Rational Developer for System z

Design page

The Design page contains the design canvas and an associated Palette view, where you can visually edit a format definition. You can also customize the display options for the Design page.

Design canvas

The design canvas provides the space for customizing a format definition. Use the scroll bars to view the entire visual editing space.

The pop-up menu also provides the available design and filter options and edit options.

To add an item to the canvas, click the item icon on the Palette and click the cursor at the canvas location that you want. You can also drag the item onto the canvas.

When you select an item in the design canvas, that item is highlighted in the Outline view, and property value information is shown in the Properties view.

Edit options and keyboard shortcuts

Table 1 lists the edit options and the corresponding keyboard combinations. These options are also available from the pop-up menu.
Table 1. Design canvas edit options
Option Keyboard shortcut
Undo Ctrl+Z
Redo Ctrl+Y
Cut Ctrl+X
Copy Ctrl+C
Paste Ctrl+V
Delete Delete
Save Ctrl+S
Print Ctrl+P
Important: The Undo and Redo operations apply to operations performed in either the Outline view or the design canvas. For example, if you cut a field in the design canvas, the Undo Cut option is enabled in the Outline view pop-up menu.

Selecting and moving items

To select and move items on the Design canvas, use the Palette view Select tool from the Default drawer. Click on the item and press the mouse button while dragging. While dragging an item, a pop-up display shows location information. For a field, the row and column value within the page are shown, along with the field width.

To select multiple items in sequence, use the Select tool in the Design canvas, and press the Ctrl key while clicking the items to be selected. You can then click one highlighted item and move the entire group of selected items.

To draw a box around the items that you want in the Design canvas, press the Shift key while you use the Select tool.

To draw a box around the items in the Design canvas and have only nodes selected, use the Marquee tool. Then use the Select tool to create a cursor for moving the items.

Display options

Use the following display options to customize the design canvas.
Terminal Size
This selector enables you to create format definitions for several screen sizes.
  • 12 × 80
  • 24 × 80 (default)
  • 32 × 80
  • 43 × 80
  • 24 × 80
  • 27 × 132
Toggle Gridlines
This option hides or shows the grid lines in the design canvas.
Toggle Samples Values
This option shows the type of data allowable in a field and the size of the field. For example, a numeric field of 4 units will show a sample value of 9999. An alphanumeric field shows XXXX.
Toggle Black and White Mode
This mode enables you to view devices and fields in a high-contrast canvas.
Zoom Level
This option controls the zoom level of the design canvas.
Filters
This option enables you to view and prioritize a subset of the devices in the design canvas.

By default, all devices are shown. You create new filters to display customized groupings of devices. You can also change the ordering of devices in the list.

Printing

To print the design canvas, click File > Print from the menu toolbar. You can also use the Ctrl+P key combination or select Print from the pop-up menu.

Bidirectional options

If you have enabled bidirectional support, a Toggle Bidirectional Mode button is displayed on the Design page toolbar.
The following toggle options are available:
  • Visual Data

    Toggles between visual ordering of text and the default logical ordering.

  • RTL Mapset

    Toggles the orientation of the screen and the horizontal ruler between left-to-right to right-to-left.

  • Symmetric Swapping

    Resets swappable characters. For example, in a right-to-left string, the open parenthesis ( and close parenthesis ) will be reversed.

  • Numeric Swapping

    Sets an inversion of the screen, which causes Hindi numerals to be replaced by their Arabic counterparts and the Arabic numerals to be replaced by their Hindi counterparts.


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