How To Add ToolTips To Controls On A Windows Form

This article is a tip on how to add tooltips to controls on a windows form. Just follow the following steps and the form designer will take care of all the code addition into the source file.

1. From the ToolBox drop a ToolTip control on the form for which you want to add the tooltips.
2. Then click on the control that you want to add the tooltip.
3. In the properties page of that control you will see a ToolTip property. Just add the text that you want to show up as a ToolTip for the control.

When you add a ToolTip control to a form, it is active by default. Therefore, you do not have to do anything to make it active. If you look at the source file for your form, you will see code that looks something like as follows.

private System.WinForms.ToolTip m_wndToolTip;

this.m_wndToolTip = new System.WinForms.ToolTip (this.components);

m_wndToolTip.SetToolTip (PictureButton, "Click Me!");
m_wndToolTip.SetToolTip (m_wndIntTextBox, "Enter Integer data type value.");

The SetToolTip method associates ToolTip text with the given control. If you wish to deactivate the ToolTip control, simply set the Active property to false.

m_wndToolTip.Active = false;

The attached demo project contains a simple form with two edit controls. One is for entering double type data and second is for entering integer type data. When you move the mouse over these controls, the tooltips for the corresponding controls will be displayed.