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As previously announced, this is the official launch of KiXforms Designer BETA 1.

For those who don't know, this Designer is based 100% around Shawn Tassie's superb KiXforms product. The purpose of this Designer is to make it easier to create the initial look and feel of your forms so that you can spend most of your time programming the actual forms' behavior.

REQUIREMENTS:
--KiXforms Designer requires version 1.0 or 1.1 of the .NET Framework. This may be downloaded from Windows Update.

Upcoming features/fixes:

--When opening and closing the properties window, there is often a 1-2 second delay. This is due to horrible XML parsing routines. This will definitely be fixed in BETA2.

--In BETA 2 the properties window will be permanently docked to the right side of the screen (where the banner is now) instead of having to open it up for each object.

--The properties window will support dropdowns.

--Even though the default font size is 8.25 (in XP), BETA1 does not support float values so if you change the font size it will have to be an integer.

If the datatype is set to Boolean then double-clicking the entry will change the value.

If the datatype is set to color then double-clicking the entry will open the select color dialog. If you want to change the color manually, double click on the actual color and select cancel when you get the color dialog. (I’ll change that interface in BETA2 also)

You may want to spend some time tailoring the xml file for the most commonly used properties. I just took a stab in the dark on that one. As new properties get added we’re sure to find ones that don’t work correctly—we can fix them as we go.

XML file data points:

--Do NOT change (or add) the control type value for any controls

--If you add a property that exists in KF but not in .NET:
The property will be written in the script but you will not see any realtime changes in the Designer

--If you add a property that expects an enumeration return type:
You must add a "mapname" attribute that contains the .NET name of the enumeration

--If you add a property and assign the wrong data type:
You will not be able to successfully change the value from the default value in the Designer

Bugs and feature requests should be reported here
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Stevie