ExpressLayout Control

What’s new in ExpressLayout Control v2011 vol 1?

• Layout Structure Inheritance - All layout elements can now be transferred to descendants of the layout control.
• New Layout Settings - New options for tabbed groups. With these settings, you can customize a tabbed group’s appearance in various ways. Group buttons can be positioned either on the group's left or right side. You can specify padding for each side of a layout element. Once specified, padding can be quickly triggered by changing individual padding options.
• Automatic tree expansion when dragging - In the Customization Form, a collapsed layout group is automatically expanded if a dragged layout element is positioned over the group's caption.
• Automatic tab switching when dragging - When the Customization Form is in tabbed View, dragging a layout element over the Layout Tree View or Available Items tabs automatically switches panes.
• Lock icon for layout groups - To ensure that end-users can see that a group is locked, the layout control displays a lock icon above the group's icon in the Customization Form.

The ExpressLayout Control represents a radical new way to develop and maintain applications with highly evolved and complex interfaces. It is both a developer productivity tool and an end-user customization tool.

Users often have use for only a small portion of the power an application provides. This small portion, however, varies significantly from one user to another. This results in applications that have extremely complex data entry screens with little or no customization ability for the user. In other words, a user’s screen is often cluttered by controls that have little or no use within a given organization.

The extensive customization features of the ExpressLayout Control give you all the tools you will need to combat UI bloat - and it will place power back into the hands of each individual user - in a manner that has never been available before in any programming environment. This is accomplished by allowing users to layout and manage their own UI - as their needs dictate - in a manner that suits their business requirements best - without seeking assistance from programmers or programmer oriented tools.

Among the features you will find in the ExpressLayout Control are:

• Supports development of inductive user interfaces
• Full Resolution Independence - Using Microsoft UI standards found in applications such as Outlook®
• Comprehensive Design and Runtime Customization - Both developers and end-users can fully customize Windows forms via an intuitive docking system
• Auto-Management - Control groups and individual control elements are automatically managed by the Layout Control. You never worry about pixel-by-pixel positioning
• Unlimited Nesting - Control groups and control elements can be organized in a myriad of different ways - to give your application the functionality and ease of use it requires
• Runtime Creation of Groups - Users can add groups as they wish
• Intricate UI Control - From the manner in which captions are displayed, to the offsets between individual UI elements - to hot-tracking - Everything is under your control
• MS Money® Style UI - You can build Windows forms that look and behave like those found in MS Money
• Vertical and Horizontal Orientation
• Full Persistence - ExpressLayout Control supports full persistence - You can save settings to the Registry, INI file, and to a Stream
• Style Support - Visual styles allow you to control the look and feel of your applications