Working with Components in the Layout Area :: Laying Out GUIs and Setting Properties (Creating Graphical User Interfaces)

Creating Graphical User Interfaces

Working with Components in the Layout Area

This topic provides basic information about selecting, moving, copying, and deleting components in the layout area.

Other topics that may be of interest are

Selecting Components

You can select components in the layout area in the following ways.

Click a single component to select it.
Press Ctrl+A to select all child objects of the figure. This does not select components that are child objects of panels or button groups.
Click and drag the cursor to create a rectangle that encloses the components you want to select. If the rectangle encloses a panel or button group, only the panel or button group is selected, not its children. If the rectangle encloses part of a panel or button group, only the components within the rectangle that are child objects of the panel or button group are selected.
Select multiple components using the Shift and Ctrl keys.

Note You can select multiple components only if they have the same parent. Use the Object Browser to determine the child objects of a figure, panel, or button group. Viewing the Object Hierarchy -- The Object Browser tells you how.

Moving Components

Select one or more components that you want to move, then do one of the following:

Drag the selected components to the desired position and drop them. You can move components from the figure into a panel or button group. You can move components from a panel or button group into the figure or into another panel or button group.

The position of the cursor when you drop the components determines the parent of all the selected components. Look for the highlight as described in Adding a Component to a Panel or Button Group.

In some cases, one or more of the selected components may lie outside its parent's boundary. Such a component is not visible in the Layout Editor but can be selected by dragging a rectangle that encloses it. It is visible, however, in the active GUI.

Press and hold the arrow keys until the components have moved to the desired position. Note that the components remain children of the figure, panel, or button group from which you move them, even if they move outside its boundaries.

Copying, Cutting, and Clearing Components

Use standard menu and pop-up menu commands, toolbar icons, keyboard keys, and shortcut keys to copy, cut, and clear components.

Copying. Copying places a copy of the selected components on the clipboard. A copy of a panel or button group includes its children.

Cutting. Cutting places a copy of the selected components on the clipboard and deletes them from the layout area. If you cut a panel or button group, you also cut all its children.

Clearing. Clearing deletes the selected components from the layout area. It does not place a copy of the components on the clipboard.

Pasting and Duplicating Components

Pasting. Use standard menu and pop-up menu commands, toolbar icons, and short-cut keys to paste components. GUIDE pastes the contents of the clipboard to the location of the last mouse click. It positions the upper left corner of the contents at the mouse click

Consecutive pastes place each copy to the lower right of the last one.

Duplicating. Select one or more components that you want to duplicate, then do one of the following:

Copy and paste the selected components as described above.
Select Duplicate from the Edit menu or the pop-up menu. Duplicate places the copy to the lower right of the original.
Right-click and drag the component to the desired location. The position of the cursor when you drop the components determines the parent of all the selected components. Look for the highlight as described in Adding a Component to a Panel or Button Group.

Adding Components to the Layout Area Running the GUI