Interface functionality: accessing screens

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In Axiell Designer there are two ways to list existing screens and open one or more of them for editing in the Screen editor: through the Application browser, or through the Screens manager. In both ways it's also possible to create new screen files, as in the Screen editor itself.

Screens in the Application browser

With the Application browser you can scroll through your application similar to scrolling through folders and files on your computer with Windows Explorer. But in the application/object browser you'll only see folders and application objects, like screens and application definitions and databases. From here, you can add new objects too, to the folders or lists of your choice. And for screen files and screen references, you'll find a few properties of a selected screen in the right pane of the Application browser, where you may edit them; the properties of screen files that are displayed here, are just a small selection of all the properties of the screen that are accessible in the Screen editor.
Follow these steps:

1.	In the main Axiell Designer window that opens when you start Designer, start the Application browser by choosing View > Application browser or clicking the button for this tool:

Select your working folder in the Application browser window, by clicking the Open folder button:

Preferably, choose your main (copy of an) Axiell folder, not one of the subfolders in it. This allows you to browse all your application objects quickly. Click here for information about how to find a certain screen.

In the left window pane of the Application browser, click the + in front of each folder or object to expand the tree structure and display all objects or folders underneath the current item. Click - in front of each folder or object to fold it in. So click the desired subfolder node and just select the screen file or reference that you are looking for, to display all or some of its properties in the window pane on the right, or double-click the file to open it directly in the Screen editor. Note that if you double-click a screen reference, as can be found within an application definition (.pbk file), you of course open the referenced file. And before you edit a screen, remember that one and the same screen file may be referenced from different data sources and/or applications.
In the tree view the following different screen-related icons are used:

- references to list screens (a.k.a. brief display screens) which determine the initial column configuration of the Result set view in Collections.

- references to detailed display screens which will be shown in the Record details view in Collections.

- the actual screen files (with file extension .fmt).

Screen files in the Screens manager

1.	Start the Screens manager from the main Designer window by choosing View > Screens manager or by clicking the button for it:

2.	In the Screens manager, click the Change working folder button to select a working (sub)folder that contains screen files: (Click here for information about how to find a certain screen.)

The screens occurring in the selected folder will be presented in a list containing the screen file names, their descriptions, markers to indicate whether the screen has been changed and needs saving, and the last-modified date for each screen. Double-click a screen name to open it in the Screen editor.