Using the Tab Control

Tab Pro gives you many options to design your tab interface. Choose a link listed below to learn more:

Change the number of tabs and rows

Tab Pro supports 32,000 tabs in a single control. There are several options for defining how the tabs are presented to your user: 1. Define up to 32,000 tabs using the TabCount property. 2. Define the number of tabs that appear on a single row using the TabsPerRow property. 3. Display a selected number of tabs and allow the user to scroll to additional tabs using the AllowScroll property. 4. You can let the control display a variable number of tabs in each row, with tabs of different sizes by setting the TabsPerRow property to 0. 5. If you let the control display variable size tabs, you can set a maximum size for the tabs by setting the TabMaxWidth property. In this Tab control, the TabsPerRow property is set to 0, and the tab headers size according to the length of the header text.

Freeze row positions

By default, when a Tab control has more than one row of tab headers, the rows are repositioned when the user activates a tab header that is not in the first row. You can freeze the rows so they maintain their position regardless of which tab is active (that is, the tab with the focus). When the rows are frozen and you click a tab that is not in the first row, a line appears across the tab headers. Any control that is on the active tab is shown in the area below the line (the client area). In this Tab control, the rows are frozen. Tab 4 is the active tab, and its contents would be displayed in the client area.

Display large number of tabs

A Tab control can contain more tabs than can be displayed. By default, the Tab control creates additional rows of tab headers as necessary and all rows are displayed. However, if the control tries to display a large number of tabs, it might cut off part of the display of the tabs, resulting in an undesirable appearance. You can limit the number of rows of tabs that are displayed at one time and set the AllowScroll property to let users scroll to tabs that are not initially displayed. Use the MaxScrollRows property to specify the maximum number of rows to display at one time. Set the AllowScroll property to 1 (Scroll (Show Whole)) or 2 (Scroll (Show Partial)) to create a Tab control that users can scroll through. You can create a Tab control that lets users scroll through all the tabs in the control by clicking the earmark, or folded corner, of each tab. This figure illustrates a Tab control that displays multiple tabs and earmarks.

Display focus

You can specify whether the Tab control displays a focus rectangle when it receives the focus. If the Tab control displays a focus rectangle, you can specify one of the following: 1. Display the focus rectangle according to the style of the operating environment. In Windows NT 3.51 or Windows 32s®, the focus rectangle appears around the text or picture in the tab header (if the tab header contains both text and a picture, the focus rectangle appears around the text only). In Windows 95 or later (and Windows NT 4.0 and later), the focus rectangle appears just inside the tab header border. 2. Display the focus rectangle around the text or picture (if the tab header contains both text and a picture, the focus rectangle appears around the text only). 3. Display the focus rectangle just inside the tab header border. The default focus rectangle. You can customize its display to depend on the operating environment, or you can specify exactly what it surrounds.

Tab headers

You can place tab headers on the top, bottom, left, or right side of the Tab control. You can set the tab headers to be chamfered (beveled), slanted, rounded, or square. Pictures can also be added to the headers as well as offsetting the row positions. This image illustrates four nested tabs, each having different header orientation.     This image illustrates two header shapes: slanted and squared.

Resize tab controls automatically

You can create a Tab control that automatically changes its size to fit its parent container, such as a form. At the same time you can also add space between the Tab control and the edge of the parent container. If you are using the ActiveX control, you can also set properties to change the size and position of child controls automatically in the same proportions as the Tab control   0 - None (Default) Retains size of Imprint or Tab control as it was created.   1 - Top of Parent Moves Imprint or Tab control so top edge is flush with parent (Retains the original height, but resizes the width based on the parent.).   2 - Bottom of Parent Moves Imprint or Tab control so bottom edge is flush with parent (Retains the original height, but resizes the width based on the parent).   3 - Left of Parent Moves Imprint or Tab control so left edge is flush with parent (Retains the original width, but resizes the height based on the parent).   4 - Right of Parent Moves Imprint or Tab control so right edge is flush with parent (Retains the original width, but resizes the height based on the parent).   5 - Fill Parent Resizes Imprint or Tab control to fill parent completely.

Tab text

Tab Pro supports several options for displaying text in the tab headers Aligning Text You can set the horizontal alignment of the header text to align it to the left, center, or right within the tab header. You can set the vertical alignment of the tab header text to align the text to the top, center, or bottom of the tab header. Wrapping Text When you set the WordWrap property to True, text that is too long to fit on one line in the header wraps to the next line, if one is available. The number of lines available in the tab header depends on the height of the tab header and the font used. Three-Dimensional Text You can create three-dimensional text in the tab header. You can set the colors of the highlight and shadow portions, and vary the spacing, or offset, between the text and its highlight and shading.

Rotating Text You can rotate the header text 90, 180, or 270 degrees or you can have it print vertically within the tab header.

Using the Tab Control