Using the 3D look

Applications sometimes have a three-dimensional look and feel. To use this appearance for an application, select a 3D border for your SingleLineEdit boxes and other controls and make the window background gray.

To use the 3D look by default:

  1. Select Design>Options from the menu bar.

    The Options dialog box displays.

  2. On the General property page, select Default to 3D.

    When you build a new window, PowerBuilder automatically sets the window background color to gray and uses 3D borders when you place controls.

    PowerBuilder records this preference in the Default3D variable in the [Window] section of the PowerBuilder initialization file, so the preference is maintained across sessions.

Mapping 3D colors for pictures

You can make the background of Picture, PictureHyperlink, and PictureButton controls blend in with the background of your window. This applies to whatever color scheme the user has selected on the Appearance page of the Display Properties dialog box in the Windows Control Panel.

Use this feature if you want to place a control containing a picture on a window and have the picture blend in with the background color of the window when the window's background is using Button Face for a 3D effect. The control's picture takes on the 3D colors the user has selected.

The window's background must be set to Button Face. To make the image blend in with the window, give it a background color in the range between RGB(160,160,160) and RGB(223,223,223), such as silver. Lighter shades of gray map to the button highlight color and darker shades to the button shadow color.

This option can affect other colors used in the bitmap. It does not affect the control's border settings, and it has no effect if there is no image associated with the control.