Open topic with navigation

Overview of the Toolbox

The Toolbox is a set of panes from which you can drag reusable objects and data sources onto the template or data entry form, allowing you to quickly design items from scratch. You can modify the contents of the toolbox using the Toolbox submenu, located in the View menu. This submenu enables you to specify how you want to display the different panes of the Toolbox.

Select the Show All with Auto Hide On option to hide the toolbox panes when they are not in use. In Auto Hide mode, the panes minimize to tabs, with the default location along the left side of the application window. Move the cursor over a pane's tab to display the pane. As long as the mouse remains inside of the pane, it will continue to display.

In addition to activating Auto Hide using the submenu, you can activate it by clicking the icon located in the upper right corner of the desired pane. To turn off Auto Hide mode, click the icon.

If you reposition the Toolbox or an individual pane and turn Auto Hide on, the Toolbox will minimize to the title bar when you move the cursor off of it.

The following panes are available:

ClosedComponents Pane (Template Design View)

Sometimes when designing a template, you need to add an object whose properties are nearly identical to those of another object you created earlier, either on the same template or on a different one. The Components pane gives you a place to create and store pre-configured objects, and even groups of objects. You can reuse any such component by dragging it from the pane to a template.

Organizing and Navigating the Pane

The Components pane operates like any standard Windows directory. You can switch between tree, icon, and list views using the View option from the context menu. In any view, you will have the standard context menu options to cut, copy, paste, rename, and delete components. You can navigate between folders and move or copy items as you would in any directory. To move up to the parent folder in the icon or list view, double-click the icon labeled [Up Components]. The context menu also gives you the option to create new folders, so you can organize your components into logical sets and subsets.

Creating and Storing a Reusable Component

After you have added a new object to a template and configured its properties, you can store the object for reuse by adding it to the Components pane. To do so, open the context menu on the object and select Create Component from the context menu. An icon representing the component will appear in the Components pane (in the currently selected folder) with the temporary name "Component" highlighted beneath it. You can overwrite the temporary name with a new name by typing in the desired name.

If you plan to reuse an entire set of objects, you can create a component of a group of objects. Once you have grouped objects, select Create Component from the context menu. For more information on grouping objects, see Creating an Object Group.

ClosedLayers Pane (Template Design View)

The Layers pane lists all of the available layers; additionally, you can easily create new layers and modify existing ones. When you add a new object to the template, BarTender will automatically insert the object on the selected layer of the Toolbox. Each listed layer contains a preview image, the name of the layer, and the following buttons:

/ Locks the selected layer, preventing further changes or additions.

/ Toggles the visibility of the layer on screen. Note that this does not affect whether or not the layer gets printed. This option is primarily used to make it easier to edit templates by hiding those layers that are not immediately relevant to the layer with which you are currently working.

Double-clicking on a layer opens the Layer Properties dialog, where you can configure the on-screen representation of the selected layer and the printed output.

You can change the order of the layers in your document by dragging a selected layer to the desired position in the layers list. The layer at the top of the list will print on top of all layers below it.

At the bottom of the Layers pane, the layer toolbar allows you to easily create new layers and manage the order of existing layers. It contains the following buttons:

Opens the Layer Properties dialog to configure a new layer on the document.

Cuts the selected layer and all items in the layer and saves them to the clipboard.

Copies the selected layer and all items in the layer to the clipboard.

Pastes the layer saved to the clipboard into the document as a new layer.

Deletes the selected layer and all of its contents from the document.

Moves the selected layer up one position on the layers list.

Moves the selected layer down one level on the layers list.

ClosedData Sources Pane (Template Design View)

The Data Sources pane in Template Design View lists all of the data sources available for use on your template, including database fields, named data sources, and global data fields. Using this pane, you can assign any of these data sources to existing objects by simply dragging them and dropping them on the desired object.

The Data Sources pane groups the data sources by type:

If a data source is used on the template, you can modify it directly in the Data Source Properties dialog by double-clicking it in the Data Sources pane. In situations where a single data source is attached to multiple objects, editing the data source through this method will update the values for all connected objects.

ClosedData Sources Pane (Data Entry Form)

The Data Sources pane for data entry forms allows you easily link data sources and/or objects on a template to data entry controls on a form. Using the Data Sources pane, you can view the data sources on your template, and connect an existing data source's value to a reply box on the data entry form.

The Print Dialog Data Sources directory allows you to link the number of copies or serialized items to a control on the data entry form. This allows you to ask the user for the number of copies they want to print each time BarTender executes the print job.

Whenever you give a name to a data source, the data source appears in the Named Data Sources directory. Once listed in this directory, you can link the named data source to a control on the data entry form. Additionally, you can link to any other object value using the Template Object Data Sources directory.

ClosedTo link a data source to a control using the Toolbox

  1. Click on the desired data source in the Data Sources pane of the Toolbox.

  2. Holding down the primary mouse button, drag the mouse cursor to the desired control on the data entry form.

  3. Release the mouse button to link the data source to the control.

Alternatively, you can link a data source to a control using the Linked Data Source property page of the desired control.

Related Topics