Dialog box general options

Chapter 5 Using the PowerDesigner Interface

Dialog box general options

To set general options for dialog boxes, select Tools→General Options, and select the Dialog category in the left hand pane. The following options are available:

Operating modes

Option	Description
Auto Commit	Specifies that any change made in a property sheet is automatically committed in the object definition. You cancel a change by using the Undo feature. If this option is disabled, you must click Apply or OK to commit your changes.
Name to Code mirroring	Automatically updates the name or code of an object to reflect changes in the other.

Property sheets

In PowerDesigner, property sheets appear by default with a certain size and a series of tabs in the upper part of the dialog box. The following options are available for property sheets:

Option	Description
Keep size	Preserves the customized size you have defined
Keep last tab	Opens the property sheet to the last selected tab
Open mode	Controls how property sheets are opened. You can choose between: Open each object in the same property sheet Open each object in its own property sheet
Tabs mode	Controls the display of tabs. You can choose between: Tabs on one row - Aligns all tabs on a single line with arrow buttons < and > for browsing Tabs on several rows - Displays tabs on two lines, their size corresponding to the length of their title.

Shortcut property sheets

The following options are available:

Option	Description
Internal Shortcut	Controls whether double-clicking an internal shortcut opens the property sheet for the shortcut or for the target object. You can switch from one mode to the other by pressing the shift key while opening the property sheet. If the target object cannot be found (target model is closed for example), the shortcut property sheet automatically opens.
External Shortcut	Controls whether double-clicking an external shortcut opens the property sheet for the shortcut or for the target object.

For more information, see the "Managing Shortcuts" chapter.

Object lists

The following options are available:

Option	Description
Auto-insert rows	Specifies that a new item is created automatically in a list when you click an empty row
Use default name	Specifies that new items are given default names upon creation, allowing you to create multiple new objects without having to supply names or other properties.