Form designer

The form design window is a visual design surface on which you position the components you need for your form, then set their properties in the Inspector and code their event handlers and other methods.

Note: To read about a component, select it with the mouse, and then click the Question Mark button in the toolbar. Or, after a component is on the design surface, select it and press F1 for help in working with that component.

You can change the size and position of the design window either by dragging the edges of the window or, if you need to be precise, by changing the values of the form's height, left, top, and width properties in the Inspector.

By default, a grid appears when you start the Form designer, and objects are constrained to line up along the grids (Snap To Grid). In addition, vertical and horizontal rulers appear. To set your preferences for this behavior, choose Properties|Form Designer Properties.

Both the Form and Report designers have the following tools:

1. Component palette for dragging user-interface elements and data-access objects to the design surface

• Field palette for dragging linked fields to the design surface

• Inspector for setting properties and writing event handlers and other methods

• Format toolbar for formatting Text objects

• Alignment toolbar for aligning objects

• Layout, Format, and Method menus

• Status bar to show you your location on the design surface, show you what object is selected, and to give you instructions and other information

To display a tool window that’s not open, choose View|Tool Windows.

Design and Run modes

You can view forms in Design mode and Run mode.

Use Design mode to design the appearance and behavior of the form and the components you put on it.

Use Run mode to see how a form or report looks when running. In Run mode, the components become active. For example, you can enter data into an EntryField control and edit data that’s already there.

To switch between Design and Run modes, click their toolbar buttons, or choose the appropriate command from the View menu.