Can I minimize/maximize tool windows?

We don't have those features available right now but I can add them to the TODO list for you. First, would you need these options for all tool windows or would you like them to have the global settings with instance overrides that are available on most tool window properties now?

[Modified at 10/19/2006 12:26 PM]

Yes, I'd like the global setting with instance overrides.

After doing some research on this, unfortunately it's not possible to add maximize/minimize buttons to floating tool windows since Windows doesn't render them.

As for the show in taskbar option, that is possible however presents a couple issues:
1) Since a tool window will be displayed in the taskbar, it needs a 32x32 Icon to display. How would you recommend getting that?
2) When two or more tool windows are docked in a floating container, the titlebar of the floating container form is empty. A side effect is that the taskbar text for that window therefore appears empty.
3) For the same scenario as #2, what Icon should be set to the floating container window since there are two or more tool windows in it?

What do you think?

I just assumed you set up the floating window as a form with FormBorderStyle set to SizeableToolWindow. Can't you set it to Sizeable?

For the image, I'd do it two ways. Use an image list and have the tool window reference the image index. Have the user directly select an image. If there is more than one tool window within (excluding the main application window), possibly a special icon that you define and set as the standard?

For the empty title bar, there's only two things you can do: combine the titles or take the title from the main application (couple this with the special icon you put in, I think users would figure out that there is more than one tool window in that one floating window)

For the max/minimize feature, yes changing it to regular Sizable instead of a SizableToolWindow would work. I suppose that is what we'd have to do if you wanted that feature.

Another issue with this mode though, it would probably have to be a global setting instead of an instance/global one. The reason is that it would have to determine the border probably before the floating container form is created. If you had two tool windows in a floating container with conflicting settings then it would cause issues. So the easy way is to simply have a single global setting for it. I can't really think of a scenario where you wouldn't want them all to be able to maximize/minimize or not. Can you?

Maybe what we do is make a flags enumeration with items like:
Default = 0
LargeTitleBar = 1
MaximizeButton = 2 | 1 // Forces large titlebar
MinimizeButton = 4 | 1 // Forces large titlebar

How does that look?

For Images, the problem is that Form.Icon takes an Icon, not an Image. They can't be cast to each other either. So we'd have to probably make a default Icon that would be used unless you set an Icon to a new ToolWindow.Icon property. The default would also be used in the multiple tool window in a floating container scenario.

The issue with the empty text is that we don't want to set the floating container Form's Text property at all. Because then it shows up in the Form's caption and that should be blank. However that is what the taskbar reads as well. So we'd probably just have to have a blank taskbar description there.

If you think setting it min/max globally is better, then I'll defer to you, right now I can't think of a scenario. However, you never know what future developers want. I think giving the option to developers now would make it easier down the line.

I'm not sure having an empty task bar is a good idea. Don't you think it'll look weird to users when all they see is an icon in the taskbar? Ideally, they'd need some kind of indicator to tell them which window it is. Otherwise they'd have to click through possibly multiple taskbars to figure out which one they wanted. If a user works on multiple Word documents and they are all "Untitled", how would they know which one they really want? That's why Microsoft at least increments the document. However, I don't have a better solution.

You guys do an awesome job of support!

For the empty text in the taskbar, again that is only if you have more than one tool window in the same floating container form. So if you leave them all as distinct windows then there is no problem and they would show the proper tool window text. Make sense?