MDI Child Form Tabs

You can programmatically provide the functionality to display tabs for MDI child forms in user systems, by controlling the style of MDI child form styles. The styles are:

• Standard MDI child forms (the default).

• Standard MDI child forms with a tab for each child form on the MDI frame. The child forms can be maximized, minimized, and restored.

• MDI with a tab only for each child form on the MDI frame. Only the top MDI child form is visible and it is always maximized.

For standard MDI child forms with a tab and MDI forms with a tab only, when tabs are displayed:

• The tab contains the caption of the child form. Clicking on the tab brings that form to the top. The child form with focus has its tab highlighted. If the caption is too long to fit in the tab, the first and last part of the caption are displayed separated by points of ellipsis (...).

• Moving the mouse over the tab displays the full caption in a bubble help display.

• A down arrow button is displayed at the end of the tabs. Clicking the button displays the full list of captions of open child forms.

  Selecting an entry in the list brings that form to the front (that is, the same functionality that the Window menu provides for arranging and manipulating child windows in the JADE development environment). The order of the list can be alphabetic, the last‑used, or creation order.

• Not all tabs are displayed if there is not sufficient room. (Use the down arrow or Window menu to locate a form that is not displayed.)

• JADE provides the ability to pin selected tabs to the left of the displayed tabs. The user can also drag tabs to another position, by clicking the tab and dragging it. (It can be dragged only within the pinned or non‑pinned grouping.)

The Application class provides the following properties and class constants.

• The Integer type mdiStyle property, which defaults to MdiStyle_Mdi (0), sets the default MDI style for an application at run time. You can also set the application style in the Mdi Style group box on the Form sheet of the Define Application dialog in the JADE development environment.

  Set this property to one of the following values.

  • MdiStyle_Mdi (0)

  • MdiStyle_Mdi_With_Tabs (1)

  • MdiStyle_Tabs_Only (2)

• The Integer type mdiWindowListOrder property, which defaults to MdiWindowList_Order_Creation (0), sets the order that child forms are displayed in the Window menu list of child forms and in the MDI Tabs down arrow list. You can also set the application window list order in the Mdi Window List Order group box on the Form sheet of the Define Application dialog in the JADE development environment. Set this property to one of the following values.

  • MdiWindowList_Order_Creation (0)

    The Window List menu and the MDI tabs down arrow show the list of MDI child forms in creation order.

  • MdiWindowList_Order_LastUse (1)

    The Window list menu and the MDI tabs down arrow show the list of MDI child forms in last‑use order.

  • MdiWindowList_Order_Alphabetic (2)

    The Window list menu and the MDI tabs down arrow show the list of MDI child forms in caption alphabetic order.

2020.0.01 and higher