Text Window

A Text Window is a Screen Object which will accept and display text strings and is very useful to convey various messages to the operator during run-time. These text strings can be sent to a Text Window from other objects within ModCom and may include their own color attributes. The choice to send certain data to a Text Window as apposed to a Data Window is determined in the way the data is treated. A Data Window assumes that any data sent to it is a numerical value, whether hex, binary, or decimal, and it may have unexpected results if it is a recipient of non numerical characters. In contrast, a Text Window can receive and display any alpha or numerical character.

Once a Text Window is placed on the screen it can be selected by clicking on it with the left mouse button. To move the object, place the cursor over it, hold down the left mouse button and drag the object to the desired position. Resize handles are provided to allow adjustment of the overall size by dragging on them with the mouse in a similar fashion.

To set the properties of a Text Window, right-click on the object or select "Properties" in the <Edit> menu while the Text Window is selected. The following is a summery of the user defined attributes in the Properties dialog box.

Properties Dialog Box:

Prefix: Type in the text that will appear to the left of the data field.

Suffix: Type in the text that will appear to the right of the data field.

Object ID Label: Type in a label that will be used for identification by other objects within ModCom when sending data to the Text Window or when using the displayed text as a variable in another object's function.

Default Message: If desired, type in a message which will be displayed by the Text Window at start-up. This message will remain until some other object within ModCom sends a new message to it. Once the run-time loop is halted, this default message will reappear.

Color: Selects the background and foreground colors of the text used in the default message.

Font Size: Selects the font size used for the text characters in the Text Window. Making changes to this attribute will also change the overall size of the Text Window respectively.

Font Color: Selects the font color used for text in the prefix and suffix fields.

Prefix Window Width: Selects the width of the prefix field. Note, dragging the resize handles will change the width of the data field only.

Suffix Window Width: Selects the width of the suffix field. Note, dragging the resize handles will change the width of the data field only.