Changes to Existing Dialog System Applications that Use the Visual Styles
Applying the visual styles to existing Dialog System applications might result in changing the size and positioning of controls and in UI inconsistency of your applications between different versions of Windows. Micro Focus recommends that you test your applications in different versions of Windows to ensure that the controls and fonts used by the applications always display as expected.
The following list indicates some of the changes you can expect to see in existing applications when the visual styles are enabled.
Differences when using the visual style controls and fonts
When the VISUAL STYLE FONTS option is selected in the Dialog System painter, the default, proportional and monospaced fonts are obtained from the visual styles that are active in the Windows operating system on which the application is running. The default font is used by Dialog System to calculate the number of pixels for each window and control.
- Windows could appear to be of a different size.
- Some controls could overlap.
- Controls that use the fit text option could be either too big or too small for the size of the text.
- The default size of sections of a control (such as the list view column size or the status bar area) might be too big or too small for the information these controls hold.
- The default window background color is based on the visual styles setting.
- Clipped child windows continue to have rounded borders despite the top-level windows no longer having them.
- When an application is using the visual styles, the Dialog System run-time does not apply 3D-borders to its controls.
- In Dialog System painter, the display fields background color is based on the visual styles setting.
- The screen control icons in the Icon palette toolbar of the Dialog System painter represent the controls to be added to screensets. They are not affected when you enable the visual styles in the painter and preserve their 3D appearance.
- It is not possible to set the foreground color on radio buttons and check boxes.
Also note the following differences:
Buttons
When the background color of a button has changed, it is visible as a halo effect around the button:
| Visual Styles | Classic look |
|---|---|
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Check boxes and radio buttons
It is no longer possible to set a foreground color on check boxes and radio buttons:
| Visual Styles | Classic look |
|---|---|
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Date and Time Picker control
It is not possible to configure the colors of a date and time picker control:
| Visual Styles | Classic look |
|---|---|
|
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List box control
It is not possible to set the size of the list box control in Dialog System. Windows now determines the size of list box according to the number of items in the list and the size of the window:
| Visual Styles | Classic look |
|---|---|
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It is not possible to set the color of the selection (the part of the control that is always visible) in a list box:
| Visual Styles | Classic look |
|---|---|
|
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Scroll bars and buttons
The default background colour is visible around the edges of scroll bars and buttons only if the background color of the window or the control has changed:
| Visual Styles | Classic look |
|---|---|
|
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Spin button
The arrows area in the spin button control is slightly bigger than the entry field, if the control is not being drawn with 3D borders:
| Visual Styles | Classic look |
|---|---|
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Tab control
The tab area of the tab control is drawn incorrectly if the tab area is positioned at the bottom of the tab control:
| Visual Styles | Classic look |
|---|---|
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