Using the Palette

Builder Xcessory allows you to create, manipulate, and reuse different types of UI objects, including the following:

Creating Objects

Creating UI objects is the same for all object types. The following sections describe two methods for selecting an object from the Palette and placing the object in your interface.

Using MB1

1. With MB1, click on the desired object.

A rectangular outline of the object appears, indicating the size that the object will be when created.

2. Position the upper left-hand corner of the object where you want to place it, and click again with MB1.

Note: Instead of clicking, you can press MB1 and drag the lower right-hand corner of the rectangular outline to any size desired. Release MB1 and your object is created. Additionally, the Palette remembers the last size you choose, and uses that as the default size for that object for the remainder of your Builder Xcessory session. You can change the default size by repeating this procedure.

Using MB2

1. With MB2, drag the desired object out of the Palette.

2. Drop it at the location where you would like it to be created.

The object is created with the current default size (that you can reset, as described in Using MB1 ).

Canceling a create operation

To cancel a create operation, press the Escape (Esc) key.

Parents and Children

Creating child objects

As you build your interface, usually you create UI objects as children of other objects. To create objects as children of other objects, drag the child object over the object that is to become the parent. You can do this either on the actual object or in the Browser display area.

If the potential parent is not a legal parent, Builder Xcessory searches up the object hierarchy until a legal parent is found.

If there is no legal parent, or if you do not create the new object directly over an existing object, Builder Xcessory automatically creates the appropriate top-level object for you. This can be a Motif top-level shell, a dialog shell, etc.

Creating multiple children of a single parent

You can create more than one child for a single parent object by selecting the Keep Parent item on the Browser View menu. You can then create a series of child objects by double-clicking on the objects on the Palette. For more information on Keep Parent, see Using Keep Parent or "Keep Parent" on page 63 of the Builder Xcessory Reference Manual.

Note: When creating objects, you frequently place them as children of container, or geometry manager objects. These parents often control the size and position of their children. In many cases, notably with the Java containers, you cannot directly control the position or size of the new objects with the mouse. Instead you must edit attributes, or resources, of the objects involved, using the Resource Editor (see Resource Editor ).