"Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service."

Update: AlphaControls v8.33 Beta released20.05.2013

• Improvements in the TsToolBar, TsCoolBar and TsPageControl drawing in Delphi XE3-XE4
• Improved drawing of the TsOpenPictureDialog
• Improved drawing of hints when HtmlMode is off
• Added new TsHTMLLabel component
• Many minor bugfixes and improvements

Update: AlphaControls v8.32 Beta released10.05.2013

• Added support of RAD Studio XE4
• Improved refreshing in TsScrollBox, TsPanel and frames
• Added support of AutoSize property when WordWrap is True in TsCheckBox and TsRadioButton
• Added WordWrap property in the TsSpeedButton
• Some improvements in the TsFrameBar items aligning
• Solved problem with changing of TsLabelFX position

New: Published 'Dark Metro' skin30.04.2013

Tutorial: Adding skins to existing project01.04.2013

Two main ways exists for adding skins:

1. Using of standard components, controlled by the TsSkinManager component
2. Replacement of standard controls by analogs from the AlphaControls package

1. Using of standard components

This way is more easier in most cases and allows to see a result after few minutes of work. Therefore, we first consider it. For a sample will be used an existing demo-program from Demos directory in BDS2005. Sources of this demo may be downloaded there.

After first compiling of this project we will receive a window where form and all controls have standard looking.

All we need now is ...

Update: AlphaControls v8.31 Beta released27.03.2013

• Improved drawing of items with custom colors in TsListView
• Solved problem with "Replace" button in ImageList editor
• Solved all known issues in the skin-engine
• Solved autosizing issue in the TsImage component
• Improved drawing of TsComboBoxEx with csExSimple Style
• Many minor improvements

Published 'FM' skin

Tutorial: Skins creation. General information

Only unpacked AlphaSkins may be loaded to the skin editor. For unpacking and loading of packed skin (*.asz) use the "Unpack and open" button in the ASkinEditor.exe. All skins in unpacked state contains two main files :

So, for a new skin creation needed ...

Tutorial: TsAlphaHints component

Controls a drawing of tooltips in the application with or without skins. To get this component working, it is enough to place him to the main form of application. He has one basic style already, this style is configured and used as default. That's all! Hints will be drawn automatically now while the Active property is True.

A variety of styles may be made by changing of component settings. For managing styles there is a special design-time editor of the Templates property.

Unlike TsHintManager component, the TsAlphaHints manager can draw hints with any shape. TsHintManager is obsolete and remains in the package for compatibility. Component TsAlphaHints more promising and preferable to use.

Thanks to the TsAlphaHints tips may have a text formatting using Html tags, can display images and graphs. Animated hints may be produced also. Example of use can be seen in this demo.

The component can apply user defined styles, and can use styles defined in the current skin, if it is active. The UseSkinData property should be enabled for using of styles from skin. Each skin has the 'HINT' section, where defined a data which used for drawing.

ShowHint and HideHint procedures may ...

Tutorial: TsAlphaImageList and TsVirtualImageList

This component is an analogue of standard TImageList component, but there are some significant differences:

• Changing of Height and Width properties without loss of icons.
• It's possible to use this component as a storage of images with different sizes.
• Allowed formats of icons : Ico, Png and Bmp 32bpp.
• Images are embedded in executable file in the original format (with compression).

Update: AlphaControls v8.30 Beta released21.03.2013

• Added new TsImage component
• Added new TsSlider component
• Added new TacComboEditEx component (acExtra package)
• Added TsSkinManager.Palette array with main skin colors
• Improvements in skinning of the TDBGridEh control
• Improved caching of controls images
• Color of drawn skinned TsLabelchanged without changing of Font.Color property
• Added TsLabelFX.Angle property
• Many minor improvements

Tutorial: TsSkinProvider component

This component manages skinning of each separate form where he is placed. Despite the fact that it is created automatically (if TsSkinManager.SkinningRules.srStdForms is True), it is recommended to put this component on the form in design-time. This contributes to better controlling of the form, improves an animation of forms showing and many other operations. Also, this component contains many additional settings that help to influence the best skinning of the form on ...

Tutorial: TsSkinManager component

Component is designed for centralized management of program skinning process. For work of this component is enough to define a skin and set the Active property to True.

There are two ways of skins deploying with the application ...

Update: AlphaControls v8.20 Stable released01.03.2013

• Small improvements in support of standard MaskEdit
• Removed a glitch in opened ComboBox when skin is changed
• Improved scrolling in virtual treeview
• Improved work from keyboard in the popup calculator (TsCalcEdit)
• Improvement in TsSpeedButton refreshing when parent is resized
• Fixed error which occurs sometimes in application runned under Windows XP

Tutorial: Standard and third-party components

To allow support of a 3rd-party control within your project, the control must be declared in the SkinManager.ThirdParty property. Use a special design-time editor for a handy adding of required controls.

List of currently supported components (increases ...

Tutorial: Important stuff

Here are a several simple tips, the implementation of which can significantly improve the behavior of the skinned application:

1. Use the TsSkinProvider in all forms, where possible. It manages the drawing of form-owner. If the TsSkinProvider component is not placed on form in design-time, then it will be ...

Tutorial: First application with AlphaSkins

How to use AlphaSkins properly? Consider the simplest example :

1. Create a new application

2. Put the TsSkinManager component on the form, let's call him as sSkinManager1

3. Add at least one skin to ...

Tutorial: Installing questions and issues

Below we try describe the main questions that may arise during installation of components and recommendations for addressing them.

• Common questions
• Error messages

Tutorial: Installing the Alphacontrols package

If you have a previous version of the package already installed, you should remove it using the following method.

1. Open the "Component/Install packages" menu item in Delphi/C++ Builder and remove Alpha packages there
   
2. Remove all AlphaControls files in the ...
   More info