ExpressBars Suite

What’s new in ExpressBars Suite v2011 vol 1?

• New Ribbon Styles - In addition to the existing DevExpress Office 2007 style Ribbon, the newest release includes two new Ribbon style options:  Windows Scenic Ribbon and Office 2010 Ribbon
• Ribbon Gallery - You can now provide an icon and descriptive text for each gallery item within the In-Ribbon Gallery.
• Skin Chooser Gallery - Originally written as an optional part of the Ribbon UI, this component provides an efficient way for end-users to apply skins from the ExpressSkins Library (including custom skins) specified in the application's uses clause, without any additional coding on your side.
• Ribbon Mini Toolbar Component - This customizable counterpart of a Ribbon context menu is now context-sensitive. In reaction to text selection via the mouse, it automatically pops-up using an animated fade while providing relevant (contextual) commands.
• Tabbed MDI Manager - The component provides a tabbed document interface within MDI applications. In the tabbed MDI layout, all child forms are displayed as tabbed pages on the main form.
• Extra Pane Visibility - The Ribbon Application Menu's extra pane can be hidden in order to optimize work space.
• Arbitrary ordering of bar items and galleries in a dropdown menu - A bar item can now be placed ahead of a gallery in a dropdown menu. In turn, the gallery is displayed in the menu as a dropdown gallery.
• TdxRibbonGallery Inheritance - The gallery item’s collection type was changed from TCollection to TcxComponentCollection. This change overcomes limitations associated with gallery state persistence in descendant forms. Inherited forms can now use the parent form's gallery settings.
• Design-Time Enhancements - Ribbon Gallery Designer - In previous versions, gallery items could not be moved from one group to another. With this release, gallery items can be freely moved between different gallery groups via drag and drop within the Ribbon Gallery Designer.
• Automatic Bar Manager binding - When dropped onto a form, the TdxBarDockControl automatically links the bar manager on the form, using the BarManager property.

What’s new in V6.x?

• Ribbon UI - With the TdxRibbon, TdxCustomRibbonForm, TdxBarApplicationMenu, TdxRibbonPopupMenu, TdxBarScreenTipRepository and TdxRibbonStatusBar components, you can build Ribbon interfaces similar to those found in Microsoft Office 2007
• Embeddable Editors from the ExpressEditors Library - All in-place editors from the ExpressEditors Library can be used within toolbar items. Use the TcxBarEditItem to create this type of item. Note: ExpressEditors Library is not shipped as part of the ExpressBars Suite and must be acquired separately
• Separator Items - To fully support Microsoft Office 2007 look and feel, we have implemented a new item type - TdxBarSeparator. You can use this item type in context menus and popup lists. For instance, in the following image, the Clipboard and Formatting separator items are used to break a context menu into two logical groups
• Form Inheritance Enhancements - TdxBar is now a TComponent descendant (was a TCollectionItem descendant in previous versions). Toolbars on both the base and inherited forms can be reset
• Parented Forms and Frames -Parented forms and frames are fully supported. Problems with common keyboard shortcuts, accelerator keys, tab navigation, and hints in parented forms have been addressed
• Improved Support for Images and Image Lists - You can now use the TcxImageList component to display 32-bit bitmaps, PNG images and icons with alpha blending. You can now optionally use a glyph's left-bottom pixel to determine its transparent color.  The image mask of a transparent glyph is now taken into account when painting an image from an image list
• Extended Appearance Control - Added the capability to apply custom color and font settings to a toolbar item's caption and in-place editor (via the item's Style and StyleEdit properties)
• Merging Mechanism Improvements - More than two toolbars can be merged. You can now merge bar managers. You can use the specially designed MergeKind and MergeOrder properties of a bar item to control merging. 
• Design-Time Improvements -Toolbars can now be selected using the mouse. You can also select multiple items and toolbars by holding down the SHIFT and CTRL keys. It's much easier to delete the selected links, items, and toolbars using the DEL and CTRL+DEL keys. You can press the ESC key to access the selected object's parent component (for instance, press the ESC key to move to the parent toolbar of a bar item which is currently selected)

The ExpressBars Suite is a 100% VCL toolbar, menu and docking system for Delphi and C++Builder. Written from the ground up, it is optimized to take full advantage of the VCL component architecture and once integrated into your projects, gives you the power to deliver unrivalled capabilities and runtime customization to your end-users without writing a single line of source code.

The ExpressBars Suite isn't just powerful but it is completely easy to use. For your end-users, they will have at their disposal the same UI elements they use each and every day within applications such as MS Office and Internet Explorer. For you, ExpressBars provides an extremely rich design time environment so you can produce superior applications in the shortest possible time.

The features listed below offer you a glimpse into ExpressBars and the benefits it will bring to your next Win32 application.

• Multiple Display Styles - Whether you prefer MS Office 2000, XP or Office 2007 - Internet Explorer or Windows XP, the ExpressBars Suite gives you the options to build your best. This includes the ability to use large or small buttons within individual bars
• Automatic Drag & Drop End User Customization - Just like MS Office, your applications can allow end-users to fully customize toolbars and menus, thus giving your apps highly polished presentation and flexibility. The ExpressBars even allows you to enable "hot" customization. Hot customization is the ability for end-users to manipulate menus/bars without activating the customization dialog
• Full Docking Support - With the ExpressDocking Library, you can implement the same exact behaviors and functionality found in the VS.NET IDE, including window hiding. And all Dock Windows are able to fully restore their positions each time the user executes your application
• WYSIWYG Toolbar and Menu Designer - ExpressBars makes it supremely simple to design your next toolbar or menu via its intuitive visual designer
• Popup Context Menu - Not just a toolbar and menu - ExpressBars also includes a popup menu for use throughout your application
• ICQ® Style Collapsible Menu Groups - With ExpressBars' new collapsible menus, you can introduce an extremely intuitive menu layout to your applications
• Fully Customizable Status Bar - Need a status bar which your end-users can customize just as they do their toolbars and menus? ExpressBars includes a built-in status bar so you can deliver an entirely customizable application to your end-users
• Background Image Support - The ExpressBars allows you to display background images within your toolbars and menus
• Complete Control Over Toolbar/Menu Dock Position
• Load and Save State - With the ExpressBars, you can load and save Bar state to an INI file, to the Windows Registry and to a stream
• Detachable Sub-Menus - ExpressBars offers you and your end-users the ability to tear off any sub-menu and allow them to float…just like MS Office
• Complete Localization Support
• Advanced Toolbar Docking - With the ExpressBars, your users can dock toolbars/menus in a manner suiting their own needs
• Resizable Drop-Down Windows
• Built-in Editors and Controls
• Automatic Conversion of Existing TMenu(s)
• Automatic Quick Menu/Toolbar Customization - Just like MS Office®
• Menu Usage Tracking (Just like MS Office®)
• Comprehensive MRU support
• Menu Animation
• Full Control Over Bar Caption Orientation
• Action List Support
• MS Outlook® Style SideBar
• Full Support for ImageLists (To help reduce GDI resource usage)
• DisabledImages and HotImages support
• Integrated Look and Feel Controller - The ExpressBars Suite fully supports the look and feel capabilities, via the same Look and Feel Controller. You can now manage the appearance of both of these libraries via the same centralized repository
• Logical Groups - Enable and disable multiple controls in one easy step. (Less code = Less hassles)