Form shaping - Creating a custom, non rectangular, shape for your form.

• Open the form shape screen

• Creating a new form shape

• Changing an existing form shape

• Resetting a form shape

Form coloring - Adding more colors to your form.

• Setting a gradient backcolor

• Setting a single backcolor

• Setting a gradient bordercolor

• Setting a single bordercolor

Form dragging - Letting the user move your form around by dragging it.

• Enable form dragging

• Enable form dragging on labels

Enables you to creates a custom shape for your form. The screen shows the controls that are on your form in a grayist color. Set the property 'HandleFormShapeCreation' to true, when false the custom defined shape will not be created.

Open the form shape screen

There are 2 ways to open the screen. You can right click on the Formware component and choose 'Create FormShape' from the context menu, or you can click the 'Create FormShape' link on the bottom of the form's property page.

Creating a new form shape

Open the FormShape screen and click 'Start new figure', the left parts will now be cleared of all points. Every time you click on the drawing part of the screen you create a new point. All points are connected in the order they were clicked. These lines create the formshape. When done doubleclick for your final point.

Changing an existing form shape

You can relocate the existing point, insert points or delete point.

• Moving an existing point

  Select a point by clicking on it. You can now drag it to another location or you can use the arrows to move it 1 pixel at a time.
  

  Tip : When using the arrows hold control to hop 10 pixels at a time.

• Inserting a point

  Doubleclick on the line at the location where you want your new point to be.

• Deleting a point

  Select a point and press the Del key.

Resetting a form shape

Restores the original rectangle shape for the form. Open up the FormShape screen and click on the 'Reset figure' link. Save the shape.

Enables you to beautify your form by using gradient colors and setting a border.

Setting a gradient backcolor

When you need a linear gradient backcolor for your form then all you have to do is to set 3 properties :

• The first color of the gradient : 'FormBackGround.Color1'
• The second color of the gradient : 'FormBackGround.Color2'
• An angle for the gradient : FormBackGround.Angle (default : 0)

Setting a single backcolor

When you don't want a gradient backcolor, then you can just set the properties 'FormBackGround.Color1', 'FormBackGround.Color2' to the same color. The value of the angle is irrelevant in this case.

Setting a gradient bordercolor

When you need a linear gradient bordercolor for your form then all you have to do is to set 3 properties :

• The first color of the gradient : 'FormBorder.Color1'
• The second color of the gradient : 'FormBorder.Color2'
• An angle for the gradient : FormBorder.Angle (default : 0)

Setting a single bordercolor

When you don't want a gradient backcolor, but a solid bordercolor, then you can just set the properties 'FormBackGround.Color1', 'FormBackGround.Color2' to the same color. The value of the angle is irrelevant in this case.

Enables the user of your application to move the form around the screen by dragging it.

Enable form dragging

When you want to let the user be able to drag your form around the screen to move it, then just set the option 'EnableMouseDragForm' to true. This lets the user drag the form, and only the form. He will not be able to drag the form when he tries to start the dragging by grabbing a label.

Enable form dragging on labels

When you have enabled formdragging for your form, you can also enable the user to drag the form by dragging on the label. This is recommended because the user will (mostly) see no difference between the form and the label rectangle (since the labels are most transparent, or have the same backcolor). All you have to do to enable this is to set the option 'EnableMouseDragOnLabels' to true. This will only have meaning when FormDragging is already enabled.