Changing the Pointer when the mouse hovers an object(Visual F#)

To change the mouse pointer when the mouse hovers an object, use the Cursor property. All form controls in Visual F# has Cursor property. To use the Cursor property, use the following syntax:

Objectvariable.Cursor<-Cursors.CursorStyle

For example:

exitbutton.Cursor<-Cursors.UpArrow

Some CursorStyles values are NoMove2D,Cross and PanSouth. To understand the usage of the Cursor property, try the following example: 1. Click Start>All Programs>Microsoft Visual Studio 2008>Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. 2. Click File>New>Project>Select Visual F# in the project types>Select F# application in the Visual Studio installed templates category. 3. Click the Project menu>Add reference>Click the .Net tab>Locate then double-click System.Windows.Forms. Do step 3 again and this time, select System.Drawing from the .Net tab. 4. Enter the following code after the line “// Learn more about F# at http://fsharp.net “:

// Learn more about F# at http://fsharp.net
//specify the namespace memory location
//of the classes that will be needed in our application
open System
open System.Drawing
open System.Windows.Forms
//create our controls
let ffont=new System.Drawing.Font("Microsoft Sans Serif",9.0F, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point)
let myform=new Form(Text="Use Cursors",AutoScaleDimensions=new System.Drawing.SizeF(60.0F, 13.0F),ClientSize=new System.Drawing.Size(207, 133),StartPosition=FormStartPosition.CenterScreen)
let llabel1=new Label(Text="Hand Cursor",AutoSize=true,Location=new System.Drawing.Point(20, 80))
let llabel2=new Label(Text="AppStarting Cursor",AutoSize=true,Location=new System.Drawing.Point(120,80))
//add the controls into our form
myform.Controls.Add(llabel1)
myform.Controls.Add(llabel2)
//add a mousehover and mouseleave events to our controls
//when the mouse hovers our labels, its cursor style,forecolor, and font size will change
//when the mouse leaves our control, the cursor style, label forecolor, and font size will
//return back to default
llabel1.MouseHover.Add(fun disphandcursor->
                  llabel1.ForeColor<-Color.Red
                  llabel1.Cursor<-Cursors.Hand
                  let ffont=new System.Drawing.Font("Microsoft Sans Serif",12.0F, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point)
                  llabel1.Font<-ffont)
llabel1.MouseLeave.Add(fun changefontsize->
                  llabel1.ForeColor<-Color.Empty
                  let ffont=new System.Drawing.Font("Microsoft Sans Serif",9.0F, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point)
                  llabel1.Font<-ffont)
llabel2.MouseHover.Add(fun dispappcursor->
                  llabel2.ForeColor<-Color.Red
                  llabel2.Cursor<-Cursors.AppStarting
                  let ffont=new System.Drawing.Font("Microsoft Sans Serif",12.0F, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point)
                  llabel2.Font<-ffont)
llabel2.MouseLeave.Add(fun retainsfontsize->
                  llabel2.ForeColor<-Color.Empty
                  let ffont=new System.Drawing.Font("Microsoft Sans Serif",9.0F, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point)
                  llabel2.Font<-ffont)              
myform.Show()
//executes our application
Application.Run(myform)

5. Click the run icon to execute your application. You should now see an output similar to the following screen shot:

TabControl(Visual F#)

TabControl is a control that can be used to organize information. It can be utilized as a good alternative to menustrip control. To Create a TabControl in Visual F#, use the folowing syntax:

let tabcontrolobjvariable=new TabControl()

For example:

let tabcontrol=new TabControl()

To add a page to your tab control, use the Create an object from the TabPage class using the following syntax:

Let tabpageobjvariable=new TabPage()

For example:

Let tabpage=new TabPage()

For a simple example on using TabControl, follow these steps:

1. Click Start>All Programs>Microsoft Visual Studio 2008>Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.
2. Click File>New>Project>Select Visual F# in the project types>Select F# application in the Visual Studio installed templates category.
3. Click the Project menu>Add reference>Click the .Net tab>Locate then double-click System.Windows.Forms. Do step 3 again and this time, select System.Drawing from the .Net tab.
4. Enter the following code after the line “// Learn more about F# at http://fsharp.net “:

// Learn more about F# at http://fsharp.net
//use the F# library
open System
//use the drawing classes
open System.Drawing
//specifies the location of the form class
open System.Windows.Forms
//specifies the font face and style
let ffont=new Font("Arial", 9.75F,FontStyle.Italic, GraphicsUnit.Point)
//creates a form
let tabform=new Form(Text="Use TabControl",StartPosition=FormStartPosition.CenterScreen,AutoScaleMode=AutoScaleMode.Font,ClientSize=new System.Drawing.Size(250,250),FormBorderStyle=FormBorderStyle.FixedSingle)
//creates a tab control set its TabSizeMode to fixed
let tabcontrol=new TabControl(SizeMode=TabSizeMode.Fixed,Location=new System.Drawing.Point(20, 20),Size=new System.Drawing.Size(214, 192))
//creates a new tab page
let page1=new TabPage(Text="First Tab",Cursor=Cursors.Hand)
//creates a new label
let page1label=new Label(Text="This is page1",Font=ffont,Location=new System.Drawing.Point(20, 20))
//creates another tab page
let page2=new TabPage(Text="Second Tab",Cursor=Cursors.Hand)
//creates another label
let page2label=new Label(Text="This is page2",Font=ffont,Location=new System.Drawing.Point(20, 20))
//adds the tabcontrol to our form
tabform.Controls.Add(tabcontrol)
//adds the tab pages to our tab control
tabcontrol.Controls.Add(page1)
//adds the label to the first page
page1.Controls.Add(page1label)
//adds the second page to our tab control
tabcontrol.Controls.Add(page2)
//adds the second label to our tab control
page2.Controls.Add(page2label)
tabform.Show()
//executes our application
Application.Run(tabform)

5. Click the run icon to execute your application. You should now see an output similar to the following screen shot: