Working with controls

This section contains specific information about how to work with the most common controls you can create in the Modifier, such as push buttons, button drop lists and check boxes.

Push buttons

Push buttons provide a method of starting processing in an application. A push button can display a text item, a graphic item, or both text and graphics. Either pictures or native pictures can be used.

Use the Style property for the push button field to specify which types of items are displayed on the button. The Style property also controls the arrangement of the items. The following table shows the arrangements possible for text and graphics on a push button.

Style	Example
Text Only
Graphic Only
Text on Top
Text on Bottom
Text on Right
Text on Left

A push button can have up to three images: an Up image, a Down image and an Over image. The Up image is displayed when the button isn’t being clicked. The Down image is displayed when the button is being clicked. The Over image is displayed when the pointer is positioned over the button.

If you supply only the Up image for a push button, the Down image will be drawn automatically when the push button is clicked.

Check boxes

You can use picture static values with check boxes. In addition, you can use the Style property to specify whether the check box will appear as a standard check box or as a push button. The following illustrations show how check boxes look with the various styles.

	Normal style	Push button style
Marked
Not marked

If you change the Style property for a check box that uses static picture values, use the Size to Default tool in the toolbox to resize the check box field to the appropriate size.

If you use pictures (picture resources) as the static values for a push button-style check box, you can specify two, four or six images. These images are used for the various check box states.

If you specify two images, these images will be used for the up and down states, respectively.
If you specify four images, these will be used for the up, up clicked, down, and down clicked states, respectively.
If you specify six images, the Appearance property for the check box must be set to 3D Highlight. The images will be used for the up, up clicked, down, down clicked, up highlight and down highlight states, respectively.

Button drop lists

Button drop lists are typically used to provide a method of navigation in an application. When you define a button drop list data type, you can specify what will appear on the button and the static text items that will appear in the list.

The button portion of a button drop list can display a text item, a graphic item, or both text and graphics. You must use pictures for graphics that appear on the button drop list. In versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP prior to 6.0, native pictures were used.

A button drop list can have up to three images: an Up image, a Down image and an Over image. The Up image is displayed when the button isn’t being clicked. The Down image is displayed when the button is being clicked. The Over image is displayed when the pointer is positioned over the button drop list.

Use the Style property for the button drop list field to specify which types of items are displayed on the button. The Style property also controls the arrangement of the items.

If you select 3D Highlight for the Appearance property, the text caption in the button portion of the button drop list will become bold when the field has the focus. Be sure to provide extra space for the caption to accommodate the bold text.

Typically, button drop lists have a drop indicator (a small triangle) in the lower-right corner of the field. It’s not necessary to include the drop indicator in the image for the button drop list. Instead, set the DropIndicator property to True. Use the DropPosX and DropPosY properties to specify the distance the drop indicator will appear from the lower-right corner of the button drop list.