To get the panels to display the current and elapsed time, you'll need a timer, as described in Chapter 1. Add a timer to the form, and then set the timer in the +constructor:

timer1.Interval = 1000;
timer1.Start(  );

This creates a timer that will fire an event every second (the Interval property is in milliseconds).

You'll also need a private member variable to keep track of the starting time (to display elapsed time):

private DateTime startTime;

Private startTime As DateTime

In your constructor, you'll initialize the startTime member variable with the current time:

startTime = DateTime.Now;

The Timer will fire the Tick event. Double-click on the timer in your designer to set up the event handler. In the event handler, you'll want to do two things. First, set the panel for the current time to the current time:

private void timer1_Tick(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
   pnlCurrentTime.Text = DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString(  );

Second, compute the elapsed time, and then display it in the panel for the elapsed time:

   TimeSpan elapsedSpan = DateTime.Now - this.startTime;
   DateTime elapsed = DateTime.Parse(elapsedSpan.ToString(  ));
   pnlElapsedTime.Text = "Elapsed: " + elapsed.ToString("HH:mm:ss");
}

Private Sub Timer1_Tick( _
    ByVal sender As System.Object, _
    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
    Handles Timer1.Tick
   
    pnlCurrentTime.Text = DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString(  )
    Dim elapsedSpan As TimeSpan = (DateTime.Now).Subtract(Me.startTime)
    Dim elapsed As DateTime = DateTime.Parse(elapsedSpan.ToString(  ))
    pnlElapsedTime.Text = "Elapsed: " + elapsed.ToString("HH:mm:ss")
   
End Sub

If you run the application now, your panels will be updated.

You'll want to hide the panels when the user clicks on a menu choice. That is easy to do if you know when the user has begun clicking on menu items and when the user has finished. The form itself has two events to which you can respond: MenuStart and MenuComplete. You need write only the event handlers:

private void OnMenuStart(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
   statusBar1.ShowPanels = false;
}
   
private void OnMenuComplete(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
   statusBar1.ShowPanels = true;
}

Private Sub Form1_MenuStart( _
    ByVal sender As Object, _
    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
    Handles MyBase.MenuStart
   
    StatusBar1.ShowPanels = False
   
End Sub
   
Private Sub Form1_MenuComplete( _
    ByVal sender As Object, _
    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
    Handles MyBase.MenuComplete
   
    StatusBar1.ShowPanels = True
End Sub

When the user actually does highlight on a menu choice, update the information in the status bar for that MenuItem. Each MenuItem has a Select event, and there is no reason not to use a common event handler for this event. In a sophisticated program, you will want to determine which menu choice the user is considering and provide meaningful help, but for now you can stub out the event handler:

private void OnMenuSelect(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
   MenuItem mi = (MenuItem) sender;
   statusBar1.Text = "Information here about " + mi.Text;
}

Private Sub OnMenuSelect( _
    ByVal sender As Object, _
    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
    Handles mnuFile.Select, mnuFileOpen.Select, mnuFileClose.Select, _
    mnuFileSave.Select, mnuFileSaveAs.Select, mnuEdit.Select, _
    mnuEditCopy.Select, mnuEditPaste.Select, mnuOption1.Select, _
    mnuOption2.Select, mnuOption3.Select, mnuOptions.Select, _
    mnuRadioOptions.Select, mnuRadioOption1.Select, _
    mnuRadioOption2.Select, mnuRadioOption3.Select, mnuSpecial.Select, _
    mnuODVote.Select, mnuODShazam.Select, mnuMerge.Select, _
    mnuMenu1.Select, mnuMenu11.Select, mnuMenu12.Select, _
    mnuMenu13.Select, mnuMenu14.Select, mnuMenu2.Select, _
    mnuMenu21.Select, mnuMenu22.Select, _
    mnuMenu23.Select, mnuMenu24.Select, mnuWindow.Select
   
    Dim mi As MenuItem = CType(sender, MenuItem)
    StatusBar1.Text = "Information here about " + mi.Text
   
End Sub

The status bar itself has several events to which you might want to respond. The default event is PanelClick. In this example, you'll implement an event handler to test which button the user has pressed — if it is the right button, you'll zero the elapsed timer. This is facilitated by the StatusBarPanelClickEventArgs parameter passed into the event handler, which can, among other things, provide access to the mouse button that was clicked:

private void statusBar1_PanelClick(
   object sender, 
   System.Windows.Forms.StatusBarPanelClickEventArgs e)
{
   if ( e.Button. =  = MouseButtons.Left)
   {
      startTime = DateTime.Now;
   }
}

Private Sub StatusBar1_PanelClick( _
    ByVal sender As System.Object, _
    ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.StatusBarPanelClickEventArgs) _
    Handles StatusBar1.PanelClick
   
    If e.Button = MouseButton.Left Then
        startTime = DateTime.Now
    End If
   
End Sub

Finally, to handle the right mouse button, you'll add a context menu. Do so as described earlier in Section 18.2.9, by adding three entries: Reset Time, Suspend Time, and Resume Time. Name the context menu pnlContextMenu, and assign it to the ContextMenu property of the status bar, either in the properties window as shown in Figure 18-29 or, if you prefer, programmatically in the constructor.

public Form1(  )
{
   InitializeComponent(  );
   timer1.Interval = 1000;
   timer1.Start(  );
   startTime = DateTime.Now;
   statusBar1.ContextMenu = pnlContextMenu;
               

Add three menu items to the context menu: Reset Time, Suspend Time, and Resume Time.

Figure 18-30. Adding the context menu

In either case, you now must implement the three event handlers:

private void MnuResetTime_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
   startTime = DateTime.Now;
}
   
private void mnuSuspendTime_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
   timer1.Stop(  );
}
   
private void mnuResumeTime_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
   timer1.Start(  );
}

Private Sub mnuResetTime_Click( _

   ByVal sender As System.Object, _
    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
    Handles mnuResetTime.Click
   
    startTime = DateTime.Now
   
End Sub
   
Private Sub mnuSuspendTime_Click( _
    ByVal sender As System.Object, _
    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
    Handles mnuSuspendTime.Click
   
    Timer1.Stop(  )
   
End Sub
   
Private Sub mnuResumeTime_Click( _
    ByVal sender As System.Object, _
    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
    Handles mnuResumeTime.Click
   
    Timer1.Start(  )
   
End Sub