scrolling in Text Objects

In this lesson you use two Picture Push Buttons, and the Text object's PageUp() and PageDown() methods, to scroll through text in a Text object.

Note: A completed version of this lesson, called lesn_15, is located in the \Jamba\lessons directory.

Start a new project, making the Page Size 400 x 400 pixels high.
Open the StartPage.
Draw a Text object and two Picture Push Button objects in the following layout.

The first object to set up is the Text object.

Right-click on the Text1 object and select Properties from the pop-up menu.
Click in the Value field for the Filename property.
Use the Open dialog box to search for \Jamba\lessons\Text\Ny.txt.
Click on the OK button to load the text file into the Text1 object.
Click in the Font property's Value field
The Font dialog box appears.
- Set the font to Arial, Regular, 10 point.
Next you'll set up the two Picture Push Buttons to let you move through the text.
- Select PicturePushButton1
- Click in the Value field for the Name property and rename the object PageUp.
- Click in the Value field for the Filename property.
You'll now set the appearance for the PageUp button by setting its Filename and ButtonStyle properties.
- Use the Open dialog box to search for \Jamba\lessons\Graphics\up.gif .
- Set the ButtonStyle property to UpDown.
When you are finished with the PicturePushButton1 Properties tab, it should look like this:
Now you will set up this button so that when a user clicks on it, the contents of the Text1 object will move up by a page.
- Click on the To Do List tab.
- Click on the New To Do Item button.
- Select Text1 from the Object drop down list
Now you have to set what happens when the user clicks on the Text1 object. Since you want it to go up one page, you will select the PageUp() method. The PageUp() method instructs the Text1 object to move up one page. A page is defined as the number of lines that are visible in the text object. So, if there are 10 lines visible, the content of the Text1 object will move up 10 lines.
Select PageUp() from the What To Do drop down list. Leave the Value field empty.

Your To Do list tab should look like this when you are done.

Now you will set up PicturePushButton2, which is the Page Down button.

Select PicturePushButton2.

Click in the Value field of the Name property and rename the object to PageDown.

Click in the Value field of the Filename property and select the \Jamba\lessons\Graphics\Down.gif graphic file.

Set the ButtonStyle property to UpDown.

You will now set up this button so that when the user clicks on it, the contents of the Text1 object will move down one page.

Click on the to Do List tab.

Click on the New To Do Item button.

Select Text1 from the Object drop down list

Select PageDown() from the What To Do drop down list. Leave the Value field empty.

Save the file and run it to see it work.

To see an example of what the completed applet should look like, click on the start button.

Text Object Properties, Methods, and Events

Text objects support the following properties, methods and events.

Properties Methods Events

BackgroundColor MoveAndSize() Click

DisplayEffect PageUp() Create

Enabled PageDown() DoubleClick

FileName ScrollDown() Enter

Font ScrollEnd() Hide

Height ScrollHome() Leave

HowToHide ScrollUp() LoadComplete

HowToShow SlideTo() Show

Name

SlideToComplete

Text

TextColor

Transparent

Visible

Width

X

Y

Back to Radio Button Object

Up to Table of Contents

Ahead to Text Field Objects

Properties	Methods	Events
BackgroundColor	MoveAndSize()	Click
DisplayEffect	PageUp()	Create
Enabled	PageDown()	DoubleClick
FileName	ScrollDown()	Enter
Font	ScrollEnd()	Hide
Height	ScrollHome()	Leave
HowToHide	ScrollUp()	LoadComplete
HowToShow	SlideTo()	Show
Name		SlideToComplete
Text
TextColor
Transparent
Visible
Width
X
Y