Positioning and Aligning Controls

Once you have added controls to your screen, you can use arrow-key shortcut combinations, the Align menu, or the Align toolbar to fine-tune the size and position of those controls.

You can use the following keystrokes to position and resize controls:

• Use the left, right, up, or down arrow controls to move the selected control(s) one pixel at a time in the specified direction.
• Hold down the Ctrl key and use the arrow keys to move the selected control one cell at a time in the specified direction.
• Hold down the Shift key and use the arrow keys to resize the control one pixel at a time (the up and down arrows move the bottom border of the control, making the control taller or shorter; the left and right arrows move the right border of the control, making it wider or narrower).
• Hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys and use the arrow keys to resize the control one cell at a time.

When you use most of the Align commands, a group of selected controls is repositioned in relation to the last control selected, known as reference control. The reference control is marked by the small, dark blue boxes (handles) on the control frame. (The handles on other selected controls are white, with a blue border.)

The Align commands that adjust controls in relation to one another include:

• Make Same Size (Width, Height, or Both) , used to resize all of the selected controls to the width, height, or width and height of the reference control. From left to right, these are the third, forth, and fifth buttons on the Align toolbar.
• Align Control (Left, Right, Top, or Bottom), used to align the selected controls to the left, right, top, or bottom border of the reference control From left to right, these are the sixth through ninth buttons on the Align toolbar.
• Space Evenly (Across or Down), used to adjust controls so that a consistent amount of horizontal or vertical space appears between the selected controls. This control is enabled only when three or more controls are selected.
• Adjacent (Horizontal or Vertical), used to align the selected controls so that the borders of the controls are immediately adjacent to one another in either the horizontal or vertical direction. This is useful, for example, in positioning buttons on a toolbar. These options appear just to the left of the Lock button on the Align toolbar.

The Align commands that can be used to position either a single control or multiple controls include:

• Align Control (Center Horizontal, Center Vertical, or To Grid), used to center one or more controls on the screen, or to align the control(s) to the closest grid point on the screen form. Center Horizontal and Center Vertical are the first two buttons on the Align toolbar; Align To Grid appears just to the right of the Align Bottom button.
• Lock Controls, a toggle switch used to lock controls in place on the screen form so that they cannot be accidentally moved, or to unlock controls to allow further positioning. A locked control cannot be dragged, centered, or sized, nor can it be used as the dominant control when a group of controls is selected. The selection handles on a locked control are white instead of dark colored.
• Size to Content, used to adjust the borders of the control to match the content of the control. This is frequently used with controls like labels and radio buttons to match the control precisely to the size of its label, eliminating unused space. This option does not appear on the Align toolbar, but does have a keyboard shortcut: Shift+F7.

By default, when you work in the Screen Designer, a grid of dots appears on the screen form to help you to position your controls. The size of each square in this grid corresponds to the screen's CELL SIZE property (by default, 10 pixels by 10 pixels). You can toggle whether or not this grid is visible with the View Grid command, accessed through the Align menu or toolbar. To help you place items on this grid, you can enable a set of control positioning guides with the Toggle Guide command. These positioning guides become visible when you click a control on the screen form, or click to draw a control on the screen.