WaitCursor / hourglass in custom printpreview dialog

[Lars]

Hi,

I have created a simple custom PrintPreviewDialog consisting of a simple
standard PrintPreviewControl (.NET 1.1) on a WindowsForm with a few buttons
(for printing, zooming, etc.). It is working fine, except for that I cannot
figure out how display the waitcursor / hourglass while the preview is
preparing to show the document *and then go back to the default cursor when
the document is displayed*. Turning on the waitcursor is easy, but what
event should I hook into to turn it off??

What happens when I preview a document that is about 50 pages long is that
you get the blank form on the screen and then nothing happens for maybe 40
seconds and then you get a "Generating Preview" message and then the
document is displayed. It is during the initial 40 seconds that I need an
hourglass or something to let the users know that something is happening in
the background.

Here are some snippets of what I am doing currently:

// Constructor:
public PreviewDialog(System.Drawing.Printing.PrintDocument printDocument,
int zoom)
{
InitializeComponent();
_printDocument = printDocument;
_zoom = zoom;
}

private void PreviewDialog_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
this.Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor;
Initialize();
//this.Cursor = Cursors.Default; // This gets hit instantly, so you
never see an hourglass.
}

private void Initialize()
{
uxPrintPreview.Anchor = AnchorStyles.Bottom | AnchorStyles.Top |
AnchorStyles.Left | AnchorStyles.Right;
uxPrintPreview.Zoom = zoom;
this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized;
uxPrintPreview.Document = printDocument1 = printDocument;
}

// The calling code:
using (PreviewDialog form = new PreviewDialog(c1Report1.Document))
{
form.ShowDialog(this);
}

If there was an event like LastPageFinished or DocumentRendered or similar
in the PrintPreviewControl, I would be home free, but I cannot find anything
like that.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Lars

 

[Martin Stainsby]

private void PreviewDialog_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
this.Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor;
Initialize();
//this.Cursor = Cursors.Default; // This gets hit instantly, so you
never see an hourglass.
}

You could try

Cursor.Current = Cursors.WaitCursor;

Seems to be ok when I tried it.

 

[carion1]

using (PreviewDialog form = new PreviewDialog(c1Report1.Document))
{
this.Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor;
form.ShowDialog(this);
this.Cursor = Cursors.Default;
}

 

[Lars]

private void PreviewDialog_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

You could try

Cursor.Current = Cursors.WaitCursor;

Seems to be ok when I tried it.

No, that does not make a difference. The problem is not to change to a
WaitCursor, but rather to know when to change it back to a default cursor.
For example, in my snippet above, I commented out "this.Cursor =
Cursors.Default" since it gets hit almost instantly (way before the page is
rendered), so you never see an hourglass.

 

[Lars]

using (PreviewDialog form = new PreviewDialog(c1Report1.Document))
{
this.Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor;
form.ShowDialog(this);
this.Cursor = Cursors.Default;
}

If you read my post again, you'll see that I intentionally commented out
"this.Cursor = Cursors.Default;" since it does not work were it is. That
line gets hit almost instantly (way before the page is rendered), so you
never see an hourglass. What I am looking for is a a place to put that line
so that it gets hit AFTER the delay that takes place (while the preview
control is preparing the document to be viewed, or whatever it is doing).
In other words: before calling the preview control, I want to turn on the
hourglass and when the document is displayed in the preview I want to turn
off the hourglass.

Lars

 

[carion1]

The code I posted was the "calling" code. Could move the Cursor changes
outside of the using statement if you like.

 

[Lars]

The code I posted was the "calling" code. Could move the Cursor changes
outside of the using statement if you like.

I understand. The problem with that approach is that ShowDialog() does not
return until the preview window is closed. So even after the document is
rendered and displayed, the cursor remains an hourglass.

Lars