PowerBASIC Forms 2.0
Next Generation RAD Tool from the creators of DDT™
A complete, self-contained, visual design environment
No resource editors - No run-time DLLs - No BloatWare!
Choose from 31 standard controls plus custom controls
Instant test mode to immediately view your handiwork
Import designs from Visual Basic, Resources, even DDT
Select fonts, styles, foreground and background colors
Enable XP, Vista, and Windows 7 Visual styles.
User Interface design getting you down? Here's the instant
solution! With PowerBASIC Forms, you'll
visually create your GUI in just minutes. You'll "Drag 'n' Drop"
dialogs and controls, quickly create menus, even import form design from a
multitude of prior sources. Then get clean, structured, DDT source code, ready
to compile for your application. Is it Bloatware? Not here. Not today.
Create stunning dialogs, add a splash of color, use the
latest DDT from PB/Win 9 or 10. Choose from these standard controls, plus
custom controls, too!
Graphic
Image/Picture
Stretchable Image
Label/Static Text
Text/Edit Box
Frame/Group Box
Button
Image Button
Stretchable Image Button
Check Box
Check 3 State Box
Option/Radio Button
Combo Box
List Box
Horizontal Scroll Bar
Status Bar
List View Control
Tree View Control
Tool bar Control
Tab Control
Animate Control
Rich Edit Control
Date Time Picker Control
Month Calendar Control
IP Address Control
Line Control
Spin/Up-down Control
Progress Bar
Slider/Track Bar Control
Hot Key Control
Vertical Scroll Bar
PowerBASIC Forms offers a complete design environment, even
a menu editor, tab order editor, and version resource editor! So, how do you
start? First, you'll open a dialog, and size it to your needs. Add a few
controls, choose the fonts, select the colors, add menus, accelerators,
short-cuts, and you're well on your way. Then generate your template and start
adding code. Of course, you'll use instant test mode to view the final design,
even before you compile it. But what if you need to add an extra control, or
change a size or style? It's simple... just reopen the project, as often as
needed, and you're right back in business. In fact, if you ever find you've
really made a mess of things, you can even request a completely new template
from your modified project. What could be better?
Need some information along the way? The help is extensive
and right at your fingertips. Click a style... see an instant definition.
Forget about reference manuals, with PowerBASIC Forms, you won't even need one!
So what about all your previous work? Have you spent months,
even years, creating Visual Basic forms, Visual Studio resources, even
hand-written DDT with PB/DLL or PBWin? Is all that work wasted? Of course not.
With just a few clicks, you'll import all of that work, ready to compile and
execute. There's no Bloatware here, and no wasted work, either!
An interesting option is the concept of "Favorite
Styles". Dialogs and Controls may have thousands of possible size and
style combinations. How do you choose the correct combination, and even more
important, how do you remember that particular combination of size and bits
next time? Finally, it's elementary.
Choose some style bits, view the result in Test Mode. If it's pleasing, just
give it a name, any name, and it's automatically saved for the future, ready
for instant retrieval. Even better, one particular favorite can be chosen as
the default size and style for each type of control and dialog.
How about menus? With the built-in menu editor, it couldn't
be easier. Just type the text for each menu caption, ID names are created for
you. Separator bars and popup sub-menus? Easy as choosing a radio button. If you know Visual Basic, you'll find the Menu
Editor familiar, yet a welcome relief -- in fact, you'll design menus in just a
fraction of the time it took before. You can choose accelerators (short-cut
keys) like (Ctrl+N), (F4), and (Ctrl+Shift+T) by just pressing the desired
keys.Then link menus to a dialog with a simple drag'n'drop.
Tab order is important. It must be intuitive, yet it often
changes during development. Maintenance used to be drudgery. But no more. The
Tab Order Editor displays a small yellow numbered box in the upper-left corner
of each control. Click controls in sequence, and the numbered boxes update.
Re-order the entire dialog or a few controls... it doesn't get much easier.
Need to populate a ListView or TreeView control? Don't
struggle with foundation code... it's now automatic. PB/Forms generates simple
"helper functions" to handle these menial tasks. In fact, it even
creates sample code to help manage ListBoxes, ComboBoxes, TreeViews, ListViews,
and others.
Need a Resource? Know little about resources? Fine... that's
automatic, too! All of your images, bitmaps, icons, and version resources are
automatically embedded right here in PowerBASIC Forms. This simplifies your
code while guaranteeing a single compact EXE. Need strings for a status bar or
tooltips for a toolbar? They're auto-saved for you and embedded in the same
final resource.
PowerBASIC Forms 2.0 has been completely updated to support
the new DDT commands in PowerBASIC 9 For Windows. Listview, Treeview,
Progressbar, Statusbar, and Tab controls have all been updated. A new Toolbar
control has been added to Toolbox with sample code to show how to add buttons
with images. Fonts are now handled with CONTROL SET FONT, FONT NEW, and FONT
END. #INCLUDE and #IF %DEF() metastatements have been updated to use the new
#INCLUDE ONCE metastatement to ensure that no redundant code is added to the
application. Callbacks have been updated to support the new CB functions. Also
new is the ability to enable visual styles using a manifest file that is
embeded in an application resource file.
Of course, in the "PowerBASIC Tradition",
PowerBASIC Forms needs No Run-Times, No DLLs...
Absolutely No Bloatware Here!
Minimum System
Requirements
Personal computer with an 80386 or higher processor
Any version of Windows from Windows 95 through Windows 7
PowerBASIC for Windows Compiler version 9.0 or later
A hard disk with 3 Mb available space
CD or DVD drive, or Internet connection, for installation
credits powerbasic.com
