Field-presentation properties

The EGL field-presentation properties specify characteristics that are meaningful when a field is displayed in an on-screen output, when the destination is a command window, but not a Web browser.

In addition, the following properties are meaningful when the field is displayed in a printable output, when the destination is a printer or a print file:

The field-presentation properties have no effect on data that is returned to the program from a text form; they are solely for output.

Color

The color property specifies the color of a field in a text form. You can select any of these:

black
blue
defaultColor (the default)
green
pink
red
torquoise
white
yellow

If you assign the value defaultColor, other conditions determine the displayed color, as shown in the next table.

Are all fields on the form assigned the value defaultColor?	Value of protect	Value of intensity	Displayed color for a field assigned the value defaultColor
yes	yes or skip	not bold	blue
yes	yes or skip	bold	white
yes	no	not bold	green
yes	no	bold	red
no	any value	not bold	green
no	any value	bold	white

Highlight

The highlight property specifies the special effect (if any) with which to display the field. Valid values are as follows:

noHighLight (the default): Indicates that no special effect is to occur; specifically, no blink, reverse, or underline.
underline: Places an underline at the bottom of the field.

Intensity

The intensity property specifies the strength of the displayed font. Valid values are as follows:

bold: Causes the text to appear in boldface.
invisible: Removes any indication that the field is on the form.
normalIntensity (the default): Sets the field to be visible, without boldface.

Outline

The outline property lets you draw lines at the edges of fields on any device that supports double-byte characters. Valid values are as follows:

box: Draw lines to create a box around the field content
noOutline (the default): Draw no lines

In addition, you can specify any or all of the components of a box. In this case, place parentheses around one or more values, with each value separated from the next by a comma, as in this example:

  outline = (left, over, right, under)

The partial values are as follows:

left: Draw a vertical line at the left edge of the field
over: Draw a horizontal line at the top edge of the field
right: Draw a vertical line at the right edge of the field
under: Draw a horizontal line at the bottom edge of the field

The content of each form field is preceded by an attribute byte. Be aware that you cannot place an attribute byte in the last column of a form and expect an outline value to appear in the next column, which is beyond the form's edge. (The field does not wrap to the next line.) Similarly, you cannot place an attribute byte in the first column of a form and expect the outline value to appear in that column; the outline value can appear only in the next column.