User Interface for Container and Automation Objects

Note:

This topic is for Imaging toolkits.

When using automated annotations, you can change the default properties of the user interface and the objects in the container by clicking on the container with the right mouse button. When you change the default properties, you are, in fact, changing the properties of the automation object that is associated with the container. The popup menu lets you do the following:

The default background color does not affect highlight, redaction, and note objects.

Use the L_AnnSetOptions function and the L_AnnGetOptions function to control the following features:

For more information about these features, refer to Annotation Features.

If the annotation objects are container, automation, text, text pointer, stamp, note, pushpin, or button objects it is possible to use the L_AnnGetTextOptions and the L_AnnSetTextOptions functions to set the objects to show or hide the text and to set the color of the text. In addition, if the annotation objects are text or stamp objects these functions can set the objects to show or hide the borders of the object. Note that these features must be enabled using the L_AnnSetOptions function.

The L_AnnSetFillMode and the L_AnnGetFillMode extends the original functions to support the ANNMODE_ALPHA fill mode. Before calling these two functions, enable the alpha background fill mode by calling the L_AnnSetOptions function.

Grouping and Ungrouping Annotation Objects

When using Automated annotations, if the UserMode is set to ANNUSER_DESIGN, selecting or un-selecting an object that belongs to a container which is not the root container, makes all objects from that container to be selected or unselected. This allows all objects in a sub-container to be treated as a group.

To group objects, create a container and insert the new container into the root container specifying fStripContainer = FALSE in the call to L_AnnInsert. Then, you can insert items into the sub-container to create a group. Any object that is inside the root container will be treated as an individual object when using Automated annotations. This is done automatically for you when using Automated annotations and the user selects Group or Ungroup from the automation menu.

Disabling Automation Menu Items

When you call L_AnnSetAutoText, if you pass an empty string, the menu item defined by uItem will be disabled and removed from the automation menu. To re-enable the menu item, you must call L_AnnSetAutoText and pass a valid string.

For low-level implementation details, refer to Container Annotation Object and Annotation Automation Object.