For more information on layout groups, please see the corresponding help topic.

You can nest as many levels of groups as you wish. Next to the label of the layout group in the tree of form components, the number of all contained form components is shown in bold font. Form components in nested groups are counted as well.

• Custom layout
  Instead of a simple sequence of form components on a form screen, you can use horizontal layout groups to put form components side-by-side. Nesting vertical and horizontal form components allows you to achieve virtually any layout.

  Sometimes, enclosing groups and sibling groups span a cell that cannot be entirely filled with a layout group. With the "Anchor" property you can determine where the layout should be placed. By default, horizontal form components are anchored "West" and vertical form components are anchored "North-West".

  Layout groups have a configurable cell spacing. For vertical layout groups, this is the vertical gap between two form components (0 pixels by default), for horizontal layout groups this is the horizontal gap between two adjacent form components (5 pixels by default)

  For each layout group, you can specify insets that are inserted around the entire layout group. By default, the insets a zero in all directions.

  By default, horizontal layout groups align a leading label of the first form component in the group with other form components from a direct vertical parent group. This is usually appropriate when horizontal groups are used to attach additional form components to the right side. If this alignment is not desired, you can use the "Align first label" property of a horizontal layout group to switch off the alignment.

  Vertical layout groups always break alignment of leading labels. Within a vertical group, leading labels are aligned, but between vertical groups, the width of leading labels is unrelated.

• Organization
  If you have many form components on a screen, vertical groups emphasize which form components belong together. You can add a common comment to the group.
• Common visibility script
  Groups have a "Visibility script" property that allows you to hide the entire group with a common condition instead of having to repeat the condition for each contained form component.
• Single target for coupled form components
  If a set of form components should be coupled to the selection state of a check box or a single radio button, you can select the containing layout group as the target instead of selecting all coupled form components separately.

The configurable properties of tabbed panes and single tabs are:

Tabbed pane

A tabbed pane contains a number of single tabs, which in turn contain form components. Properties: Visibility script [Initialization] A script that determines whether form components in the group (and all descendant components in nested groups) will be visible or not. This works for both GUI and console modes. In GUI mode, the script will be invoked each time just before the form components are initialized. Visibility scripts of nested form components can further hide single form components, but they cannot show them if a parent layout group is already hidden. Insets [Layout] The insets around the entire group. The format is top;left;bottom;right, use the drop-down button at the right side to show the insets editor. Anchor [Layout] The position in the available space where the group is anchored in the layout. This is only relevant if the group takes less space than the cell that is created by the surroundings. Tab placement [Tabbed Pane] The location where the tabs will be displayed. Tab layout policy [Tabbed Pane] The layout policy for tabs determined what should be done if there is not enough horizontal space to display all tabs. The default policy "Wrap" creates multiple lines of tabs to accommodate all tabs, the policy "Scroll" shows a scroll button and keeps a single line of tabs. Fill horizontal space [Tabbed Pane] If set, the tabbed will fill all the available horizontal space regardless of its content, otherwise it will be as wide as required by the preferred size of the contained form components. Fill extra vertical space [Tabbed Pane] If set, the tabbed pane will expand to fill remaining vertical space. Extra vertical space is only available, if the form is not scrollable. Custom form screens have a "Scrollable" property, which must be set to false. If this property is not selected, the tabbed pane will be as high as required by the preferred size of the contained form components.

Single tab

A single tab can be added to a tabbed pane group. It can contain any kind of form components Properties: Image File An image that is shown on the edge or as a background. Apart from an image that is anchored to the center of the group, the image can optionally cut off an entire edge from the group. In that case it is possible to set a background color for the edge stripe so that the image can blend into the surroundings. Can be empty. To add a high-resolution image for retina displays, create a file with double the resolution and an additional @2x after the name (e.g. image.png and [email protected]) next to the selected image. The install4j runtime JAR file i4jruntime.jar contains a number of image files that you can reference here by prefixing the icon file name with "icon:". For example, icon:lock_open_32.png loads a 32x32 icon showing an open lock. Image anchor The anchor where the image will be attached to in the layout group. If Center is chosen, the image is always displayed in the background. Image edge For corner anchors, you have to select either the horizontal or the vertical edge that will optionally be filled with the image edge background color and that will be cut of from the layout group if the image is not displayed in the background. Image edge background color The background color that the image edge should be filled with. If the image terminates with the same color, the image will blend with the background and the entire edge will look like a single visual element. Not available if the anchor is set to "Center" Image insets The insets around the image. The format is top;left;bottom;right, use the drop-down button at the right side to show the insets editor. Overlap with contained components If selected, the image will by used as a background image and form components contained in the layout group will overlap with the image. Otherwise, the image edge will be cut off from the layout group and form components will not overlap with the image. In that case, the insets of the layout group will be applied to the actual content area that excludes the image edge. Not available if the anchor is set to "Center" Image edge border If selected, the image edge will be separated by a line border from the content area. Not available if the image overlaps the contained components. Image edge border color The color of the image edge border. Leave empty to choose the default separator color of the current look and feel. Note: This property is only visible if "Image edge border" is selected. Image edge border width The width of the image edge border in pixels. Note: This property is only visible if "Image edge border" is selected. Background color The background color of the layout group. Can be empty. Foreground color The foreground color of the layout group. Can be empty. If set, all contained form components will use this foreground color except those that have an explicitly configured foreground color. Border sides On which sides a line border should be painted around the form component, a list of "top", "right", "bottom" and "left", separated by semicolons. Use the drop-down button to select the sides visually. Border color The color of the drawn border sides. Leave empty to choose the default separator color of the current look and feel. Border width The width of the drawn border sides in pixels. Border title A title that is displayed in the top-left corner of the border. Leave empty if no title should be displayed. Visibility script [Initialization] A script that determines whether form components in the group (and all descendant components in nested groups) will be visible or not. This works for both GUI and console modes. In GUI mode, the script will be invoked each time just before the form components are initialized. Visibility scripts of nested form components can further hide single form components, but they cannot show them if a parent layout group is already hidden. Insets [Layout] The insets around the entire group. The format is top;left;bottom;right, use the drop-down button at the right side to show the insets editor. Anchor [Layout] The position in the available space where the group is anchored in the layout. This is only relevant if the group takes less space than the cell that is created by the surroundings. Cell spacing [Layout] The cell spacing determines how many pixels are inserted between single components in the layout group. Tab title [Tab] The title that is displayed on the tab. To configure a keyboard shortcut, prefix the mnemonic character in the title with &, e.g."&User". The prefixed character will be underlined and the platform-specific keyboard shortcut (e.g. ALT+[character] on Windows) will allow the user to quickly navigate to this tab with the keyboard. Tab icon [Tab] An image file with an icon that is displayed on the tab. Can be empty. To add a high-resolution image for retina displays, create a file with double the resolution and an additional @2x after the name (e.g. image.png and [email protected]) next to the selected image. The install4j runtime JAR file i4jruntime.jar contains a number of image files that you can reference here by prefixing the icon file name with "icon:". For example, icon:lock_open_32.png loads a 32x32 icon showing an open lock. Tooltip text [Tab] An optional tooltip text that is displayed when the user hovers with the mouse over the tab. Activation script [Tab] A script that is executed when the tab is activated.