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+/****************************************************************************
+**
+** Copyright (C) 2009 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
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+****************************************************************************/
+
+/*!
+ \page qt4-designer.html
+
+ \title The New Qt Designer
+
+ \contentspage {What's New in Qt 4}{Home}
+ \previouspage The Qt 4 Main Window Classes
+ \nextpage Cross-Platform Accessibility Support in Qt 4
+
+ \QD has been completely re-written based on our experience with
+ the previous versions of the product for Qt 3. One of the main new
+ ideas behind this new version is to release the application as a
+ collection of interchangeable components that include the property
+ editor, the widget box, and other useful tools for creating
+ graphical user interfaces with Qt. These components can either be
+ used together in the \QD application, or independently integrated
+ into other systems. As a result, certain features such as the
+ project editor and code editor have been removed from the version
+ included with this release.
+
+ The current version of \QD is near feature complete and can be used for
+ many tasks. However, it is still under continuous development. This
+ document will explain what is already in place.
+
+ See also the \l{Qt Designer Manual}.
+
+ \tableofcontents
+
+ \section1 The Current State of Qt Designer
+
+ When used as a standalone application, \QD includes a number of
+ components that work together to provide a flexible GUI design
+ tool. Widgets and dialog windows can be composed using a
+ form-based interface that fully supports drag and drop, clipboard
+ operations, and an undo/redo stack.
+
+ This version of \QD introduces a number of editing modes to make
+ different types of editing more natural. Each editing mode
+ displays the form in an appropriate way for that mode, and
+ provides a specialized user interface for manipulating its
+ contents. The current editing modes are Widget Editing, Signals
+ and Slots Editing, Buddy Editing, and Tab Order Editing.
+
+ \section2 User Interface Features
+
+ \table
+ \row \i \inlineimage designer-main-window.png
+ \i \bold{Widget Box}
+
+ The Widget Box displays a categorized list of widgets and other
+ objects that can be placed on a form using drag and drop.
+
+ When \QD is in multi-window mode, the window containing the Widget
+ Box also holds the main menu and the tool bar. When in workbench
+ mode, the Widget Box becomes an independent window within the \QD
+ workspace.
+
+ The contents of the Widget Box are defined in an XML file that
+ holds a collection of .ui documents for standard Qt widgets. This
+ file can be extended, making it possible to add custom widgets to
+ the Widget Box.
+ \endtable
+
+ \table
+ \row \i \bold{Property Editor}
+
+ The Property Editor allows designers to edit most properties of
+ widgets and layout objects. The property names and values are
+ presented in an editable tree view that shows the properties of
+ the currently selected object.
+
+ Certain resources, such as icons, can be configured in the
+ Property Editor. Resources can be taken from any currently
+ installed resource files, making it easier to design
+ self-contained components.
+
+ \i \inlineimage designer-property-editor.png
+ \endtable
+
+ \section2 Editing Features
+
+ \QD allows form designers to work on different aspects of their forms by
+ switching between specialized editing modes. Tools for editing widget
+ properties, resources, and actions provide context-sensitive information
+ about the forms being edited.
+
+ \table
+ \row \i \inlineimage designer-choosing-form.png
+ \i \bold{Form Templates}
+
+ Form templates provide ready-to-use forms for various types of widgets,
+ such as QWidget, QDialog, and QMainWindow. Custom templates based on
+ these widgets can also be created.
+
+ Templates can contain child widgets and layouts. Designers can
+ save time by creating templates for the most common user interface
+ features for repeated use.
+ \endtable
+
+ \table
+ \row
+ \i \bold{Widget Editing Mode}
+
+ The new \QD allows widgets to be dropped into existing layouts on
+ the form. Previously, it was necessary to break layouts in order
+ to add new widgets to them.
+
+ \QD now supports more direct manipulation of widgets:
+ You can clone a widget by dragging it with the \key CTRL key held down, and
+ it is even possible to drag widgets between forms.
+
+ In-place widget editors provide specialized editing facilities for
+ the most-used widget properties.
+
+ \i \inlineimage designer-editing-mode.png
+ \endtable
+
+ \table
+ \row
+ \i \inlineimage designer-connection-mode.png
+ \i \bold{Signals and Slots Editing Mode}
+
+ \QD now employs a "wired" approach when representing and editing
+ connections between objects on a form. The Signal and Slots
+ Editing mode displays all the signal and slot connections on your
+ form as arrows. These arrows can be manipulated visually, and
+ provide the user with an overview of the form's connection logic.
+
+ Connections can be made between objects on a form and the form itself.
+ This is particularly useful when designing dialogs.
+ \endtable
+
+ \table
+ \row
+ \i \bold{Buddy Editing Mode}
+
+ Widgets that cannot accept keyboard input are often given buddy
+ widgets that will take the keyboard focus on their behalf.
+
+ In Buddy Editing mode, \QD provides a similar approach to that
+ used in the Signals and Slots Editing mode to show the
+ relationships between widgets and their buddies.
+
+ \i \inlineimage designer-buddy-mode.png
+ \endtable
+
+ \table
+ \row
+ \i \inlineimage designer-tab-order-mode.png
+ \i \bold{Tab Order Mode}
+
+ In this mode, users can specify the order in which input widgets accept
+ the keyboard focus.
+
+ The way that the tab order is defined follows the approach taken
+ in Qt 3's version of \QD; The default tab order is based on the
+ order in which widgets are constructed.
+
+ \endtable
+
+ \table
+ \row
+ \i \bold{The Resource Editor}
+
+ The new \QD fully supports The Qt Resource System, and provide the
+ Resource Editor to help designers and developers manage the
+ resources that are needed by their applications.
+
+ Using the Resource Editor, resources can be associated with a
+ given form, and also modified and extended throught the editor's
+ file browser style interface.
+
+ The Resource Editor uses files that are processed by various
+ components of the \l{The Qt Resource System}{Qt Resource System}
+ to ensure that all required resources are embedded in the
+ application.
+
+ \i \inlineimage designer-resources-editing.png
+ \endtable
+
+ \table
+ \row
+ \i \inlineimage designer-action-editor.png
+ \i \bold{The Action Editor}
+
+ With the release of Qt 4.1, \QD introduces the Action Editor
+ simplifying the management of actions when creating main window
+ applications.
+
+ When creating a main window, you can add a menu bar and toolbars
+ using \QD's context menu. Once you have the menu bar or a toolbar
+ in place, you can create and add actions using the Action Editor.
+
+ \endtable
+
+ \section2 Plugin Support
+
+ \table
+ \row
+ \i \inlineimage worldtimeclockplugin-example.png
+ \i \bold{Custom Widgets}
+
+ Plugins can be used to add new custom widgets, special editors, and
+ support for widgets from the Qt 3 support library.
+
+ Support for custom widget plugins allows user interface designers to
+ use application-specific widgets in their designs as early as possible
+ in the development process.
+
+ \QD handles custom widgets in the same way as standard Qt widgets,
+ and allows custom signals and slots to be connected to other objects
+ from within Signals and Slots Editing mode.
+ \endtable
+
+ \table
+ \row
+ \i \bold{The QtDesigner Module}
+
+ The new modular \QD is designed to be integrated into other environments
+ and extended with custom components.
+
+ The QtDesigner Module is a library that developers can use to
+ write extensions and plugins for \QD, and enables \QD components
+ to be embedded into Integrated Development Environments
+ (IDEs).
+
+ With the release of Qt 4.1 the QtDesigner Module is fully
+ documented. The release also provides several new examples using
+ the QtDesigner API to create task menu extensions and custom
+ multi-page widgets (i.e. container extensions).
+
+ \i \inlineimage designer-manual-taskmenuextension.png
+ \endtable
+
+ \section1 Run-Time Support for Forms
+
+ With the Qt 4.1 release, the new QtUiTools module is introduced to
+ provide classes handling forms created with \QD.
+
+ Currently the module only contains the QUiLoader class.
+
+ QUiLoader can be used by standalone applications to
+ dynamically create form-based user interfaces at run-time. This
+ library can be statically linked with applications and
+ redistributed under the same terms as Qt.
+
+ \table
+ \row
+ \i \inlineimage calculatorbuilder-example.png
+ \i \bold{Dynamic Form Creation}
+
+ The QtUiTools library lets developers dynamically construct user interfaces at
+ run-time using the same techniques as \QD. Since forms can contain custom
+ widget plugins, the loading mechanism can be customized to search for
+ third party or application-specific plugins.
+ \endtable
+*/