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Teach Yourself Borland C++ in 14 Days - portal

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218 Day 7<br />

Work<strong>in</strong>g with the Form Designer<br />

The <strong>C++</strong>Builder Form Designer is a powerful visual programm<strong>in</strong>g tool. It allows you to<br />

place, select, move, resize, and align components, and much more. The Form Designer also<br />

allows you to size and position the form itself, add menus, and create specialized dialog<br />

boxes—everyth<strong>in</strong>g you need to create the user <strong>in</strong>terface to a typical W<strong>in</strong>dows program.<br />

We’ll exam<strong>in</strong>e each of the features of the Form Designer <strong>in</strong> the follow<strong>in</strong>g sections. As you<br />

read, I encourage you to stop and experiment any time you are curious about how someth<strong>in</strong>g<br />

works. Sometimes a few m<strong>in</strong>utes of play<strong>in</strong>g around can teach you a technique that you can<br />

carry with you for a long time to come.<br />

The Form Designer’s Speed Menu<br />

The Form Designer, like most <strong>C++</strong>Builder w<strong>in</strong>dows, has a speed menu associated with it.<br />

Table 7.1 lists the items on the Form Designer speed menu and provides a description of each.<br />

Table 7.1. The Form Designer’s speed menu items.<br />

Item Description<br />

Align To Grid Aligns selected components to the Form Designer grid.<br />

Br<strong>in</strong>g To Front Br<strong>in</strong>gs selected components to the front its components<br />

layer.<br />

Send To Back Sends selected components beh<strong>in</strong>d its component layer.<br />

Revert to Inherited When you are work<strong>in</strong>g with a form you have <strong>in</strong>herited<br />

from the Object Repository, choos<strong>in</strong>g this menu item will<br />

cause the form to revert back to its orig<strong>in</strong>al state. (Inherit<strong>in</strong>g<br />

forms from the Object Repository is covered on Day 9,<br />

“Creat<strong>in</strong>g Applications <strong>in</strong> <strong>C++</strong>Builder.”)<br />

Align Displays the Alignment dialog box.<br />

Size Displays the Size dialog box.<br />

Scale Displays the Scale dialog box.<br />

Tab Order Displays the Edit Tab Order dialog box.<br />

Creation Order Displays the Creation Order dialog box.<br />

Add to Repository Adds this form to the Object Repository. Custom forms<br />

can be saved to be used later. (The Object Repository is<br />

discussed on Day 9.)

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