The object is now created in a rough form, but now is an opportunity to run
through the other basic elements relating to objects before we move onto more
complex things.
Labels
The first thing you can do is to add a text label to your object. You simply
do this by entering the label text into the 'Label' box at the top of the
General tab.
If you want to explicitly set the 'Label color' just hop over to the Relation
tab, and at the bottom of it you will see 2 buttons where you can set the color
of the label depending on whether the object is selected or not. Clicking the
button offers you the choice of using the default color as set in the DesktopX
Settings ... Theme Settings ... Labels area, or defining a different color
specifically for this object.
Summary tab
If you look at the 'Summary' tab of the object, you will see a range of other
parameters that you can change.
Here, you can tweak the objects position and size as well as assigning a
'Tooltip' message that appears when you hover over the object.
In the 'Description' section you can add some information to the object in order
to identify yourself as it's creator, and also add any comments that you feel
may be useful to new users of the object.
Most of the content of the 'Origin' section we will cover in the Interaction
sections, but for now, the 'Object ID' is important for you to learn about.
This is a unique identifier for the object. It is crucial to assign a unique
name to the object for a range of reasons. Any time you deal with object
interaction, all types of which we will come onto later you need to identify the
object you want to interact with so it must be identified using the 'Object ID'.
Even before you get onto object interaction you will quickly understand the need
for this when you try to use the 'Object Navigator'. This is a tool that allows
you to see all the objects within your theme, along with their properties.
To open the Object Navigator, right-click the DesktopX icon in the Taskbar and
then click “Object Navigator”.
The Object Navigator will show you all your objects, relationships they have
with other objects, position and size, z-order and images used. It is not
designed to tell you everything, but rather a summary reference that you can use
to identify and tweak objects. There are certain elements of an object’s
properties that you can edit directly via the Object Navigator for speed; the
object position, width, height and comments.
You can select objects using this interface by clicking on them. Use the SHIFT
and CTRL keys to select multiple objects. You can also right click an object to
access its properties, just as you would by right clicking the actual object on
screen.
The row selections on the Object Navigator are synchronized with the actual
object selections on screen. This means that at any time you an clearly see
which object you are working on.
Image the chaos if you didn't use the Object ID property and all the objects
were called <unassigned>!
Another useful thing to remember is that when an object is selected you can move
it by using the cursor keys to fine tune its position. In order to do this, hold
down the CTRL key and click the object(s) you wish to move to select. Keep the
CTRL key held down and use the cursor keys to move the object. If you hold down
the SHIFT key at the same time then the object will move by 10 pixels at a time
in the direction specified.
You should also be aware that as you move an object near a screen border, the
object will attempt to “stick” to that border. This is the most commonly
required behavior, but if you want to precisely position the object close to,
but no on, the edge the above keyboard shortcuts will be the best way to do
this.
Alignment
In the summary tab, by default you align an object to the left and top of
coordinates specified at the top of the ‘Appearance’ section. You can however
choose to centrally or right/bottom align to these coordinates by clicking the
‘Align’ buttons and specifying the alignment that you want to use. This applies
to System Tray and Taskbar type objects as well as regular image and text
objects.
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