SftTabs/NET 6.0 is upward compatible to earlier version of the product. We have to admit we didn't strive for 100% upward compatibility. 6.0 has so many new features and new ways to accomplish even more, we decided that this version would not have to be 100% upward compatible. But, you can still open a project that uses 5.5 and easily switch over to 6.0 (see "Upgrading To SftTabs/NET 6.0"). There will be a few things that may not work quite right or compile, but that is easily corrected by using the new features (a list of changes is available in the topic "Upgrading To SftTabs/NET 6.0"). We did make sure there were no "hidden" changes. After upgrading, if there are incompatibilities, you will immediately notice. Once corrected, there are no subtle little changes, so you're all set.

SftTabs/NET 5.5 and 6.0 can coexist on the same system and they can be used independently in different applications.  It is not possible to use both in the same application. Every project that is using an earlier version of the product can continue to do so or use the easy upgrade process shown in "Upgrading To SftTabs/NET 6.0" to upgrade a project to take advantage of this new version. Due to the many changes and enhancements in 6.0, some features have been discontinued, but can be easily duplicated with the new and more powerful features.

While source code compatibility is insured, the visual result after conversion may not be identical. This is caused by a number of features that have been changed or significantly enhanced while discontinuing certain properties. All changes are documented in the topic "Upgrading To SftTabs/NET 6.0".

SftTabs/NET 6.0 offers the following new features:

• A tab is now considered a "cell" and can contain any number of parts, like text, images, checkboxes, progressbar, etc.
• 6 new tab styles (see Style property)
• New Close, Minimize and Restore buttons (see Buttons property)
• Based on Softelvdm.Controls class library (shared with other products like SftTree/NET)
• Additional samples
• Enhanced help with integrated linked samples

Properties & Methods

• New Scrolling.ButtonAlignment property to define the scroll button alignment
• New Scrolling.FullSize property to define the scroll button size
• New Scrolling.Image property to define the scroll button image
• New Scrolling.ImageDisabled property to define the disabled scroll button image
• New Scrolling.ToolTipLeft property to define the tooltip for the left/up scroll button
• New Scrolling.ToolTipRight property to define the tooltip for the right/down scroll button
• New AllowReordering property to define whether tab reordering is enabled
• New DragStyle property to define how drag & drop operations are detected
• New FlybyHighlight property to define whether flyby highlighting is enabled
• New FocusHighlightStyle property to define the appearance of the focus rectangle on the active tab, displayed when the control has the input focus
• New Gadgets property
• New InitialTab property to define the active tab when the tab control is initially shown
• New MouseHoverInterval property to define the interval after which the MouseMoveHoverTimer event occurs
• New MouseMoveInterval property to define the interval after which the MouseMoveTimer event occurs
• New StyleInfo property to returns information about the current tab control style (Style property)
• New GetContents, SetContents methods to serialize the control contents as an XML document

Events

These new events are available: CloseButtonClicked, DragDetected, MinimizeButtonClicked, MouseMoveHoverTimer, MouseMoveTimer, PartClicked, RestoreButtonClicked, SwitchingDisabled