Creating Dialog Elements

Start of instruction setTo create a dialog element

  1. From the Insert menu, choose one of the following entries, depending on which dialog element type you wish to create:

    ActiveX control
    Bitmap
    Canvas
    Control Box
    Edit area
    Group frame
    Input field
    List box
    OLE container
    Push button
    Radio button
    Scroll bar
    Selection box
    Table
    Text constant
    Toggle button

    After one of these items has been selected, you are in creation mode. If you move the mouse within the dialog window, the cursor shape is a cross with a minimized graphical representation of the dialog element to be created.

  2. Move the cursor to the desired upper left position of the dialog element.

  3. Either hold down the left mouse button, drag the cursor until you have created the desired outline of the new dialog element and release the mouse button.

    Or:
    Select or press ENTER.

    This creates a dialog element with a default size.

The control sequence is the keyboard navigation sequence in which the end user will go through the dialog elements. It is decided by the order in which you create the dialog elements. When you create a new dialog element, it is inserted after the active selection and any of its successive direct and indirect children if the active selection shares the same parent as the newly-inserted control. If not, the insertion point is based on the last dialog element with the same parent which precedes the active selection in the control sequence. If there is no such control, or if no controls are selected, the new control is inserted immediately before the first control with the same parent, or immediately after its container if no such control exists. You can modify this default sequence by choosing "Dialog > Control Sequence". For more information, see the section Defining the Control Sequence in a Dialog.

Note:
The same rules apply to dialog elements created by pasting them from the clipboard.

If you insert a new dialog element dynamically by using the PROCESS GUI statement action ADD, you decide its position in the navigation sequence by creating the dialog element and setting the SUCCESSOR attribute to the handle value of its successor.