The Design view of a Screen
This view displays, in a read-only mode, the design of the generated instance whose code is currently displayed in the PDP COBOL editor and selected.
To see the content of this view, you must have generated a Program, Screen, or Server. Then, from the Design Explorer view or the result view of a local or server instance or reference search, open the generated file by right-clicking it and selecting the PDP COBOL editor. For example, for the generated file of a Program, select in the contextual menu of the generated Program. The editor must remain opened and currently selected.
The design elements are constituted of the attributes and resources of the instance. You do not modify them directly in the Design view but in the design editors. You can right-click an attribute or a resource in the Design view and select Open editor in the contextual menu to open the appropriate design editor.
As soon as you modify the design in the design editor of the instance itself or of one of its called instances, the modifications are visible in the Design view. If you close the design editor without saving and if the instance is not opened in another editor, the modifications are discarded in the Design view.
Description of the view
This view shows a hierarchical view of the design elements.
The Attributes category contains the same information as the Definition tab of the instance.
- Attributes contains the Dialog definition (same information as the Definition tab).
- Common area contains the name and label of the Data Structure selected as the common area (same information as the Complement tab).
- Managed files contains the Segments and Data Elements called in the Dialog (same information as the -CS Lines tab).
- Macros displays the Macro calls of the Dialog (same information as the -CP Lines tab).
- Attributes contains the Screen definition (same information as the Definition tab). The Default value displayed in the Attributes fields means that the value is inherited from the Dialog.
- Map description displays the elements called in the Screen map (same information as the -CE Lines tab).
- Managed files contains the Segments and Data Elements called in the Screen (same information as the -CS Lines tab).
- Macros displays the Macro calls of the Screen (same information as the -CP Lines tab).


The preference Structure checking before generation management, which is available from , checks that the nesting of subfunctions in the COBOL code is correct before the generation. By default, it blocks the generation if structure errors are detected.