Nested Group Frustrations

[J. Landman Gay]

On 12/30/11 1:00 PM, Pete wrote:

> Maybe I'm not aware of all the IDE capabilities for editing groups in terms
> of adding more controls to them.  For a top level group, it's simple.  Just
> select the group, ungroup, shift-click the new controls, and group.  Trying
> to do the same for a nested group seems to be pretty much impossible
> without ungrouping the whole group hierarchy.

Don't do it that way. Disaster ensues.

To edit a group, select the group either in the app browser or by 
turning off "select grouped" in the toolbar and clicking the group. Then 
in the toolbar click "edit group". When you are done editing, click the 
toolbar button again to stop editing.

For nested groups, work your way down through them. Edit the top layer 
group, select the next one, edit that one, select the innermost one, 
edit that one. Then work your way back up by clicking "edit group" 
(which stops editing) a few times.

It is very rare that I ever actually need to edit a group that way 
though. Usually I just keep "select grouped" turned on so I can manage 
the controls directly. If I need a new control it's often easier to just 
create it from the message box ("create button 'whatever' in group 
'nestedGroup'") or else I option-drag-copy an existing control and 
change its properties. Dragging off a new control inside a group keeps 
it in the same group as the original. I realize this is a geeky 
workaround, but in deeply nested groups it's just quicker.

Ungrouping can cause loss of not only the groups, but also their scripts 
in certain cases. Try to avoid ungrouping unless you really mean it.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com