C# formatting a MessageBox

Question

I want to display a MessageBox alerting the user that the process is complete, and giving a breakdown on how long each stage of the process took. I've got the text that I want to display formatted appropriately, but the default font of the MessageBox class is not mono-width. As far as I can tell, there's no way to specify the font that the text displays with.

Is there an out-of-the-box library somewhere that I can use for this, or am I going to have to write one up myself?

I'm sure there's libraries already written but it's wouldn't take much to write one yourself. — Ash Burlaczenko, Mar 24 '11 at 14:57
I had the same issue in one of my projects, wherein I had to display a bigger font size. For that I created my own customized message box. Check this link for reference. http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/A_Custom_Message_Box.aspx — reggie, Mar 24 '11 at 15:00

Jon Skeet · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-24T15:16:43.820

17

Any reason not to just create a Form with a textbox/label using a monospace font, then call Form.ShowDialog? Sounds like a separate library with that would be overkill to me.

edited Mar 24 '11 at 15:16

answered Mar 24 '11 at 14:58

Jon Skeet

1,421,763
867
9,128
9,194

Yeah, that's the solution I had in mind. I figured that it would be a common situation, and was surprised to find that there wasn't a way to do it with `MessageBox`, so I hoped I was just missing something. Thanks. – T.K. Mar 24 '11 at 15:14
2

@T.K.: I could be wrong, but I think that `MessageBox.Show` is just invoking the Win32 message box, and I suspect that doesn't have this sort of functionality. – Jon Skeet Mar 24 '11 at 15:16
One big advantage to using a form is that you can make the text copiable to the clipboard. E.g. use a readonly textbox to present an error message to the user; looks like a label but can be copied. – Jon Coombs Aug 06 '14 at 03:10
4

@JonCoombs: You can also hit Ctrl + C in a standard MessageBox which will copy all contents (caption/text/buttons) to the clipboard as text. – jreichert Feb 25 '15 at 12:06

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 24 '11 at 15:17

11

For the record, this is in fact possible, MessageBox() expands tabs. For example:

    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        MessageBox.Show(
            "hello\tworld\r\n" + 
            "second\tline");
    }

It isn't very trustworthy if the word width starts to approach the tab width. You still should prefer a little helper form with a ListView.

answered Mar 24 '11 at 15:17

Hans Passant

922,412
146
1,693
2,536

1

This was a helpful answer. I wanted to use tabs in a MessageBox. Thanks. – Mike Malter Aug 06 '11 at 00:31

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 26 '13 at 09:49

I have just written a single file replacement for MessageBox with a changeable font. You can download it here and use it like a standard MessageBox:

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/601900/FlexibleMessageBox-A-flexible-replacement-for-the

Regards, Jörg

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 24 '11 at 14:59

2

Sounds like you may just want to drop a new form in there and use a few labels..

answered Mar 24 '11 at 14:59

Lynn Crumbling

12,985
8
57
95

I liked Jon Skeets' comment a little more, since he mentioned specifically using ShowDialog() to bring up the form. That way, you can set a DialogResult form property, and the ShowDialog() call will block execution until the dialog is closed, and the DialogResult is returned. – Lynn Crumbling Mar 24 '11 at 15:06

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 18 '19 at 09:32

0

I use this:

public void myMessageBox(object str)
{
    System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show( new System.Windows.Forms.Form{ TopMost = true, Width = 300}, str.ToString() );
}

answered Feb 18 '19 at 09:32

T.Todua

53,146
19
236
237

C# formatting a MessageBox

5 Answers5

Linked

Related