Draw a Slider Command Control

The following instructions are just one example of how a slider command can be drawn and used to for commanding.

  • You have reviewed or completed the Preparing to Create Controls to Command Objects workflow.
  1. To create a new command control element on a graphic, from the File menu, select New Symbol .
  1. From the Home tab, in the Elements group, click Command Control , and draw a wide and short rectangle on the canvas.
    NOTE: The width of the slider determines the most left and most right position of the thumb during run time.
  1. From the Property View (Command Control Properties), expand the Command Control properties, and from the Control Type drop-down menu, select Slider.
  • The text in the rectangle on the canvas changes to Slider.
  1. (Optional) Select the Slider control on the canvas, and from the Home tab, from the Brushes group, select a color for the background. This option makes the extents of the Slider visible; therefore, it is easier to see and configure the Slider during design.
  • NOTE: After editing is finished, the background of the slider control must be set back to No Brush, so that the elements that make up the visual representation display.
  1. To create the Slider thumb, from the Elements group, select a drawing or image element to draw or depict a thumb.
  • For this example, from the Elements group, click Path , and draw an upside down triangle at the top and center of the command control. Next, from the Brushes group view, select the Fill drop-down menu, and from the color palette, select #FFFFFFFF (white). The thumb must have a Fill applied in order to be selected at runtime.
    NOTE: At runtime, the thumb snaps to the correct X coordinate along the Slider; however, the Y coordinate remains the same. Therefore, draw the thumb close to the top of the Slider. Also, if you rotate the slider 90*, so that the slider slides up-and-down, instead of left-and-right, the thumb snaps to the Y coordinate and the X coordinate stays the same.
  • NOTE: To save space, you can also draw the Thumb on top of the Slider control to take up less space.
  1. In the Element Tree, press the CTRL key, and select the Slider element and the Path element, then right-click and from the Group menu that displays, select Join or Leave Command Control.
  • In the Element Tree, the Path now represents the thumb (child) of the Slider command control.
  • You have drawn the foundation for the Slider command control.