Look and Feel Styles
- 2 minutes to read
Every layout group or item can be connected with a specific look & feel style which affects its drawing style.
The following styles can be applied to a layout control:
- Three built-in predefined look & feel styles: “Standard“, “Office“, and “Web“.
- Five predefined styles provided by the TcxLookAndFeel, including the native paint style.
- Skins from the ExpressSkins Library (installed separately).
These styles can be registered for use with a layout control via the TdxLayoutLookAndFeelList component. To apply a registered style, use the LayoutLookAndFeel property. You can apply a common skin or TcxLookAndFeel-based style to the layout control and its elements and the entire application, via the TcxLookAndFeelController component.
Each built-in look & feel style is a pre-configured TdxCustomLayoutLookAndFeel class descendant. You can create your own custom style (based upon one of the predefined style classes or the TdxCustomLayoutLookAndFeel class) and adjust its properties as required.
The base properties of every look & feel style specify the following group and item settings:
Appearance options. You have separate options sets for groups and items: GroupOptions and ItemOptions. With these option sets, you can customize various appearance settings of layout elements, including the background color, caption options, border style and color for controls associated with items.
Element offsets. Use the Offsets property to adjust offsets for ExpressLayout Control elements (captions, controls, items, and groups) based on a specific look & feel style.
Below are examples of predefined and custom styles.
Standard Style
Use this style to draw layout control elements in a manner similar to that found in MS Windows®.
Office Style
This style allows you to draw the layout control elements in a manner similar to that found in MS Office® 2000.
Web Style
Use this style to draw layout control elements in a manner similar to a web page.
Custom Styles
The following image shows layout control elements drawn using a custom style that mimics an MS® Money UI.
