Introduction to PowerBuilder

Customizing Toolbar

The power of a PowerBuilder toolbar is in its flexibility. If you want to get rid of some of the icons in the toolbar, you can do so. If you want to add some more icons to the toolbar, you can also do it. Let us see how to customize toolbars.

Adding an icon to the Toolbar

Toolbar Customize Dialogbox

Invoke the popup menu on the Powerbar and select "Customize" option. The buttons under the "Current toolbar" are the presently available icons in the current toolbar. To add an icon to the current toolbar, click on an icon from the "Selected Palette" and drag and drop onto the "Current toolbar" area. That's it, you are all set. In this case, the button you added has the standard functionality defined by PowerBuilder.

Sometimes you may want to do add custom functionality to the toolbar icon. In that case, you need to select "Custom" Radiobutton from the "Select Palette"; you will be presented a collection of new icons. Add one of them to the current toolbar in the same way you added previously.

Dialogbox to specify Toolbar Icon Properties

PowerBuilder prompts you for the command definition of the toolbar icon. You need to provide the command for the Command line prompt. For example, providing "c:\Program Files\Accessories\wordpad.exe" allows you to invoke Wordpad by clicking on the newly added toolbar icon. The value you provide for "Item Text" option will be displayed as PowerTip. Value of "Item MircroHelp" will be displayed as MircroHelp on the Statusbar. Click on "OK" CommandButton and test how the new toolbar icon works. Similarly you can also assign a pre-defined query or a report to the toolbar button.

If you can add a button to the Painterbar when the DataWindow painter is invoked, you can also assign a function or format to the toolbar button. Painterbar has one exception in this matter. Once you add a toolbar icon to Powerbar, the added toolbar icon is available whenever Powerbar is displayed. As you know, Painterbar is displayed only when a painter is open. The toolbar icon you add to the Painterbar would be displayed only when that painter is open. For example, if you have added an icon to the Painterbar when Window painter is open, it would be displayed only when the Window painter is open. If you open say, Menu painter, you cannot see the icon.

If you have any problem doing the above, click on the projector icon and download the zipped Lotus Screencam file (add-toolbar-icon.zip) and watch it.

Deleting a Toolbar icon

To delete a toolbar icon, you need to invoke "Customize" dialog box by selecting "Customize" from the popup menu and drag the icon you want to delete from the "Current Toolbar" and drop on the "Selected Pallete" area.

If you have any problem doing the above, click on the projector icon and download the zipped Lotus Screencam file (delete-toolbar-icon.zip) and watch it.

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