Setting Form Control Properties

Each of the ATEasy controls has distinct properties which can be set at design time. The way in which you can set these properties is through the various tabs of the Properties window. There are three ways of viewing the Properties window for a control.

  1. Double-click on the control in the forms you are editing or right click on the control, and then click on the Properties command .
    3. Right-click on the control, and then select the Properties option from the pop-up menu.
      Right-click Properties Menu

  2. The Properties dialogs for the different controls have varying numbers of tabs, depending on the numbers of screens of parameters that can be set. There are several tabs which are common to most of the controls: General, Misc, Control, Colors, and Fonts. The example below is for a AButton control named btnOK:

    Properties window for radio button

The General tab has the Name of the control, as well as its position and description. The Misc. tab has fields for information used in integrating the control with online Help. The Control tab has the Caption of the control, along with its Appearance, Alignment, and default value. The Colors tab allows you to set the colors for certain properties of the control. Finally, the Fonts tab permits you to set the font, style, and size for any text displayed as part of the control.

Properties Grid Window  (v10)

In addition to Properties Window, you can set the control properties using the Properties Grid Window. This window displays the properties in a grid. This window  is especially useful when setting .Net Control properties since these controls do not have properties pages as ActiveX controls.

 

Name versus Caption

It's necessary to make the distinction between the Name property and the Caption property, as they are often confused.

The Name property is the identification used in the programming code. It is often a sort of description of the use of the control, for example, btnOK or btnSwitchMainPower1. This property should not contain any embedded spaces.

The Caption property is the text description of the control. It is often displayed on the control to show the user what that control does, for example, "OK". This property can contain spaces.

For More Information

For more information on the properties of a given control, consult the appropriate chapter in the Programming Reference.