PushButton attributes (Tarma)

Reference information
Project page Installer Dialogs
Related topics Working with attribute panes

Introduction

A PushButton control appears as a simulated 3D button that performs some action when pushed (or "clicked"). It contains a text label, bitmap, or icon image. To display a bitmap or icon image in a PushButton control, you must add the desired bitmap or icon on the Bitmaps or Icons project page, then select the control's Caption type and set the control's Caption attribute to the name of the desired bitmap or icon image.

The PushButton controls perform default actions if no explicit actions are defined for them. As a result, common buttons such as "Next", "Back", etc. do not require explicit actions. Furthermore, the actual dialog sequence is defined in a separate action sequence. This design makes it easier to reuse a given dialog box in different contexts; with the Windows Installer PushButton controls this is generally not possible because they are tied to a specific dialog sequence. This is the main reason why a Windows Installer requires more separate (even if similar in layout) dialog boxes for its user interface than the equivalent Tarma Installer.

See Dialog Control IDs for an explanation of the available control IDs and their default actions.

MSI note The Windows Installer equivalent is the PushButton control.

Attributes

This pane contains the following attributes and options.

Attribute Description
Control ID

Select a control ID from the drop-down list or type a numerical ID to use for this control. All controls within a dialog must have different control IDs. For most controls, you should select Automatic; for PushButton controls, one of the standard IDxxx values is generally recommended.

See Dialog Control IDs for an explanation of the available control IDs and their usage.

Name Enter the internal name for the control. This name is for use in Tarma ExpertInstall only; it is not used in the installer. All control names must be unique within their parent dialog box.
Caption type

Select the desired caption type from the drop-down list:

  • Text - Displays a text string on the button's surface
  • Bitmap - Displays a bitmap image on the button's surface
  • Icon - Displays an icon image on the button's surface
Caption

Depending on the Caption type selection, enter one of the following:

  • Text - Enter the text string to display
  • Bitmap - Enter the name of the bitmap image to display in the control, or click ... (browse) to open the Select Bitmap Image dialog that allows you to select a bitmap from the project's bitmaps.
  • Icon - Enter the name of the icon image to display in the control, or click ... (browse) to open the Select Icon dialog that allows you to select an icon from the project's icons.
Condition

Enter the display condition for the control or leave empty to display the control unconditionally. See Dialog Control Conditions for more information.

Font

Select the font style for the text in the control by clicking ... (browse) to open the Select Font Style dialog. If no font style is selected, the control uses the parent dialog's font style. You can remove the font style by clicking X (clear).

Visible
Enabled
Tab stop
Group
Border
Sunken
Client edge
Transparent
Don't mirror

These are all standard control styles; see Dialog Control Styles for a description.

Multiline Check this box to allow the control's caption to wrap around to the next line if the text width exceeds the control's width; clear it to restrict the caption to a single line. In the latter case, it will be clipped if it exceeds the control's width.
Flat Check this box to make the check box appear flat; clear it for a beveled 3D edge.
Default button

Check this box to mark the PushButton control as the default button in its parent dialog; clear it for a non-default button. The default button in a dialog is indicated with a heavier border and responds to Enter key presses. At most one PushButton control in each dialog can set as the default button; you should generally use this for the most common action, for example "Next".

H Select the desired horizontal alignment of the control's caption from the drop-down list.
V Select the desired vertical alignment of the control's caption from the drop-down list.
Icon size

Select the desired icon size for the control. This option only has effect if the Caption type is set to Icon.

Note: If the selected image size is not present in the icon file, then the system scales one of the other icon images to the desired size. The resulting image may be less than satisfactory; in that case, you should edit the original icon file and add an image of the required size.