The Edit Frame Dialog

The Edit Frame Box dialog can be displayed by either double clicking anywhere within a frame form field object or selecting the frame field and clicking on the "attribute edit" icon in the tool bar. This dialog presents the current attributes of the frame field. The dialog consists of three sections: identification, appearance, and properties.

Identification Section

This section displays naming and other identifying information for the frame form field object.

Field Name

This field contains the name of the frame. The Screen Painter automatically generates a unique name for it. This name can be maintained or changed, as long as the new name conforms to the Zim Object Naming Rules.

Form Name

This field contains the name of the form in which the frame was created. The field can be viewed by selecting it and scrolling left and right, but its value cannot be changed.

Directory

This field contains the name of the Zim directory that owns the form in which the frame was created. The field can be viewed by selecting it and scrolling left and right, but its value cannot be changed.

Field Number

This field contains an automatically generated identifying number for the frame. The value in this field can be used to identify the frame form field. The value in this field can be changed and need not be unique.

Field Tag

This field contains an identifying text string for the frame. The value in this field can be used to identify the frame form field. The value in this field can be changed and need not be unique. If left blank (the default), the value contained in Field Name is used for Field Tag.

Help Message

This field contains the text to display in an field of type "message" (if one exists in the form) when the frame receives the input focus. The message which appears at the bottom left of this dialog is itself a "message" field, and the help message associated with each field in the dialog is automatically displayed there when the field receives the input focus. If you intend to have a "message" field in your form, enter an appropriate help message text in this Help Message field.

Appearance Section

This section presents the display or appearance attributes of the frame form field object.

Visible

This field determines if the frame is visible by default. The visibility attribute of all form fields other than labels can be dynamically modified under Zim program control.

Pointer Style

This field can be used to select the pointer (or cursor) style to use when the pointer is over or in the frame, and the frame is available. By default, the value is "default", which for a frame, is the "Arrow" pointer style.

Label

This field contains the label text which appears towards the left of the top border of the frame. An ampersand (&) character within the text results in the following character being underlined. The label text can be blank.

Properties Section

This section presents the behavioral attributes of the frame form field object.

Availability

This field determines the "availability" attribute of the frame. The values are "Available", "Unavailable", "Guarded" and "Protected". Refer to Form Field Availability Attributes for a more detailed description of the characteristics of these different availability values.

Tab Stop

This field determines if the frame is included in the tab order for the form. If cleared, the end-user is not able to access this field by using the tab keys. The frame is still directly accessible by accelerator keys and the mouse.

Tab Index

This field contains a number that represents the relative position of the field in the tab sequence order. A value of zero (0) means use the tab sequence order as defined by the relative position of the field in the structure chart.

Dialog Push Buttons

OK

This push button performs any required data validation, commits any changes that were made to the entry field's attributes, and returns to the Screen Painter's layout mode.

Cancel

This push button discards any changes that were made in this dialog and returns to the Screen Painter's layout mode.

Help

This push button invokes the Zim Help facility, initially displaying the section entitled Edit Frame dialog (this section).