Deluxe Label Manual

Deluxe Label
Version 1.0

Table of Contents

Overview
Installation
Properties Reference
Known Problems
Future Plans
Contacting the Author
Version History

Overview

Deluxe Label is a descendent of TLabel. It adds several enhancements, such as 3D text, bitmap background, e-mail/url/application launching capability, to the standard label. As of current release, Deluxe Label had only been tested under Delphi 4 but the component should be able to work under Delphi 3 as well.

Installation

Unzip the contents to a directory of your choice. Personally, I prefer to use "C:\Program Files\Borland\Delphi\Lib\User" to store my third-party components.
Under Delphi 4, select Component | Install Component.... Enter the path to AtDeluxeLabel.dcu and click OK in the Install Component dialog box.
Deluxe Label should install without any problem and a new tab "ATDC" will be added to the component speedbar.

Properties Reference

This section document only the new properties that were added to TLabel. For other properties, please refer to Delphi's help file and look under TLabel.

Name		Description
AppPath		Specifies the path to the application to be launched. Only applicable when LabelType is set to ltLaunch.
BackgroundBitmap		Specifies the bitmap to be used as the background for the label. Only applicable if BackgroundMode is bmBitmap.
BackgroundMode		Define the background style of the label. Possible values: dmNone - Normal dmBitmap - Use a bitmap as the background dmGradient - Use a gradient as the background
BitmapDisplayStyle		Define how the background bitmap should be displayed. Possible values: dsNone - Bitmap displayed at the top left hand corner of the label dsCenter - Bitmap is centered in the label dsStretch - Bitmap is stretched to the size of the label dsTile - Bitmap is tiled across the label
EMail		Specify the e-mail address to open. Only applicable if LabelType is ltEMail.
DropShadowColor		Define the color of the shadow when the TextStyle is set to tsDropShadow.
DropShadowDepth		Specify the offset of the drop shadow.
GradientEndColor		Define the ending color for the gradient. Only applicable if BackgroundMode is bmGradient.
GradientStartColor		Define the starting color for the gradient. Only applicable if BackgroundMode is bmGradient.
GradientStyle		Define the style of the gradient. Possible values: gsHorizontal gsVertical gsElliptic gsRectangle gsVertCenter gsHorizCenter
HeavyHighlightColor		Define the highlight color to use when ShadeType is set to ssHeavy (Heavy Shadow).
HeavyShadowColor		Define the shadow color to use when ShadeType is set to ssHeavy (Heavy Shadow).
HotTrack		Specify whether hottracking is enabled. When enabled, Deluxe Label will change its appearance according to the enabled hottrack styles.
HotTrackStyles		Define the actions to perform when the mouse enters the label. Possible actions: htFontBold - Font style of the label is set to fsBold when mouse enters the label. htFontItalic - Font style of the label is set to fsItalic when mouse enters the label. htFontStrikeThru - Font style of the label is set to fsStrikeOut when mouse enters the label. htFontUnderline - Font style of the label is set to fsUnderline when mouse enters the label. htFontColor - Font color of the label is set to color defined in HotTrackFontColor when mouse enters the label. htPlaySound - Play the sound file specified in SoundFile.
LightHighlightColor		Define the color of the highlight when ShadeType is set to ssLight (Light Shadow) and TextStyle is set to tsRecessed.
LightShadowColor		Define the color of the shadow when ShadeType is set to ssLight (Light Shadow) and TextStyle is set to tsRaised.
LabelType		Define the nature of the label. Possible values: ltNormal - Normal label. ltURL - Launches the web browser to the url specified in URL. ltEMail - Launches the e-mail editor and set the recipient of the e-mail to the e-mail specified in EMail. ltLaunch - Launched the program specified in AppPath.
ShadeType		Define the style of the 3D effect to apply to the caption. Possible values: ssHeavy ssLight
SoundFile		Specify the sound file to be played. Only wave files are supported as of current release. Only applicable if htPlaySound is set in HotTrackStyles
TextStyle		Define the style of the label. Possible values: tsDropShadow - A shadow is drawn below the caption tsFlat - Normal label style tsRaised - Raised 3D caption tsRecessed - Recessed 3D caption

Known Problems

There are a couple of known problems as at version 1.0 of Deluxe Label.

When Enabled is set to True, the label will not be drawn with a disabled look opposed to that of a standard label.
The Layout property has no effect on Deluxe Label.

The above mentioned problems will be addressed in the next release of Deluxe Label.

Future Plans

The next release will see more features and enhancement to existing properties being added as well as any bug fixes. No release date has been decided but work on the next version will commence very soon. Preliminary specifications for the next version has been decided.

Contacting the Author

Feel free to e-mail me about bugs reports, suggestion or just plain causal mail. I will try to return your mail but I cannot guarantee a speedy response because I do not have a Internet connection at my home. I am currently accessing the Internet through my school.
You can reach me at tzeyong@hotmail.com.

Version History

26 May 1999

First public release.