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Panel Tooltipssince 4.99.3

A tooltip is a bit of information that is displayed when the mouse pauses over an item on a panel. The information can be the name of an icon, a short instruction, or some other useful information. The three main JMRI panel editors support tooltips for icons that relate to JMRI components such as sensors, turnouts, etc.

Overview

The default user name (system name) tooltip does not store any data. It uses the current names when showing the tooltip. This eliminates problems when user names are changed or moved to a different system name.

Custom tooltips can be created. This data is stored. The custom content can have the current user name (system name) information added to the front of the custom tooltip.

Existing tooltip content is not automatically removed. Depending on the age of the panel and its icons, it may have old content. The ClearTooltips.py script can be run to clear the old tooltip content. From the main PanelPro menu, select Scripting ⇒ Run Script.... The script is included with the JMRI install and it is located in the jython directory.

Editor Options

Each editor has an option to enable or disabled tooltips for its panels. Each tooltip also has an option to show or not show its tooltip content. This provides the ability to control the tooltip process. For example, a panel can have tooltips enabled but individual icons can be set to not show a tooltip. The reverse is also possible where tooltips are disabled for the panel, but individual icons can be enabled.

Panel Editor
When the panel is in edit mode, use the Show Tooltips for all items option to enable or disable tooltips for the panel.
PE Tooltips
Control Panel Editor
When the panel is in edit mode, select the Options menu and use the Show Tooltips for all items menu item to enable or disable tooltips for the panel.
CPE Tooltips
Layout Editor
The Layout Editor has several options for displaying tooltips.
LE Tooltips
Note: Layout Editor does not display tooltips for track components except for turnouts and slips (as of JMRI 5.3.6). These are drawn using a set of lines. They are not icons.

Tooltip Options

The default tooltip shows the user name and system name of the related JMRI item.

Default tooltip

The icon context menu (right click) has an entry for Tooltips with 3 menu items. Note: The Layout Editor turnout and slip context menus do not have a tooltips sub menu even though they show tooltips as of JMRI 5.3.6.

Tooltip menu
Show Tooltip
This is set active when tooltips are enabled for the panel and inactive when tooltips are not enabled for the panel. Click on the menu item to override the default value for the selected icon.
Set Custom Tooltip...
The default tooltip displays the user name and system name for the object related to the icon. The custom tooltip item can be used to display a different value. Enter the text to be displayed in the window that opens when this item is clicked. To revert to the default text, remove the text from the window text field.
Prepend Display Name to custom tooltip
The default value will be added the beginning of the custom tooltip. This makes it possible to have both the default name and additional text. For example: Sensor Name (IS101): Used to trigger a Route.