0, In this demonstration, we'll look at creating a custom property page for your ActiveX control.
7, Custom property pages allow you to provide a more sophisticated user interface for setting properties than is possible with the standard properties window.
16, Here we have a simple ActiveX control with a single UserControl.
20, This UserControls' a simple clock which updates every second using a timer control.
26, If we go ahead and close the UserControl window, we'll see an example of using this control on the form.
30, Here we have two instances of that clock control.
33, Also, we'll see that there's single property for this control called Active, and if we set the Active property to false, it disables that control.
42, Now, if we want to add a property page to our UserControl, we'll go ahead and open it up again.
47, The easiest way to do that is with an add-in and we'll go to the Add-In Manager.
51, And this add-in is called the Property Page Wizards.
54, I'll go ahead and select the Property Page Wizard, choose OK.
58, Now if I go to the Add-Ins menu again, I'll see the Property Page Wizard add-in.
63, Go ahead and select that add-in.
65, Here we're given an introductory screen and I'll go ahead and choose Next.
69, And now we're able to add additional property pages to our project.
73, This project currently doesn't have any custom property pages, so I'll select the Add button, and we'll just keep the default name of PropertyPage1.
81, Choose OK.
82, After I've added any property pages I can go ahead and click the Next button again, and now we can assign properties to be available on that property page.
91, So, I'll go ahead and select our Active property and move it onto that property page and again we'll select the Next button.
98, And now, finally, I'm given an option of creating a summary report from the Wizard and I'll go ahead and choose yes, and we'll select Finish.
106, And then we get a final dialog that tells us that the property pages have been created.
111, And then our summary report, which tells us what has been done by the Wizard, and what we'll need to do to use this new property page.
118, I'll go ahead and close that and now let's take a look at some of the changes that have been done by the Property Page Wizard for us.
125, First, you'll notice that a property page has been added to our control project.
130, Also, if we look at the UserControl itself, and we'll scroll down to a property called PropertyPages, and if we select that property we'll get a dialog that's called Connect Property Pages and we'll see that the PropertyPage1 property page has been chosen as an available property page for our control.
152, Also, if we bring up the code window for the actual UserControl, go to the Tools menu, select Procedure Attributes, and we look at the advanced area of the Active property, we'll see that the Active property has been designated for use on the PropertyPage1 property page.
172, Go ahead and choose OK there.
175, There's also been some code written by this Wizard for you.
178, So, if we go to the actual property page, here we see the property page, and I'll double-click on it to select this code window.
184, Notice that two event procedures have been coded for you, the ApplyChanges event procedure and the SelectedChange event procedure.
193, The SelectedChange event procedure is called whenever the property page is displayed or if a user selects a different control while the property page is displayed.
204, The ApplyChanges procedure is called when a property is actually changed or when the user presses OK in the dialog.
214, Now let's go ahead and take a look at what our new property page looks like.
217, So I'll go ahead and close the clock control.
219, Now if I right click on either one of these controls on the form, select Properties, here we'll get our new property page.
226, Notice I can de-select the Active property now, and if I choose Apply, notice the control that I had selected stops updating.
235, If I select Active again and choose Apply, it continues updating.
240, I can also choose a different control and modify the properties of that control while the property page is open.
246, So, I selected the second clock control and changed the properties of that control.
251, And if I choose OK those property values are saved.
255, So, what we've seen in this demonstration is how to add a property page to your ActiveX control and that by using the Property Page Wizard a majority of the work can be done for you.
