How the Object Inspector Displays Properties
Go Up to About the Object Inspector Index
Contents
Displaying Properties
The Object Inspector dynamically changes the set of properties it displays, based on:
- The component selected. Select a component using the Structure panel or the Form Designer.
- Note: You can select more than one component at the same time. If multiple components are selected, only the shared properties are displayed.
- The options selected on the Object Inspector page on Tools > Options > Environment Options.
- Note: You can also see the Object Inspector Properties using the context menu.
- The result of the search criteria used on the Filter Box.
Displaying Properties or Events by Category
Properties and events come by default listed by name, and alphabetically .
To display properties or events by category:
- On the Object Inspector, right-click to open the context menu.
- Select Arrange > by Category.
The categories are also listed alphabetically. Expand or collapse the categories using 
or 
. The state persists until you change it.
- Note: Some properties occur in multiple categories. If you change the value under one category, the value changes consistently in all places.
Displaying Properties or Events Alphabetically
Properties that are visible are listed alphabetically.
To redisplay properties or events alphabetically by name:
- On the Object Inspector, right-click to open the context menu.
- Select Arrange > by Name.
Component writers can create categories and assign properties to categories using the RegisterPropertyInCategory procedure. See Property Categories for details.
Filtering Properties or Events
View Option
The View option of the context menu shows the categories of the properties for the selected component.
To show or hide properties grouped by category:
- On the Object Inspector, right-click to open the context menu.
- Select View and check or uncheck the categories you want to show or hide.
The properties associated with checked categories are visible in the Object Inspector. You can see the number of hidden properties on the Status Bar at the bottom of the Object Inspector.
- Note: Legacy properties (such as Ctl3D and OldCreateOrder) are not visible, by default.
Filter Box
The filter box allows filtering properties or events. The filter shows all the properties or events which name contains any match with the search pattern.
Click Esc or the cross icon 
on the right to clean the filter.
Usage Tips
The Object Inspector has several other behaviors that make it easier to set component properties at design time.
- When you use the Object Inspector to select a property, the property remains selected in the Object Inspector while you add or switch focus to other components in the form, provided that those components also share the same property. This enables you to type a new value for the property without always having to reselect the property.
- If a component does not share the selected property, the product selects its Caption property. If the component does not have a Caption property, the product selects its Name property.
- When more than one component is selected in the form, the Object Inspector displays all properties that are shared among the selected components.
- When the property value is the same for all the selected components, the value is displayed.
- When the selected components have different values for the same property, no value is displayed. It is displayed as blank until you enter to edit the value, then the value of the first component is displayed.
- When you change any of the shared properties in the Object Inspector, the property value changes those values in all the selected components.
- Note: The behaviour does not apply to the Name property because you cannot assign the same name to different components in the same form.
- Pressing Tab acts as a toggle between the Value column and the Properties column.
- Incremental search on the Name column of properties and events. When you are in the Name column and you start typing the characters that compose the name, the focus moves to the property or event that matches the search criteria. You can use the backspace key to delete characters of your search pattern.