Setting Properties with the Properties Window

Properties are attributes that define how a control appears and runs at run time. Each form and each control has an associated custom property page. Modifying the properties in the page (the Properties window) affects the code that is generated for the control in the initForm method. Properties include the appearance, behavior, and position for the control. The background color, enable and disable state, show state, font, default size and position, and so forth, can be set in the Properties window for the form.

To edit the properties of a control or form

1. On the form, click the control you want to edit; or to edit the form, click the form itself.

   The property page associated with the selected control is displayed in the Properties window.

2. In the Properties window, select the property for the control that you want to modify. For example, select the font property to change the font style for the name on a button control.

Note   If you select multiple controls, a custom property page appears that displays only the common properties.

Complex properties use common dialog boxes and editors for:

• Text input – size and strings (in-place string edit changes appear in real-time)
  
  
• Combo box selection – cursors, enumerators and Booleans
  
  
• Font picker – common dialog box for selecting font characteristics
  
  
• Color picker – common dialog box with a palette for color selection
  
  
• List items – window for creating initial list items
  
  
• Anchor and Dock editors – for setting position behavior

Click the node of compound properties to access subproperties.