Introduction to PowerBuilder

Toolbars

What is a toolbar? A toolbar is nothing but a collection of icons associated with actions and menu. Clicking on a toolbar icon triggers some action (of course, you need to write script). 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 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 unless you are keyboard favorite and know shortcuts. 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. It is not necessary to have a toolbar icon for each menu option. For example, some times you come across some menu options that are difficult to be express in terms of picture, so, you can't provide a picture for them. Similarly, in PowerBuilder, there are few icons that don't have corresponding menu options. For example, icons in the Stylebar have no associated menu options. PowerBuilder comes with three toolbars:

• Powerbar
• Painterbar
• Stylebar

The one you see on the screen is called Powerbar. 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 icons change depending on the painter in use. Now let us examine what you can do with each of those toolbars.

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