Designer

Designer is Newlook's graphical form editor. It is primarily used to customize the look and feel of automatically generated host screens.

Customization may include anything from simple changes such as adding a background image to an existing application screen, through to comprehensive re-designs such as splitting screen information into a series of tabs in a tab control on a completely new form. Designer can also be used to specify the macros to run when specific events occur, such as when a form is initialized or when a button is clicked.

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Before beginning work in Designer, it is important that you understand how overrides are recognized and the role of Screen IDs in the override process. For further information, refer to the Screen IDs topic in Help.

Designer can be used to:

Change the layout of the dynamically generated GUI to improve workflow.
Override default screen or control properties like colors, fonts, visibility, position or text.
Add custom controls
Create new forms/screens.
Add, modify or remove graphical content to improve the aesthetic appeal of the GUI.
Insert command button controls, and in tandem with the macro and script editors, extend application functionality.
Add controls such as buttons, grids and combo boxes.
Store the contents of a control in a variable.
Use events to link macros to client events such as in Click.
Insert company branding.
Customize the tab order of objects on the form.
Add or edit Function Key behavior

Changes made using Designer are known as overrides, and may be applied to one or more application screens. If you are considering making changes that will affect numerous host screens, you should consider using Settings, Filters or Master Forms. If you do want to use Designer and your changes affect multiple screens, ensure that you understand the process of screen Identification and that appropriate screen IDs are selected prior to making changes.

How do I...

Learn more about host screen field categories and what they will convert to in the GUI

Introduces you to field categories. Also provides a link to all field category options and their descriptions.

Create new Forms

Provides an overview of the different forms that can be created with the Forms Editor.

Work with Controls

Provides links to common control-based tasks like adding custom controls to a form, arranging controls on the screen, modifying tab order.

Know which option to select in the Confirm Override dialog

This section explains the role of the Confirm override dialog that appears occasionally when you open a host screen in Identify or Designer.

Designer

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See Also