Cannot set font style in Win XP

rbuser

Delphi 6.02, RBuilder 9.03

We recently upgraded from RB 6 to 9.03, because of the improved Windows XP
theme support, amongst other new additions. We are very pleased except we
have just discovered a problem on every instance of our program running on
Windows XP.

Drop any control (ppLabel, ppDBLabel) and try to change it's font style
(Bold, Italic, Underline) and nothing happens. This works fine on Win2000
and prior, but not on Win XP. The font style buttons are there, the control
is selected but clicking the Bold button (for example) achieves no result.

Is this a known issue?

Jason.

Jason Sweby
Software Developer, Carval Computing Limited
Plymouth, UK

rbuser

Just to follow this up, it does set the justification, font color and
highlight of a control, but bold, italic and underline don't work.

J.

nicocizik

Hi Jason,

This is not a known issue. Is this behavior happening at design time and
run time? In my quick testing with RB 9.03, the bold, italic, and underline
buttons work correctly. I would suggest reinstalling your version of
ReportBuilder and seeing if that fixes the problem.

--
Regards,

Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Hi Nico,

I can't determine if this is happening at design-time because I'm developing
on a Win2k machine. At run-time on this PC, there is no fault.

We have now tried it at run-time on 3 Windows XP machines and on all 3, the
bold/italic/underline buttons do nothing. This wasn't an issue on WinXP
machines on our previous installation of RB 6.03.

Jason.

rbuser

Just a little more information. If I select the object and use the Report
Explorer to the change the font style, it works. So I can make objects
bold/italic/etc, but it's a long-winded way of doing it when the buttons are
there on the toolbar.

J.

nicocizik

Hi Jason,

Have you tried using ReportBuilder 10.01 and seeing if the problem still
exists? As I mentioned before, this is not a known issue and in my testing
with RB 9.03 on my XP machine, I was unable to recreate this behavior. If
you create a minimal test example consisting of a report, designer and a
button are you still able to see this behavior? If so and you have been
able to recreate it using RB 10.01, please send the example in .zip format
to support@digital-metaphors.com and I'll take a look at it for you.

--
Regards,

Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Sorry for the delay and thank you for the offer to take a look. I knocked up
a simple test with a report and designer component and ran it on XP. Sure
enough, the style buttons worked on the selected control. So now I have to
figure out what could be affecting it on our production system.

We're using TExtraDevices, I might try taking this out to see if it has an
effect. Other than that, I'll have to dig deeper. I'll report back here.

Thanks,
Jason.

rbuser

Nico,

I have finally managed to replicate the problem using a very basic test
program. I've been trying to emulate on this test the things that we're
doing in our software, but the bold/italic/underlines buttons were still
working fine on XP no matter what I tried.

But now I've cracked it. I believe it is to do with XP theme support.
Initially I was running my .exe on XP with no manifest file included, so it
just looked like a Win2000 app on a WinXP machine. However, when I added the
XP manifest file to the exe, so that XP themes are used in the test program,
the bold/italic/underline buttons stop working.

So, if this happens on yours too, I believe it to be an issue with the XP
theme support in RB 9.03. With the manifest in place, the report designer is
correctly using XP themes too and looks great, but those 3 buttons stop
working.

Many thanks,
Jason.

rbuser

Nico,

Did you manage to recreate the problem with the conditions I set out?

Jason Sweby
Software Developer

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the
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nicocizik

Hi Jason,

I apologize for the delay. For some reason my news reader did not pick up
your last post.

Have you taken a look at ReportBuilder 10? It includes a completely new
toolbar and menu which now looks very XP-ish. If you like the way RB 9.03
looks with the XP manifest, you will love the way RB 10 looks with or
without it. I would suggest downloading a trial version and seeing for your
self.

In my testing with RB 10.02, I was unable to recreate the issue you
describe. I created a simple app including a report and designer on a form
with a button and XPMan object. After loading the designer at runtime, the
font style buttons seem to work correctlly.

--
Regards,

Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Just for the record, we've finally been in a position to upgrade to RB
v10.02 and integrate it into our application. I can confirm that this issue
is now corrected.

Thank you for your time.

Jason.

Jason Sweby
Software Development Manager,
Carval Computing Limited, Plymouth, UK

nicocizik

Hi Jason,

Excellent, glad to hear it's working. A quick note, there have been two
maintenance releases since RB 10.02 which have included over 50 fixes and
numerous enhancements. This is a free upgrade to registered RB 10.x users.
Contact info@digital-metaphors.com for upgrade instructions if you are
interested.

--
Regards,

Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com