Modifying an existing style

The easiest way to get started building form styles is to copy an existing form style and work with it. By examining its structure and making small changes, you can quickly understand how form styles work.

To begin by modifying an existing form style:

Open the Library painter in PowerBuilder.

Copy the window and menu that serve as the foundation for a form style to a library that is on your application’s library search path.

Starting from a built-in form style The windows and menus that serve as the basis for the built-in form styles are in IMSTYLE125.PBL, which is shipped with InfoMaker and installed in the InfoMaker 12.5 directory. You can make a copy of this PBL and use it as the basis of your own form styles.

Open the window in the Window painter and select File>Save As from the menu bar to save it with a new name.

Give the window a new name.

You can use any name you want, except that names of windows that define form styles must be unique across all style libraries that are used by an InfoMaker user.

Define a special comment for the window (for instructions, see “Identifying the window as the basis of a style”).
Click OK to save the window.
Open the menu in the Menu painter and select File>Save As from the menu bar to save it with a new name.
Provide a new name and an optional comment, then click OK to save the menu.

You do not need to provide a comment for the menu, but it is a good idea to identify it as being used in the form style you are building.
Enhance the form style (for instructions, see “Completing the style”).