Getting Started


Working with the Composition Editor

When creating or modifying a part, you open the Composition Editor for that part. The Composition Editor is made up of several components: the parts palette along the left side, the status area along the bottom left, the tool bar along the top, the free-form surface where you layout the part and subparts, and the visual tool symbols at the bottom right corner.

 
Composition Editor

 

You use the Composition Editor to construct new parts. These new parts can contain other parts as well as connections between parts. You can think of the parts you construct in the Composition Editor as composite parts, because they contain other parts. While you can use the Composition Editor to construct various types of composite parts, you mainly use it to construct composite visual parts. The composite parts you build make up your application.


Tip

 

Until you learn to identify all of the tool bar and palette icons by sight you can always rely on hover help to assist you. To display hover help for a tool bar or part palette item just position your mouse pointer over the icon you are interested in. Hover help will display a brief description for several seconds and then turn itself off.


[ Top of Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Table of Contents | Index ]