The material in this section expands upon the "tool tip" descriptions of styles that are displayed when selecting styles in a Properties dialog.
The styles and extended styles chosen for controls and dialogs play a major role in determining the "look and feel" of an application, so care should be exercised when making selections. In some cases, the action of a style can be affected by the selection or absence of another style. Where possible, style interactions are noted in the tables.
While its power can be overlooked, the Favorites Styles features in the Properties dialogs can be used to great effect to ensure that styles are used consistently throughout the entire application. For example, if the project demands flat buttons, then create a Favorite table of button styles that includes the %BS_FLAT style, and make it the default Favorite. In future, every time a button is added to a project, it will automatically be created as a flat control.
Finally, most controls support a large set of styles, and hence a daunting range of style combinations is available. However, if styles can be considered as two groups (for example, visual and behavioral) then the potential for confusion can be reduced dramatically. Visual styles can often be further divided into groups of horizontal and vertical styles.
With those hints in mind, please select from the following sets of styles:
Additional information on dialog and control parameters and styles can be found in the PowerBASIC for Windows on-line help file, and in the WIN32.HLP file that is available as an 8 Mb download from the PowerBASIC Web Site at http://www.powerbasic.com/files/pub/mstools/win32.zip.
For the very latest official Windows programming reference material, the Microsoft® Platform SDK is available for download from the Platform SDK area at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/default.aspx. For most PowerBASIC programmers, downloading the 200 MB+ Core SDK section will provide a comprehensive reference on User Interface programming, along with the most up-to-date documentation on a huge number of Windows API functions.
While the complete Platform SDK weighs in at almost 350 Mb, the additional sections are not particularly relevant as they only cover exotic topics such as Internet Information Server (IIS) programming, etc. However, the Debugging Tools for Windows section is worthwhile as it includes a number of useful utilities such as an API spy, a window information inspector, etc.
Finally, if the Platform SDK is too large, too difficult, or just too expensive to download from the Internet, then Microsoft® can supply it on CD for around US$10 + shipping. However, we do recommend that you check with Microsoft® for the latest pricing, availability, and shipping costs to your location before placing an order, especially if the order is to be shipped outside of the USA.