Selecting Your Design Time Properties

The Selection sheet of the Design Time Properties dialog is displayed when you click the Design Time Properties button in the Options sheet of the Define Class dialog, to enable you to select the properties that are listed in the Properties dialog during your Painter sessions. For example, if you want the design time properties for your control to differ from those of the parent class, use this dialog to specify the design time properties relevant to your new control.

You can specify that a property is a design time property of one class but not a design time property of a subclass. Additionally, the list of options for a property can differ between its subclasses and superclasses.

For a newly defined control, the Selected list box of the Selection sheet lists all properties of the parent control and its superclasses.

An example of the Selection sheet of the Design Time Properties dialog is shown in the following image.

When your control has been defined, any properties that you previously selected as design time properties for that control are listed in the Selected list box and disabled in the Properties list box.

To select your design time properties

1. In the Properties list box, select the property of the control superclass that you want to include in the Properties dialog during Painter sessions and then click the > button to copy the selected property to the Selected list box. (The selected property is then disabled in the Properties list box.)

   Double-click a property to quickly copy it from one list box to the other.

2. In the Selected list box, select the property that you do not want to include in the Properties dialog during Painter sessions and then click the < button to move the selected property to the Properties list box.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each property that you want to select or deselect as a design time property for your control.

4. Check the Show Inherited check box if you want the Properties list box to display the properties inherited from parent classes. (By default, inherited properties are not displayed.)

5. Select the Input Type sheet, to specify how your selected properties are displayed in the Properties dialog in Painter sessions (for example, to fine-tune the type or range of data in the type library of and imported control).

   Alternatively, click the OK button to confirm your selections and return focus to the Define Class dialog, or the Cancel button to abandon your selections.