Help Index
WinDialog Help

The index contains a list of all Help topics available for WinDialog v1.0. For information on how to use Help, press F1 or choose Using Help from the Help menu.

Introduction

Dialog Editor

Edit dialog box

Test dialog box

Save dialog box

Open/import dialog box

Determine grid

Generate source code

API Reference

Introduction

dlgDialogBox

dlgCreateDialog

dlgEndDialog

Contact information

General information

WinDialog Registration


Introduction

WinDialog offers Windows developers a simple way of creating dialog boxes with a fantastic appearance. These dialog boxes can easily be implemented into the developer's own applications either by means of an own Application-Program-Interface (API) provided by WinDialog or by generating C-source-code. Dialog boxes known from professional applications are therefore easily programmed and will facilitate the usage of your program.

WinDialog offers:

- Animations

- Animated buttons

- Sound support for buttons, animated buttons and animations

- pictures

- Determination of font for each control

- Determination of background- and font-color

- Generating C-Source-code


Dialogbox bearbeiten
Edit dialog box

To create a new dialog box, select the symbol of the dialog box in the toolbox. Using the toolbox you can now create new controls in the dialog box. At present the 6 controls of Windows 3.1 are available:

  - buttons (push button, default push button, checkbox, radio button, groupbox)

  - listbox

  - combobox

  - scrollbar (horizontal, vertical)

  - static window (text, frame, rectangle, pictures)

Attributes of the toolbox and particular controls respectively can be changed when - after selecting the corresponding contro with a double click - the dialog box for setting the styles appears. To delete the active control, press the Delete-key.

Appearance and action of the control can be determined in the dialog boxes by setting the parameters. In addition to fixing the style of the control you can here determine background color, font color, font, pictures you may want to use, and sounds which are to be played.  If you later want to delete one of this attributes, press the  Ctrl-key and the respective button for this attributes.

To make use of pictures in buttons, the filenames of the pictures have to have the following format:

PICTURE.BM0	Button is displayed normally

PICTURE.BM1	Button is in focus

PICTURE.BM2	Button is selected

PICTURE.BM3-PICTURE.BMZ   Pictures played after selecting the button

To use pictures in static controls, the filenames of the pictures have to follow this pattern:

PICTURE.BMP	in case of no animation only one filename is,

given, of course

PICTURE.BM0-PICTURE.BMZ   pictures constituting the animation

Beispiel: 	EYE.BM0, EYE.BM1, EYE.BM2, EYE.BM3, EYE.BM4, EYE.BM5, 	EYE.BM6, EYE.BM7, EYE.BM8, EYE.BM9, EYE.BMA, EYE.BMB, 	EYE.BMC, EYE.BMD

Fourteen pictures are played successively in the picture-control of the dialog box.


Dialogbox  testen
Test dialog box

To test the dialog box you can either choose the menue item Test or press the keys Ctrl+T. Repeating this steps will switch off testmodus.


Dialogbox  sichern
Save dialog box

To save the dialog box press either key F2 or execute menue item Save or Save as. A file select box will appear in which you can enter the filename of the dialog box.


Dialogbox  laden
Load/import dialog box

To edit an existing dialog box you have to load it first. For that purpose select menue item Open dialog box, that will provide a file select box. For to import dialog boxes from dynamic-link-libraries, WinDialog offers the possibility to enter the name of the dialog box in a file select box and to load it. Note that you have to know the exact name of the dialog box in the link-library. Dialog boxes with a numerical name have to precede by the character '#', e.g. #205.


Gitter festlegen
Determine grid

By selecting the menue item Grid you can determine the grid for positioning the controls in the dialog box. Hereby you fix width and height of the grid-squares and whether the grid is visible or not.


Sourcecode generieren
Generate source code

After selecting the menue item Generate source code, a dialog box appears in which parameters for creating C-source code are fixed. You have to choose a filename for the sources and a function name. Moreover you can determine whether the generated source code already has to has WinMain-function, so that the generated sources only need to be compiled and the program can be started immediately afterwards. At last you have to determine whether you want the created makefile to be a Microsoft- or a Borland-Make. After selecting the button Generate the sources will automatically be generated.

Contrary to using WinDialog 's API, dialog boxes generated thru source code are a little quicker and have the advantage to be pure Windows code and not to be dependent on the use of any additional DLL of WinDialog . On the other hand, dialog boxes created in this way are more difficult to maintain, since new source code has to be generated when altering the dialog box. At present only pure C-source code for Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.1 is generated.

The function "Generate source code" is only available in the licensed version ofWinDialog.


API Reference

Appart from generating C-source code WinDialog offers an API in the form of a DLL for to display dialog boxes created with WinDialog. This API is kept very short and follows the pattern of the Windows-API for dialog boxes to enable an easy and quick implemtation. Therefore 3 function exist:

dlgDialogBox

dlgEndDialog

dlgCreateDialog

Beside this 3 functions WinDialog offers a special message rendering dynamic changes of a picture in an picture-control possible:

WM_PAINTBITMAP

wParam:	Index on picture,  normally 0

lParam:	LOWORD    Window-Handle of picture-control

HIWORD      Memory-Handle on filename of a bitmapfile which 	         is to be displayed.

To illustrate the API, please have a look at the two examples of such programs, SAMPLE.C and AUTHOR.C. SAMPLE.C is a very short example, demonstrating how simple the implementation of WinDialog-dialog boxes is. AUTHOR.C on the other hand is a little bit more complicated and demonstrates the usage of the WM_PAINTBITMAP-message.

Contrary to generating C-source code, NWDIALOG.DLL with its API has the advantage to create very short code. The whole handling for displaying the dialogbox is hidden in this DLL. Dialog boxes are therefore easily maintained and looked after. On the other hand, programs made by generating source code are more compact and are executed a little quicker.


dlgDialogBox

int dlgDialogBox(hinst, lpszDialogFile, hwndOwner, dlgprc)

HINSTANCE hinst;	/* handle of application instance	*/

LPSTR lpszDialogFile;	/* address of WinDialog file name	*/

HWND hwndOwner;	/* handle of owner window	*/

DLGPROC dlgprc;	/* instance address of dialog box procedure	*/

Exactly like the function DialogBox of the Windows-API, this function creates a modal dialog window. Except for the second parameter all other parameters are identical. The second parameter of dlgDialogBox is not the template name of the dialog box in the ressources, but is the filename of the dialog box created with WinDialog.


dlgEndDialog

void dlgEndDialog(hwndDlg, nResult)

HWND hwndDlg;	/* handle of dialog box	*/

int nResult;	/* value to return	*/

This function - like its counterpart EndDialog - closes a modal dialog window created with the function dlgDialogBox.


dlgCreateDialog

int dlgCreateDialog(hinst, lpszDialogFile, hwndOwner, dlgprc)

HINSTANCE hinst;	/* handle of application instance	*/

LPSTR lpszDialogFile;	/* address of WinDialog file name	*/

HWND hwndOwner;	/* handle of owner window	*/

DLGPROC dlgprc;	/* instance address of dialog box procedure	*/

Like the function CreateDialog known from Windows, the function dlgCreateDialog  makes it possible to create a non-modal dialog window. In this case, however, as in dlgDialogBox, the second parameter is the filename of the dialog box created with WinDialog.


General informations
General information

In case of any questions, problems or suggestions on WinDialog , please contact me under the following address:

Soenke Cordts

Wittekstrasse 62

D-2080 Pinneberg

Germany

0049 - 4101 - 6 40 75

Compuserve User ID:	100117,2651

Mailbox Mouse Hamburg: 	0049 - 40 - 538 16 57

WinDialog costs 45 $ US. The licensed version offers you the possibility of generating C-source code and when using the API of WinDialog (NWDIALOG.DLL) the reference of  the copyright will no longer appear.

Moreover the complete source code of WinDialog is available:

API NWDIALOG.DLL	  99 $ US

Generating C-source code	299 $ US

WinDialog v1.0	899 $ US


WinDialog Registration

If you like WinDialog and you choose to use it, you must register it. You are not allowed to keep, use, or distribute WinDialog with your applications unless you register. When you register, you receive the latest version of the package. It will not have the opening "license box" that you get with the unregistered version and you will be allowed to redistribute it as per the license agreement.

Select PRINT TOPIC from the FILE menu to print a registration order form.

For information, orders, or site licenses, call Soenke Cordts at 0049 - 4101 - 6 40 75

or leave an EMail message on Compuserve (100117,2651).

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