WEBDEV Concepts

56 Part 2: Developing a site 3 Handling controls in the editor 3.1 Control handles Handles appear around new or selected controls. Handles allow you to: • view the control size, • change the control size. The colors of the handles identify the actions that can be performed: • The black handles are used to view and resize the controls. • The white handles simply highlight the controls. For example, when selecting several controls, the white handles indicate that the selected controls cannot be resized. This type of handles is also displayed when a page is read-only for the developer: the controls cannot be modified. • The gray handles indicate the first control selected in a multiple selection. This control will be the reference control. 3.2 Available operations The page editor is used to: • Select one or more controls (with the lasso for example). • Group selected controls. • Move a control. • Change the control caption. • Display an advanced tooltip when hovering a control. This tooltip contains: the control name, position, size and initial state (if the control is invisible). 4 Aligning controls Control alignment allows you to create "professional" and cohesive UIs. You can create standard interfaces using the following WEBDEV tools: • grids. • real-time interface checker (automatically proposed when positioning a control). • advanced interface checker. • alignment options. • customizable zoom. 4.1 Snap-on grid The snap-on grid is used to place vertical and horizontal markers in the page. The created controls are attracted to these markers, as if the controls and the markers were magnetic. The snap-on grid is used to align the controls according to the markers. 4.2 Real-time interface checker When a control is moved in a page, guides are automatically displayed by the real-time interface checker. The objects snap to the guides, allowing you to align the moved control with the other controls found in the page. 4.3 Advanced interface checker The advanced interface checker is a tool used to standardize the layout of controls in the different site pages. The advanced interface checker proposes to apply, to the current page or to the selected controls, the interface rules from the Windows standard: control alignment, button sizes, etc.