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Customizing the Component Gallery

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You can customize the Component Gallery by changing the default behavior of catalog, folder, and gallery items through the appropriate Properties dialogs.

To create a Component Gallery catalog

  1. Select the Options button on the Component Gallery toolbar.
  2. Click the Catalogs tab in the Component Gallery Options dialog box.
  3. Click New and name the new catalog in the Open dialog.
  4. Click OK.
  5. The Component Gallery adds the catalog to the treeview so you can begin using it as you would any existing catalog.

To change a catalog or folder configuration

  1. Right-click the catalog or folder.

  2. From the shortcut menu, click Properties.

  3. In the Catalog Properties dialog box or Folder Properties dialog box, select the tab containing the options you want to configure.

    Gallery catalogs and folders, as displayed in the Component Gallery windowCatalog pane, can represent URLs, folders, or files on your hard disk. You can view a Gallery folder as Web view or as an Explorer-level view, depending on the way you specify the name in the General tab of the Folder properties dialog.

Web Views

You can specify URLs or files as Gallery catalogs or as Gallery items. When you configure an item as a Gallery folder, the item automatically opens as a Web view in the Object (right) pane when you select it in the Catalog pane.

To configure a Gallery catalog or folder as a web view

  1. In the Folder Properties Dialog_Box, select the Node tab.

  2. In the Dynamic folder field, specify the Web page or file name as in the following examples:

    http:\\www.microsoft.com\

    file:\\c:\my documents\testpage.htm

    file:\\c:\my documents\Wordfile.doc

When you highlight the Web view icon in the Catalog pane, the toolbar changes to include Web navigation buttons. The Web view will reflect the settings of your Windows Explorer.

Explorer-level Views

You can specify a directory as a Gallery folder or catalog that has characteristics of Windows Explorer.

To configure a Gallery catalog or folder as an Explorer-level view

  1. In the Folder Properties Dialog_Box, select the Node tab.

  2. In the Dynamic folder field, specify a folder or file name and backslash (\) as the value as in the following examples:

    C:\My Documents\

    Note   This specification creates a view of actual files, unlike other Component Gallery views. In this view you can delete files from your disk. To create an Explorer-level view that maintains protection of displayed files, specify the target using a wildcard designation as in the following example:

    C:\My Documents\*.*

Avoid using wildcards to create dynamic folders when you can expect to find more than 512 items, unless you have a fast machine with a large amount of RAM.

See Also

Component Gallery Catalogs | Component Gallery Object Members | Development Productivity Tools | Starting with the Component Gallery | Component Gallery Class Library (Vpfgallery.vcx)