MODULES

Customizing the Layout and Database Format

EZGenerator comes with several sample projects, and they will suit just fine to what most users may want to create in EZGenerator.

However, if you need to customize any of the aspect of the Catalog and Contact modules, you can use the Adapt Screen and Database feature of EZGenerator. Both the field controls and the number of fields, their name and types are completely customizable.

Please, note that we have a Video Tutorial available on this topic. You can check it out at EZGenerator Tutorials.

Basic Layout Editing

Once you enter the Adapt Screen and Database mode, all field controls in the Main Screen become editable:

Select a single control

Left-click a control. A set of handles (small red squares, see the picture above) appear on the control to show it is selected.

To select multiple controls

Select a control. Press and hold SHIFT on your keyboard. Left-click the controls you want to add to the selection.

To move one or more controls

Select one or more controls, left-click in a control area and drag to the place you want to move the control(s). Release the mouse button to leave the controls in their new place.

NOTE: Since the label controls are separate objects, it is recommended to select them too when you move a control.

To delete one or more controls

Select one or more controls, press DEL on your keyboard and confirm you want to delete the controls in the dialog that opens. Deleting a field control will not erase the field associated with it.

To change the controls' Z-order

If you want to move a control on top of the other controls, select it and click the Bring to Front button () in the bottom of the Explorer panel. Click the Put to Back button () to lower the Z-order of a control.

To align the position and size of the controls

You can align the position and/or size of the controls (to enable the functionality in the Align section, select two or more controls at the same time):

- Aligns all selected controls to the left edge of the leftmost control.

- Aligns all selected controls to the right edge of the rightmost control.

- Aligns all selected controls to the top edge of the topmost control.

- Aligns all selected controls to the bottom edge of the bottommost control.

- Resizes all selected controls to the size of the largest control.

- Resizes all selected controls to the size of the smallest control.

To change the controls' tab order

You can alter the tab order of controls by opening the Tab Order from the Edit menu. Drag the controls up and down in the list to change the order they are selected when pressing TAB on your keyboard.

Adding, Removing and Modifying Fields

While you are in Adapt Screen and Database mode, the Explorer view shows a list of available fields in the database you are editing. For information on the specific field types and the icons associated with them, see Field Types.

The fields can be created by EZGenerator (system fields), or they are part of the project template or added by the user (standard fields).

To learn if a field is system or standard, double-click it in the Explorer to expand it. You will see two field properties. The first displays the field type, the second displays the field size. Fields without specific field size show size 0:

As you can see from the image above, green icons next to the properties indicate a standard field, yellow or red icons indicate a system field. The system fields are part of the core architecture of EZGenerator and they cannot be modified or deleted.

To add a new field

Click the Add Field () button in the bottom of the Explorer panel. The New Field window appears where you can set the field name, field type and maximum amount of characters (applies only to some field types). Click OK to add the new field to the database.

To delete an existing field

Click the Delete Field () button in the bottom of the Explorer panel and confirm you want to delete the field in the dialog window that appears.

You cannot restore a field or the information contained in it once it is deleted!

Altering the field size

Some text only field types have a specified size in the database as for the maximum amount of characters you can hold in that field. Those field types include Text, ListBox, Telephone, E-mail and URL.

If you want to decrease a field's size or expand it so it may contain more information, right-click the field in the Explorer panel and select Change Field Size. In the window that appears, set a new maximum size for the field.

Adding/removing indexing services to a field

You may find a useful feature to be able to sort the records in a database according to the alphabetical order of a specified field they contain (sorting works only in list mode of the Contact and Catalog Explorer).

To be able to do that you need to add indexing services to the fields you want to select as a source for sorting. Right-click a field in the Explorer panel and click Make Index. Now if you double-click the field to expand the properties inside, you can see the indexing is enabled:

You can also disable indexing for a field by right-clicking it and selecting Delete Index.

To add a field control for a new field

Once you create a new field, you may want to add a control to represent it on the Main Screen. To do so, drag the field icon from the Explorer to the Main Screen and drop it there. A new control and a label with the same caption is created.

NOTE: You can also create the control by selecting the field from the Field menu and then clicking on the Main Screen.

Adding Decorative Controls to the Main screen

EZGenerator offers a set of decorative controls, not linked to a field, that help you to organize the Main Screen better.

The decorative controls include a Label object, Frame object, and a Static Image object.

To add a decorative control to the Main Screen

Go to the Element section in the bottom of the explorer and drag the control icon of your choice (see the picture above) to the Main Screen. Release the mouse button to create the control.

Editing the Control Appearance

Managing Multiple Layout Schemes

You can save and manage multiple screen layouts for both the Contacts and Catalog databases.

To start a new screen layout

From the File menu, select New. The Main Screen panel will reset to an empty screen.

To save a screen layout

From the File menu, select Save. This will update the state of the currently used layout (if no other layout was saved, this is the Default layout).

To save the current layout as a new layout with different name, from the File menu, select Save As. A window will open where you can type a new name for the template.

To use previously saved screen layout

From the File menu, select the Open submenu. It contains a list of available layout schemes. Select the layout scheme you want to use.

To delete an existing screen layout

From the File menu, select the Delete submenu. It contains a list of available layout schemes (except the one being used at the moment). Select the layout scheme you want to delete.

NOTE: The submenu exists only if two or more saved layout schemes exist (you cannot delete the scheme being used at the moment).