To edit form and controls properties, open the Properties window in Form Designer. As you select a form or control, the Properties window displays the properties of the selected object. The title bar of the Properties window shows which kind of object, such as form, text box, or label is currently selected. The first line in the window shows the ID of the object.

Each line in the Properties window contains a property which you can set in the Value field. If your entry contains an error, the update is not accepted. The default values are displayed in angle brackets. If a property has a default value, you can reset it by deleting the current value and then moving out of the field. Some properties do not have default values—mainly those that describe the position of the control within the form. These properties are updated by C/SIDE when the control is moved.

Controls that have a direct relationship to table fields inherit the settings of those properties that are common to both the field and the control. You can change the settings of these properties for the control, but you cannot overrule the settings of the field properties that concern data validation. For example, if the field property that determines which characters the user can enter is set to lowercase only, you cannot use the properties of the control to reset it to also accept uppercase characters. You can narrow the accepted range of characters but not broaden it. However, you can change properties like the caption because this property has nothing to do with data validation. When you design an application, you must consider whether these common properties should be specified at the field level or the control level. The advantage of using the lowest level (the field level) is that it ensures consistency because when the field is used as the data source of a control, these settings are used as the default.

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