Specifying property values in the DataWindow painter

When you specify values in the Properties view of the DataWindow painter, you are setting properties of the DataWindow object and its controls.

Properties for each control

Each control in the DataWindow (columns, text, drawing controls) has its own property sheets, because there are different sets of properties for each object. To access individual property sheets, display the Properties view and then select a control.

If several controls have the same property and you want them all to have the same value, you can select all the controls so that the property sheet shows the properties they have in common. When you change the property value, it is applied to all selected controls.

DataWindow expressions for properties

For many properties, you can specify a DataWindow expression in the Properties view by clicking the Expression button beside the property. At runtime, the expression is evaluated for each row. When the expression includes row-dependent information in the calculation (such as data), each row can have a different value for the property. In the painter, you can see the results in the Preview view. (You might need to close Preview and reopen it if you are not seeing the settings you have made.)

For information about the components of expressions, see “Using DataWindow expression functions” and the Users Guide. For examples of expressions, see “Using DataWindow expressions as property values”.