Tutoriel MSEide

Properties face and frame of twidget

MSEgui applications have exactly the same look and feel on Linux and Windows.

Every MSEgui twidget has a property frame and face. If they are deactivated ( in object inspector) they are only an nil pointer and need no more resources. Activate them by clicking on the ellipse button in the right object inspector column in the row face respective frame.

The face property

The face property defines the background of the client area of the widget. It is a combination of a fade and a bitmap. Both of them can be semitransparent. The bitmap can be stretched or tiled.

Example: you want to create a button with a fade as face.

place a tbutton on the form.
in object inspector activate property face.

set face.fade.color.count to 2.

click on the + at color.count.
in item 0 select cl_gray.
in item 1 select cl_ltgray.

Now you have a left to write fade from gray to light gray.

change face.fade.direction to gd_up or gd_down, you get a convex resp. concave fade.

If you want, you can blend an additional structure over the fade:

select the wanted pattern image in face.image.
activate face.image.alignment al_tiled.
adjust face.image.transparency to your needs, $000000 = opaque, $ffffff = fully transparent.

The number defines the transparency of the three color channels ($RRGGBB).

To centralise the face look use an tfacecomp (tab Gui) and select the facecomp in template of the face properties.

The frame property

The frame property defines the look of an additional frame around the component and shows a possible caption at the widget.

Example: you want an lowered frame around and a caption right of the button.

activate property frame.
set frame.levelo to -1.
set frame.leveli to 1.

enter the caption text in frame.caption.
set frame.captionpos to cp_right.

To centralise the frame look use an tframecomp (tab Gui) and select the framecomp in template of the frame properties.

You can download the source code of the project.