Widget Operations

The IDL GUIBuilder allows you to operate on widgets in many ways. You can select, deselect, move, cut, copy, paste, and delete widgets, and you can undo and redo operations. This section describes the following:

Selecting Widgets

Press Shift and click on each widget.

Press Control and click on each widget. When you press Control, you can change the selection state by clicking again on the widget; pressing Control during selection allows you to toggle the selection state of a widget without affecting the selection state of any other widget.

Press the left mouse button and drag out an area in the top-level base that includes the widgets you want to select. When you release the mouse button, widgets in the selection box are selected.

When you select multiple widgets, there is always one primary selection. The primary widget selection is indicated with the dark, filled-in selection handles. If you open the Properties dialog with multiple widgets selected, the properties displayed are those for the primary selection.

Moving and Resizing Widgets

You can move widgets around in their parent base by dragging the widget to a new location or by using the arrow keys.

To move a widget to a new base, or to give a widget a new parent base within the same top-level base, do one of the following:

Press Alt and drag and drop the widget on the new parent base.

Right-click on the widget, choose Cut from the menu, right-click on the new base widget, and choose Paste from the menu.

To resize a widget, click on a sizing handle, and drag to the desired size. To size the widget larger than its parent base, press Alt and drag to the desired size.

Cutting, Copying, and Pasting Widgets

You can cut, copy, and paste widgets within the same base or to another base in another IDL GUIBuilder window, using the Edit menu items, toolbar buttons, or a context menu (opened with a right-click on the widget).

To cut or copy a selected widget, or to paste a widget from the clipboard, do one of the following:

Choose the desired operation from the Edit menu, or from the IDLDE toolbar.

Right-click on the widget and select the desired operation from the menu. If you are pasting, right-click on the base widget you want to paste into.

Select the widget and use standard windows keyboard shortcuts to cut, copy, or paste the widget.

Deleting Widgets

Select the widget and choose Edit

Delete.

Select the widget and press the Delete key.

Right click on a widget and choose Delete from the menu.

Undoing and Redoing Operations

In the IDL GUIBuilder, you can undo or redo unlimited operations between save procedures. If you save the resource file, the operations are cleared from memory.

Select Edit

Undo.

Click the "Undo" button on the IDLDE toolbar.

Press Control+z.

Select Edit

Redo.

Click the "Redo" button on the IDLDE toolbar.

Press Control+y.