multi-item-list

Class

Package: common-graphics

Class

The class of the multi-item-list control.

Control

Instance of the multi-item-list class. This control is similar to single-item-list except that the user may select multiple items, in either continuous ranges or discontinuous ranges.

The value property is set to a list of the highlighted items; both sequential and non-sequential list items can be highlighted.

The range property contains all of the entries in the list; items appear in the order you enter them in the range.

The :key initarg to make-dialog-item should be a function of one argument which should return the object to be displayed for each item in the range.

Navigating and selecting items from the multi-item-list

Continuous ranges are selected by holding down the SHIFT key and clicking on the beginning and end of the range (or each item if desired). Discontinuous ranges are selected by holding down the CTRL key and clicking on each item desired. Or, if a multi-item-list is created with the initarg :simple-click-toggle true, each item is toggled separately with a click, but Shift-click does not, in that case select several items (see simple-click-toggle).

Arrow keys can be used to navigate up and down the length of the list.

Adding a multi-item-list control to your form

Click the multi-item-list tool on the Component toolbar. Move the mouse cursor to the part of the form where you want to place the control, and click again. The control will appear with colored resizing handles.

Resizing and moving the control

Controls can only be resized and moved on forms during the design stage; the size and location of everything is fixed on a running form.

Resize the control by clicking the mouse cursor and dragging one of the handles to the new size-point. Release the mouse key when you are satisfied with the new size. Note: resizing the multi-item list won't mean proportional changes in the size of the characters inside the list. Change the font property if you want to change the size of the actual characters displayed.

Move the control by clicking anywhere on it except a resizing handle and dragging it to a new location on the form. Release the mouse key when you are ready to place the control.

Scrollbars

Multi-item-list controls cannot have a horizontal scrollbar, so the valid choices are :vertical and nil for the scrollbars property. If a horizontal scrollbar is needed on a multi-item-list, an outline control could be used instead, using only top-level items in the range and turning off the draw-icons property to simulate an item-list.

Notes

When list-items exceed the size of the display, a scroll-bar appears on the right side of the box automatically. Scroll bars don't appear when individual list entries are too long to fit in the width of the display, nor does the text wrap.

See About how to get sample code for creating controls in cgide.htm, which explains how to use the IDE to create such code.

Common Graphics and IDE documentation is described in About Common Graphics and IDE documentation in cgide.htm.

The documentation is described in introduction.htm and the index is in index.htm.

Created 2000.10.5.