STYLE

Determines a set of properties of the above-mentioned dialog elements. For one instance of a dialog element, several properties may be set. The style of a dialog element is represented by a set of characters. Each character determines a property specific to the dialog element.

Applies to ActiveX control, bitmap control, canvas control, column specification control, date/time picker control, dialog (all types), dialog bar control, edit area control, graphic text control, image control, image list control, input field control, line control, list view column, list view control, list view item, OLE container control, progress bar control, push button control, rectangle control, scroll bar control, selection box control, slider control, spin control, status bar control, status bar pane, tab control, table control, text constant control, tool bar, tool bar control, tool bar item, tree view control, tree view item, wallpaper control.
Data Type A253

Possible Values for ActiveX Controls

Value Meaning
O OK button: is pushed if the end user presses ENTER.
C Cancel button: is pushed if the end user presses ESC.
x Disable accelerators. Disables usage of any accelerator keys defined by the control.

Note:
The styles "O" and "C" apply only to ActiveX controls that behave like buttons (i.e., are marked in the system registry with the style OLEMISC_ACTSLIKEBUTTON).

Possible Values for Bitmap Controls

Value Meaning
c Align the bitmap to the center of the dialog element's rectangle.
l Align to the left.
r Align to the right.
v Align to the vertical center.
t Align to the top.
b Align to the bottom.
s Scale the bitmap to fit into the dialog element's rectangle.
F Three-dimensional frame.
T Transparent: Bitmap pixels matching the background color are not drawn. If the background color is specified as "default", the color of the first pixel in the bitmap is assumed to be the background color.

Possible Value for Canvas Controls

Value Meaning
F Frame (border) around the canvas control (reduces the visible area of the canvas).

Possible Values for Control Box Controls

Value Meaning
F Framed: Frame around the control box control.
L Lowered: Creates a 3-D border with a sunken appearance.
E Exclusive: Hide all other sibling control boxes with this style automatically when this control is made visible.
T Transparent: (The control itself is not visible, but children may be).
z Size to parent: Resize control to fill parent's client area whenever parent is resized.

Possible Values for Date and Time Picker (DTP) Controls

Value Meaning
s Short date (default). The control displays date information in the system-defined short date format, which may or may not include century information.
c Century date. The control displays date information in the system-defined short date format, but with century information.

Note:
Depending on the current regional settings, this may be identical to the short date format.

1 Long date. The control displays date information in the system-defined long date format.

Possible Values for Dialog Bar Controls

Value Meaning
g Gripper: Control has a gripper bar.
Y Dynamic: Control can be resized when floated or docked.
3 3-D border: Dialog interior drawn with sunken 3-D appearance.
R Raised: Control has a raised interior.
x Control has a close button.
z Control has a zoom button.
T UI Transparent: The control can only be dragged via the gripper bar (if present) and not via clicking elsewhere in the control.

Possible Values for Dialogs (WINDOW)

Value Meaning
c Center dialog on screen.
P Modeless (Pop-up; window is independent of its parent).
m Modal.
x Dialog box.
r Relative position: The position is interpreted as being relative to the parent (owner) dialog.
d Default position; will be ignored if "Dialog box" is set as well.
D Default rectangle; will be ignored if "Dialog box" is set as well.
Z Control clipping. Prevents controls overprinting other controls which are "in front" in the so-called Z order. The position of a control in the Z-order sequence is determined via the control's SUCCESSOR attribute.
3 3-D border: Dialog interior drawn with sunken 3-D appearance.
p Property sheet-like navigation: If the dialog contains a tab control, the Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab key combinations are used for browsing forwards and backwards (respectively) between the tab control's tabs.

Possible Values for Edit Area Controls

Value Meaning
w Wordwrapped (if text exceeds the width of the edit area control, it is automatically wrapped to the next line).
F Frame around the edit area control.
v Autoscroll: Text is automatically scrolled upwards if ENTER key is pressed on the last displayed line. This style also enables scrolling in the absence of a vertical scroll bar (e.g. via cursor keys or mouse wheel).

Note:
An edit area with a vertical scroll bar is implicitly autoscrollable.

Possible Value for Group Frame Controls

Value Meaning
p Group frame becomes parent of any controls placed within it.

Possible Value for Image Controls

Value Meaning
s Scaled. If the required width or height of the rendered image differ from the width or height of the image(s) taken from the image file, the images are scaled, rather than being either extended in the background color or truncated.
T Transparent. Image is rendered transparently. For bitmap image files (*.bmp), bitmap pixels matching the background color are not drawn. If the background color is specified as "default", the color of the first pixel in the bitmap is assumed to be the background color. For icon image files (*.ico), where the background color is "default" and no scaling needs to be performed on the image, the transparency mask provided with the icon is used. Otherwise, the icon's bitmap is handled as for bitmap image files and the transparency mask is ignored.
C Composite image. Image bitmap file assumed to consist of multiple images joined together horizontally into one large bitmap, based on the image list's ITEM-H and ITEM-W attributes, or (if zero) the system small icon size if the image list's "Small images (S)" style is specified, or the system large icon size (typically 32 by 32 pixels) if the image list's "Large images (L)" style is specified. If none of these are specified, the system small icon size (typically 16 by 16 pixels) is assumed. This style cannot be used for icon image files.
O Overlay image. An overlay images is an images that may be superimposed on the base image displayed for an item. Overlay images may be specified via the OVERLAY and/or OVERLAY-INDEX attributes, and are always implicitly rendered transparently.

Possible Value for Image List Controls

Value Meaning
L Large images. Indicates that the image list consists of images corresponding to the system large icon size (typically 32 by 32 pixels). This should be set if the image list is used to source large icons for a control (e.g., for the Icon view mode of a list view control).
S Small images. Indicates that the image list consists of images corresponding to the system small icon size (typically 16 by 16 pixels). This should be set if the image list is used to provide small icons for a control (e.g., for a tree view control).

Notes:

  1. Both of the above styles may be specified, in which case the image list control consists of both large and small images (e.g. for list view controls).
  2. If neither of the above styles are specified, the image size is determined by the ITEM-W and ITEM-H attributes. If either of these is zero, the system small icon width or height (respectively) is assumed.

Possible Values for Input Field Controls

Value Meaning
l Left-justified input.
r Right-justified input.
c Horizontally centered input.
N Non-displayed input (for example, for passwords).
U Upper-case input. Input is converted to upper case.
L Lower-case input. Input is converted to lower case.
M Input is mandatory.
d Digits only. Only the digits 0.. 9 may be input.

Possible Values for Line Controls and Rectangle Controls

Value Meaning
S Solid line (default).
- Dashed line pattern.
. Dotted line pattern.
! Dash-dot line pattern.
: Dash-dot-dot line pattern.

Possible Value for List Box Control

Value Meaning
3 3-D border: Border with sunken 3-D appearance around the list box control.
I Integral height. Partial rows are not displayed.
i Insertion mark. An insertion mark appears indicating the would-be insert position when the list box is used as a target in a drag-drop operation and a drop is allowed.

Possible Values for List View Controls

Value Meaning
3 3-D border: Border with sunken 3-D appearance around the list view control.
v Align vertically. Items are arranged vertically (instead of horizontally) in the icon view modes.
a Auto-arrange. Items are always automatically kept arranged in the icon view modes.
r Snap to grid. (Re-)positioned items are automatically snapped to their nearest grid position in the icon view modes.
n No scroll. Disables both horizontal and vertical scrolling in the control. The control will not display any scroll bars.
x No header. No column headers are displayed in report view mode.
y No sort header. List view columns may not be sorted by clicking their header (i.e., the column headers are not click-sensitive).
c Check boxes. Check boxes are displayed for all items. The checked state may be queried or changed via the CHECKED attribute for a list view item.
f Full row select. Selection emphasis extends across all columns in report view mode, and it is possible to select an item by selecting anywhere within the row.
g Grid lines. Grid lines are displayed in the report view.
d Header drag. The user may re-order columns in the report view by dragging their headers.
p Label tip. If not enough space exists to display an items label completely, the full label is displayed in a tooltip window when the mouse cursor hovers over the label.

Note:
An item's label tip (if any) is only displayed if there is no custom tooltip text associated with the item via its TOOLTIP attribute, or if custom tooltip display has been suppressed via the control's HAS-TOOLTIP attribute.

w Wrap icon labels (default). Long item labels may be wrapped to spread over multiple lines.
u Underline hot. Label of item under mouse cursor (if any) is underlined and emphasized in a different color. Only a single click is needed to activate items.
U Underline cold. All items labels are underlined. Only a single click is needed to activate items.
s No hide selection. Keep selection visible even when the control does not have the focus.
b Border select. Use thick border to highlight selected items in icon view mode. No dot screen is applied over the selected icons in any mode, thus making them more legible.
t Hot-track select. The item under the mouse cursor is selected automatically if the mouse cursor hovers over it for a short time.
m Marquee select (default). In multiple selection list views, items may be selected by "rubber banding" (i.e., defining a drag rectangle containing the items to be selected).
z Size to parent: Resize control to fill parent's client area whenever parent is resized.

Possible Values for List View Columns

Value Meaning
1 Left. Column title is left-aligned (default).
c Center. Column title is centered. This option has no effect on the primary column (the column containing the item labels).
r Right. Column title is right-aligned. This option has no effect on the primary column (the column containing the item labels).
i Case insensitive. Columns containing alphanumeric data are sorted case-insensitively. By default, the sort is case-sensitive.
w Word compare. Columns containing alphanumeric data are sorted using a word compare. By default, a simple string comparison is made. In a word compare, the hyphen and the apostrophe characters are treated differently, in order to ensure that words such as "coordinate" and "co-ordinate" stay together within a sorted list.

Possible Value for List View Items

Value Meaning
U Upper case. When an item label is edited, lower-case characters are automatically converted to upper-case. Note that this option does not apply to text that is set programatically, via the item's STRING attribute.

Possible Values for Menu Items

Value Meaning
s Scaled: Bitmaps are scaled to match the image height and width specified for the parent menu.
T Transparent: Bitmap pixels matching the background color are not drawn. If the background color is specified as "default", the color of the first pixel in the bitmap is assumed to be the background color.
D Default: Menu item text is displayed in a bold font.

Possible Value for OLE Container Controls

Value Meaning
F Framed: Frame around the OLE container control.

Possible Values for Progress Bar Controls

Value Meaning
s Smooth. The control's progress bar is non-segmented.

Note:
This option is ignored if Windows XP styles are in use. The progress bar is always segmented in this case.

v Vertical. The control is oriented vertically, rather than horizontally.

Possible Values for Push Button Controls

Value Meaning
O OK button: is pushed if the end user presses ENTER.
C Cancel button: is pushed if the end user presses ESC.

Possible Values for Scrollbar Controls

Value Meaning
h Slider will scroll horizontally.
v Slider will scroll vertically.

Note:
When you edit the STYLE attribute value in the scroll bar control attributes window, setting "h" instead of "v" and vice versa, the RECTANGLE-H and RECTANGLE-W attribute values are exchanged. The dialog editor thus ensures that the scroll bar control will not provide for vertical scrolling in a horizontal shape and vice versa.

Possible Values for Selection Box Controls

Value Meaning
M Input into this selection box control is mandatory.
X Box is pulled down all the time.
U Upper-case input.

Possible Values for Slider Controls

Value Meaning
a Auto ticks (default). Tick marks are displayed automatically, at intervals determined by the control's SPACING attribute. If this option is not specified, tick marks must be explicitly added via the SET-TICKS action.

Note:
The tick marks at the lower and upper end of the slider range are permanent, and are not affected by this option.

1 Side 1 ticks (default). Tick marks are displayed at the top or left side of the control, if the control is oriented horizontally or vertically (respectively).
2 Side 2 ticks. Tick marks are displayed at the bottom or right side of the control, if the control is oriented horizontally or vertically (respectively).
v Vertical. The control is oriented vertically, rather than horizontally.
p Position tip. When the slider is used, a toolip window is shown to indicate the current position.
n No thumb. The control does not display a thumb.

Possible Values for Spin Controls

Value Meaning
h Horizontal. The control is oriented horizontally rather than vertically.
1 Left align. The control has an implicit buddy input field control that is displayed to the right of the control's Up and Down buttons.
r Right align (default). The control has an implicit buddy input field control that is displayed to the left of the control's Up and Down buttons.
s Set buddy (default). The contents of the buddy input field control (if any) are automatically updated to reflect the spin control's position.
w Wrap. When the control's upper limit has been reached, the control's value automatically wraps around to the lower limit, and vice versa.
k Arrow keys (default). Causes the control to increment or decrement the position when the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys are pressed, respectively.
n No thousands (default). Thousands separators are not used. For example, "1,200,000" is displayed as "1200000" in the buddy input field control (if any).

Note:
This option only has an effect if the "Set buddy (s)" STYLE is also set.

t Hot tracking. Causes the up and down arrow buttons to be highlighted when the mouse cursor moves over them.

Note:
This option is implicitly set if Windows XP styles are in use.

x Hexadecimal. The buddy input field control (if any) displays values in hexadecimal (rather than decimal) notation (e.g., "0x001E" instead of "30").

Note:
This option only has an effect if the "Set buddy (s)" STYLE is also set.

Possible Values for Status Bar Controls

Value Meaning
3 3-D border: border will be drawn with a 3-D appearance.
t Top border: border will be drawn along top edge of control.
b Bottom border: border will be drawn along bottom edge of control.
g Gripper: control has a sizing grip.

Possible Values for Status Bar Panes

Value Meaning
c Centered: text will be centered within the pane.
H Hide pane text (instead of graying it out) if pane is disabled.
R Raised: pane will be drawn with a raised 3-D appearance.
n No borders: pane will be drawn without borders.

Possible Value for Submenus and Context Menus

Value Meaning
c Cool menu: menu items are drawn with their bitmap (if any).
F Keep focus: the focus is not automatically transferred to the clicked dialog element. This style applies to context menus only.

Possible Values for Tab Controls

Value Meaning
b Bottom tabs: Tabs are displayed at the bottom of the control instead of at the top.
f Fixed-width tabs: All tabs have a constant width, as specified by the ITEM-W attribute.

Note:
This style does not apply if the tabs are aligned on both sides of the control.

m Multi-row: Tabs are arranged in multiple rows, if necessary, instead of being on a single (scrollable) row.
R Ragged: Tab widths are not automatically extended for tab controls with the "multi-row" style to ensure that the left and right edges of each tab row are aligned to the corresponding edges of the control.
x Left icon: The tab's icon (if any) is left-aligned.
y Left label: The tab's label is left-aligned. This style automatically implies the "left icon" style.
z Browsable: The control can receive the focus, whereupon the active tab is drawn with focus emphasis. It is then possible to navigate (browse) between the tabs using the cursor (arrow) keys.
U UI active: Switching between tabs is possible in the dialog editor. In addition, any controls created within the tab control are owned by the currently selected tab (see OWNER attribute) and are automatically hidden and shown when this tab is deselected and re-selected, respectively (both in the editor and at run-time).
- Disable theme: Disables the standard tab control theme (if any) used for drawing the control. The control appears in the "Classic" Windows style. Note that this style has no effect on Windows versions prior to Windows XP.

Possible Values for Table Controls

Value Meaning
h Columns header: buttons with field names are displayed at the top of each column.
I Integral height: partial rows are not displayed.
n No lines: the table control is displayed without the lines that normally separate the cells.
s Single cell selection: If this attribute is set, end users may only select single cells. If not set, end users may select ranges of cells.
w Whole row selection: selecting an individual cell sets the selection to the entire row.
e Extendable: end users can delete and insert rows using DEL and INS.
c Resize columns: end users may resize the columns horizontally.
r Resize rows: end users may resize the rows vertically.
d Draggable columns: If this attribute is set, end users may drag the columns.

Possible Values for Text Constant Controls

Value Meaning
l Left-justified input.
r Right-justified input.
c Horizontally centered input.
F Frame around the text constant control.

Possible Values for Tool Bars

Value Meaning
w Wrapped: if set and there are more tool bar items than can be displayed on the top of the dialog, the tool bar wraps around to a new line. (The default: the tool bar can be scrolled with the two small arrow push buttons on the left of the tool bar).

Possible Values for Tool Bar Controls

Value Meaning
3 3-D border: border will be drawn with a 3-D appearance.
t Top border: border will be drawn along top edge of control. This style is implicitly set for dockable tool bar controls.
b Bottom border: border will be drawn along bottom edge of control. This style is implicitly set for dockable tool bar controls.
l Left border: border will be drawn along left edge of control. This style is implicitly set for dockable tool bar controls.
r Right border: border will be drawn along right edge of control. This style is implicitly set for dockable tool bar controls.
g Gripper: control has a gripper bar.
L Tool bar items are drawn with a flat (rather than raised) appearance.
Y Dynamic: tool bar control can be resized when floated, but cannot contain any child controls.

Possible Values for Tool Bar Items

Value Meaning
s Scaled: bitmaps are scaled to fit on the tool bar items.
T Transparent: Bitmap pixels matching the background color are not drawn. If the background color is specified as "default", the color of the first pixel in the bitmap is assumed to be the background color.

Possible Values for Tree View Controls

Value Meaning
3 3-D border: Border with sunken 3-D appearance around the list view control.
b +/- buttons. Displays plus (+) and minus (-) buttons next to parent items. The user can click these buttons to expand or collapse a parent item's list of child items.

Note:
These buttons are only shown for root items if the "Lines at root (l)" STYLE is also specified.

1 Lines. Lines are used to show the item hierarchy.
r Lines at root. Lines are used to link items at the root of the item hierarchy.
n No scroll. Disables both horizontal and vertical scrolling in the control. The control will not display any scroll bars.
x Single expand. Items are automatically expanded when selected, and automatically collapsed when deselected (unless the >Ctrl< key is being held down). Clicking again on a selected item causes the item to be collapsed.
d Double click expand (default). An item may be expanded by double-clicking it.
c Check boxes. Check boxes are displayed for all items. The checked state may be queried or changed via the CHECKED attribute for a list view item.
f Full row select. Selection emphasis extends across the entire control, and it is possible to select an item by selecting anywhere within the "row" containing the item.
s No hide selection. Keep selection visible even when the control does not have the focus.
t Hot-track select. The item under the mouse cursor is selected automatically if the mouse cursor hovers over it for a short time.
z Size to parent: Resize control to fill parent's client area whenever parent is resized.

Possible Value for Tree View Items

Value Meaning
U Upper case. When an item label is edited, lower-case characters are automatically converted to upper-case. Note that this option does not apply to text that is set programatically, via the item's STRING attribute.
n No check box. No check box is displayed for this item.

Note:
This style is ignored if the control's "Check boxes (c)" STYLE is not set.

Possible Values for Wallpaper Controls

Value Meaning
c Align the bitmap to the center of the host dialog or dialog "pattern"element's client area. Like the other alignment styles, this style does not apply if the style is set.
l Align to the left.
r Align to the right.
v Align to the vertical center.
t Align to the top.
b Align to the bottom.
p Pattern: The wallpaper bitmap is repeated (tiled) to fill the entire client area of the host dialog or dialog element.
T Transparent: Bitmap pixels matching the background color are not drawn. If the background color is specified as "default", the color of the first pixel in the bitmap is assumed to be the background color.