Form Designer Options
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Tools > Options > User Interface > Form Designer
Use this page to specify preferences for the Form Designer.
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Grid options | |
|
Display grid |
Displays a grid of dots on the Designer to aid in aligning controls. |
|
Use designer guidelines |
Enables guidelines on the Designer. Guidelines facilitate the alignment of components on a form.
|
|
Snap to grid |
Automatically aligns controls on the Designer to the nearest grid line as you move the control. |
|
Grid size/Snap tolerance |
Sets grid spacing in pixels along the x- and y-axis. Specify a higher number to increase grid spacing. |
| Options | |
|
Show component captions |
Displays captions for nonvisual components you drop on a form or data module. |
|
Show designer hints |
Displays a class name in a tooltip for a nonvisual component on a form or data module. |
|
Show extended control hints |
Displays a tooltip for controls that include the origin (position on the form), size (width and height), tab stop (whether the user can tab to a control), and order that you added the control to the form. Disabled if Show designer hints is turned off. |
|
Show Form Positioner |
Displays the Form Positioner in the lower-right corner of the Designer. Use the Form Positioner to quickly set the on-screen runtime position of the form. |
|
Show non-visual components |
Shows non-visual components at design time. |
|
Enable VCL Styles |
When enabled, VCL controls draw using VCL styles set for the form or control, matching their look at runtime. |
|
Mimic the system style |
When enabled, this option allows the use of VCL styles for draw controls in the designer when no custom style is selected. |
| Module creation options | |
|
New forms as text |
Toggles the format in which form files are saved. The form files in your project can be saved in binary or text format. Text files can be modified more easily by other tools and managed by a version control system. Binary files are backward compatible with earlier versions of the product. (You can override this setting on individual forms by right-clicking and checking or unchecking the Text DFM command.) |
|
Auto-create forms & data modules |
Toggles whether or not to automatically create forms. When unchecked, forms added to the project after the first one are put into the Available Forms list rather than the Auto Create list. You can change where each form is listed by choosing Project > Options > Forms. |