Introduction to PowerBuilder

Toolbars

What is a toolbar? A toolbar is nothing but a collection of icons associated with actions. Clicking on a toolbar icon triggers some action. All the icons that you see across the PowerBuilder window, i.e., below the menu (as shown in the picture), are part of the toolbar called  Powerbar.

Typically, each toolbar icon represents one of the menu options, except in  Powerbar (the one you see on the screen) and Stylebar. Say you want to represent File/Open with one icon, File/Save with one icon and so on. Toolbar allows you to be more productive, since you will be directly clicking on the toolbar icon, instead of selecting nested menu options. For example, to select File/Open, first you need to select File option and then Open option. If File/Open has a toolbar icon, you can simply click on the icon. You can also create toolbars as part of your PowerBuilder application and make the application more user friendly.

PowerBuilder comes with three toolbars:

	Powerbar
	Painterbar
	Stylebar

The one you see on the screen is called Powerbar. Typically, a toolbar is associated with a menu and options in the menu. That means, for each menu option toolbar contains one icon. It is not necessary to have a toolbar icon for each menu option. For example, some times you come across some menu options which are difficult to be expressed in terms of picture, So, you can't provide a picture for them. Similarly, in PowerBuilder, there are few icons which don't have corresponding menu options. For example, icons in the Stylebar has no associated menu options.

Unless you hide Powerbar, it is visible through out the PowerBuilder session. Painterbar and Stylebar are available only when at least one painter is open. In some painters like Project painter, database painter, Library painter, Stylebar is not available. In some painters like Structure painter neither the Painterbar nor the Stylebar are available. The options in the Powerbar and Stylebar are static, i.e., you see the same icons irrespective of the painter in use. Painterbar is dynamic in nature and the icons change depending on the painter in use. Now let us examine what you can do with each of those toolbars.

Powerbar

Powerbar is similar to PowerPanel in terms of functionality and contains all options available in PowerPanel.

Powerbar

When you move the mouse pointer over toolbar icons, description for the specific toolbar icon is shown at the bottom of the PowerBuilder window. That area is called Statusbar.

When the Show PowerTips option (explained in a moment) is turned on, you will also see the name of the icon just below the mouse pointer in a yellow colored rectangle. This short description which moves along with the mouse pointer is called PowerTip.

To see how PowerTip works, switch to PowerBuilder from this web page and keep moving the mouse pointer over the toolbar icons slowly. If you don't see PowerTips, don't worry. We will give the solution in a moment.

The basic purpose of Powerbar is to allow you to invoke any painter. To invoke a painter, you need to single click on the appropriate icon. Advantage of Powerbar over PowerPanel is that you can place Powerbar anywhere you like within PowerBuilder window. To move Powerbar, click anywhere in-between toolbar icons and drag it to the place intended.

Video demonstration of 'Moving the toolbar' (moving-toolbar.zip, 2313 K).

DropDown Toolbar

Toolbar icons that contain down-side arrow on right-side are drop-down toolbar. For example, the first icon from the left hand side (application icon) is a drop-down toolbar.The purpose is to reduce the space needed for a toolbar. The placement of the toolbar can be selected from the popup menu by clicking the right mouse button on the Powerbar.

Popup/Right Mouse-Click Menu for the Toolbar

Another advantage of Powerbar over PowerPanel is that, unlike PowerPanel Powerbar can be customized . Simple customization includes:

	showing/hiding the text below the toolbar icons
	the text font & size, showing/hiding PowerTips
	placement of the Powerbar

Toolbar Style Customization Dialog box.

All of the above mentioned can be done by selecting proper options in the popup menu. Un-checking the Powerbar option hides it. Once you hide all toolbars, you cannot show toolbars by selecting from the popup menu; the reason being that you invoke the toolbar popup menu by right clicking on the toolbar itself. Since the toolbar itself is not visible, you cannot invoke the popup menu. Well, we have gotten ourselves into trouble here. There should be some way of making the toolbar visible.  We could try selecting   File/Toolbars from the menu.

In the dialog box shown above, along with the regular options, font related options are also available.

To invoke a toolbar when one of the toolbars is visible, double-click in the space between icons on the toolbar.

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