Recreating the Blank Form

[Jeff Johnson]

The "Blank Form" shape that ships with the "Windows and Dialogs" stencil in
VS 2003 behaves differently than normal shapes in that the window header
does not scale vertically when the overall window scales. I'd like to
recreate this behavior but am having a tough time.

It looks to me like there are 4 connection points that glue the header and
the body of the window to the box frame. Beyond that I'm not sure how it
goes together. Once I group a header shape with vertical height protected to
another shape, the height of the header still scales with the scaling of the
group.

I've tried ungrouping the sample window but VS tells me that shape
protection or layer properties prevent the command from completing.

If anyone can tell me how to glue a grouped element to another element and
retain its protection properties I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Jeff

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

Actually the connection points have nothing to do with the behavior of the
header. They are there so that you can glue toolbars into the form shape.

The header has custom formulas to control its height and its placement
relative to the top of the frame. They are not complicated, but you do have
to use the Shapesheet window to set these up. The Height of the header is a
fixed value instead of a value dependent on the height of the overall frame.
The position of the header is determine by subtracting a fixed amount from
the height of the frame.