Qt Designer's Widget Editing Mode▲
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In the Widget Editing Mode, objects can be dragged from the main window's widget box to a form, edited, resized, dragged around on the form, and even dragged between forms. Object properties can be modified interactively, so that changes can be seen immediately. The editing interface is intuitive for simple operations, yet it still supports Qt's powerful layout facilities.
To create and edit new forms, open the File menu and select New Form... or press Ctrl+N. Existing forms can also be edited by selecting Open Form... from the File menu or pressing Ctrl+O.
At any point, you can save your form by selecting the Save From As... option from the File menu. The UI files saved by Qt Designer contain information about the objects used, and any details of signal and slot connections between them.
Editing A Form▲
By default, new forms are opened in widget editing mode. To switch to Edit mode from another mode, select Edit Widgets from the Edit menu or press the F3 key.
Objects are added to the form by dragging them from the main widget box and dropping them in the desired location on the form. Once there, they can be moved around simply by dragging them, or using the cursor keys. Pressing the Ctrl key at the same time moves the selected widget pixel by pixel, while using the cursor keys alone make the selected widget snap to the grid when it is moved. Objects can be selected by clicking on them with the left mouse button. You can also use the Tab key to change the selection.
The widget box contains objects in a number of different categories, all of which can be placed on the form as required. The only objects that require a little more preparation are the Container widgets. These are described in further detail in the Using Containers in Qt Designer chapter.
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Selecting Objects Objects on the form are selected by clicking on them with the left mouse button. When an object is selected, resize handles are shown at each corner and the midpoint of each side, indicating that it can be resized. To select additional objects, hold down the Control key and click on them. If more than one object is selected, the current object will be displayed with resize handles of a different color. To move a widget within a layout, hold down Shift and Control while dragging the widget. This extends the selection to the widget's parent layout. Alternatively, objects can be selected in the Object Inspector. |
When a widget is selected, normal clipboard operations such as cut, copy, and paste can be performed on it. All of these operations can be done and undone, as necessary.
The following shortcuts can be used:
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Action |
Shortcut |
Description |
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Cut |
Ctrl+X |
Cuts the selected objects to the clipboard. |
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Copy |
Ctrl+C |
Copies the selected objects to the clipboard. |
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Paste |
Ctrl+V |
Pastes the objects in the clipboard onto the form. |
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Delete |
Delete |
Deletes the selected objects. |
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Clone object |
Ctrl+drag (leftmouse button) |
Makes a copy of the selected object or group of objects. |
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Preview |
Ctrl+R |
Shows a preview of the form. |
All of the above actions (apart from cloning) can be accessed via both the Edit menu and the form's context menu. These menus also provide funcitons for laying out objects as well as a Select All function to select all the objects on the form.
Widgets are not unique objects; you can make as many copies of them as you need. To quickly duplicate a widget, you can clone it by holding down the Ctrl key and dragging it. This allows widgets to be copied and placed on the form more quickly than with clipboard operations.
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Drag and Drop Qt Designer makes extensive use of the drag and drop facilities provided by Qt. Widgets can be dragged from the widget box and dropped onto the form. Widgets can also be "cloned" on the form: Holding down Ctrl and dragging the widget creates a cop |
