New Features
Only a minimal conversion is required when upgrading to SftTabs/DLL 7.0. SftTabs/DLL 7.0 is virtually 100% source code compatible to version 6.5 and earlier versions.
New in 7.0
- New built-in UI Automation provider exposes tab control structure to Narrator, NVDA, JAWS and other screen readers - tab list, per-tab labels / mnemonics / tooltips / enabled state / hidden state, active-tab selection, scroll / close / minimize / restore chrome buttons, and per-tab (where fHasCloseButton is set). See Accessibility (Screen Readers).
- New built-in accessibility support: the tab control honors Windows dark mode (see Dark Mode), Windows High Contrast (see High Contrast), and is Per-Monitor v2 DPI aware (see DPI). A new Announce function pushes short status text to attached screen readers through a UI Automation notification event.
- New SetDarkMode / GetDarkMode / IsDarkModeActive functions - dark mode setting with AUTO / ON / OFF modes; AUTO tracks the Windows "Choose your mode" setting automatically.
- New SetHighContrastMode / GetHighContrastMode / IsHighContrastActive functions - honor the Windows High Contrast accessibility setting with AUTO / ON / OFF modes.
- New GetDPI function returns the effective DPI for the monitor the tab control is currently displayed on.
- New SetImageScaling / GetImageScaling functions opt into automatic DPI scaling of all images drawn by the tab control (tab pictures, scroll and close/minimize/ bitmaps).
- New SetPixelScaling / GetPixelScaling functions opt into interpreting caller-supplied pixel dimensions (margins, row indent, forced tab size) as 96-DPI reference values, for resolution-independent serialized configurations.
- New SFTTABSN_DARKMODE_CHANGED notification indicating the active dark mode state changed.
- New SFTTABSN_DPI_CHANGED notification indicating the monitor DPI changed.
- New SFTTABSN_HIGHCONTRAST_CHANGED notification indicating the active high contrast state changed.
- The SFTTABS_CONTROL structure exposes the new settings (nDarkMode, nHighContrastMode, imageScaling, pixelScaling) and read-only resolved states (fDarkModeActive, fHighContrastActive).
- The SFTTABS_DRAWINFO structure exposes the current effective DPI (dpi field) on every owner-draw callback.
- SftTabs/DLL 7.0 no longer provides help documentation integrated with development tools in various custom formats - instead documentation is located at https://softelvdm.com/Documentation/SftTabs DLL 7 0, which allows for continuous documentation updates without the need to release a new product version. Web access is required to access the product documentation.