SftButton/DLL Wizard - Design Pages
The SftButton/DLL Wizard uses four design tab pages - Style, Colors, Class Info and Events - to define the look and behavior of a button control. Settings made on these pages are reflected immediately in the sample button control. When the desired look has been achieved, the C and C++/MFC tabs produce the source code needed to create and initialize the button control in an application. For detailed information about an individual setting, move the input focus to that control and hit F1.
Style
The Style page controls the overall appearance and behavior of the button control. The preview mode radio buttons at the top of the page (Normal Mode, Dark Mode, High Contrast Mode) affect only how the sample button is rendered in the Sample window - they are not part of the generated source code. The remaining settings are reflected in the generated code.
| Label | Description |
|---|
| Theme | Selects how the button is themed - Use theme (full visual theme), Theme except text (themed background with the button's own text rendering) or No theme. |
| Support Dark Mode | When checked, the button tracks the Windows dark-mode setting (AUTO). When unchecked, dark mode support is off. |
| Support High Contrast Mode | When checked, the button tracks the Windows high-contrast setting (AUTO). When unchecked, high-contrast support is off. |
| Caption (use && for access key) | The text displayed on the button. Use && to designate an access key. |
| Horizontal alignment / Vertical alignment (Text) | Alignment of the button text within the control. |
| Font... | Opens a font picker for the button text font. |
| Border style | The button's border style - Standard, Thin or Single pixel. |
| Always draw border | Always draws the button border, even when the button would otherwise omit it. |
| Allow focus | Allows the button to receive the input focus. |
| Default button | Styles the button as the default button. |
| Hide focus rectangle | Suppresses the focus rectangle on the button. |
| Hide default/focus button outlining | Suppresses the default-button / focus outlining drawn around the button. |
| Toggle | The button toggles its pressed state on each click. |
| Initially pressed | The button starts out in the pressed state. |
| Follows (pressed while hover) | The button appears pressed while the mouse hovers over it. |
| Drop-down Style | The style of the drop-down arrow area - Standard, Narrow 1, Narrow 2, Narrow 3 or Wide 1. |
| Drop-down Toggle / Initially pressed / Follows (pressed while hover) | The toggle, initially-pressed and follows behavior for the drop-down area of the button. |
| Show (drop-down) | Shows the drop-down arrow on the button. |
| Show on mouse-down click | The drop-down acts on the mouse-down click rather than the mouse-up click. |
| Image1/Text/Image2 orientation | Horizontal or vertical layout of the two image layers and the button text. |
| Image 1 ... Image 2 (Edit...) | Each image layer (Image 1, Image 2, plus their Hover / Pressed / Disabled variants and the Background variants) can be assigned a sample picture, bitmap, built-in image or color sample using the Edit... button. |
| Alignment (Image 1, Image 2) | Horizontal and vertical alignment of image layers 1 and 2 within the control. |
| AVI transparent | Treats AVI images as transparent. |
| No background | The button does not draw its background. |
| Hover style | Controls which area of the button is hover-sensitive - Whole control or Exact (picture + text rects). |
| Click style | Controls which area of the button is click-sensitive - Whole control, Exact (picture + text rects), Images only or Text only. |
| Bounce | The press "bounce" animation - Default (follow theme), Yes or No. |
| Auto-repeat (ms) | The auto-repeat interval (in milliseconds) while the button is held pressed; 0 disables auto-repeat. |
| Anchor (Auto-size) | The anchor used when the button auto-sizes itself - None, one of the eight edge/corner anchors, or Center. |
Colors
The Colors page assigns the per-state colors used by the button control. Select an area in the Control area list (text foreground, backgrounds, edges, gradient base/start/end for the normal, focus and hover states, and so on), then pick a color for it from the Color list. Selecting (Custom) and clicking the color swatch opens the standard color picker. The Color list also shows the name of the currently selected color.
| Label | Description |
|---|
| Control area | Selects which part of the button control the color picker applies to. |
| Color | Selects the color (named color, (Default) for the system color, or (Custom) for a user-chosen color) for the selected control area, and shows the selected color's name. |
| Gradient orientation | The orientation - Horizontal or Vertical - of the gradient fill (used when both gradient start and end colors are set). |
| Reset all to default | Resets every button color to the system default. |
Class Info
Based on the information entered on this page, the generated source code is adjusted to reflect the following settings:
| Label | Description |
|---|
| Resource ID | Enter the ID used for the button control in a DIALOG resource or as a child window. |
| C (HWND variable) | Enter the variable name used to hold the window handle of the button control in a C application. This field is not used for C++ applications. |
| C++/MFC (CSftButton member) | Enter the variable name used for the C++ button control object, as used by the parent window of the button control. |
Events
All notifications generated by the button control are displayed in a list as they occur. Interact with the sample button to populate the list. This is useful for understanding which notifications fire and when.
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