ExButton is a powerful and fully customizable button control designed to enhance your application's interface. It can replace the standard Windows button while offering advanced styling and interaction features. Use it to trigger actions like opening forms or executing commands, all while matching your application's visual style.
The component includes built-in button styles that replicate Windows XP, Windows 95/98, and Mac 8.x, and also allows you to design your own skins easily using the integrated WYSIWYG Skin Builder. With support for transparent areas, HTML-formatted captions, and custom graphics defined through simple text, ExButton provides unmatched flexibility.
Thanks to the Skin method, you can assign custom visuals to your buttons, including precisely defined borders, corners, and layout regions. These graphical elements automatically adjust to the button's size, maintaining their appearance without manual tweaking.
Features include:
1. Visual Appearance and Skin Support
- WYSWYG Skin Builder (ability to define your button faces in minutes)
- Includes support for the current theme and built-in skins for Windows XP, Windows 95/98, and Mac 8.x buttons (Windows XP not required)
- Ability to assign different skins for different button's states
- Unlimited options to show any HTML text, images, colors, EBNs, patterns, frames anywhere on the object's background
- Ability to assign icons, images, transparent images to the control using BASE64 encoded strings
- Ability to specify the control's background color without changing the visual appearance
2. Layout and Orientation
- Horizontal, Vertical, Rotate, Mirror support
- Rectangular or Round/Circular button support
- Ability to align the caption or the image anywhere on the button's client area
- Ability to resize the button without losing the corners
- Ability to specify a picture on the button's background
3. Caption and Tooltip Support
- Ability to specify HTML multiple lines caption
- Multiple-Lines HTML Tooltip support
- Text Decorations support, like gradient, outlined characters, shadow, and so on
4. Interaction and Behavior
- Focusable support
- Hot, Focus state support
- Normal, Push-Like, Check Box, Custom modes support
5. Toolbar and Customization
- Ability to build toolbars with your own style
The control supports the following properties and methods:
| | Name | Description | |
| | Alignment | Aligns the caption in the control. | |
| | AllowHotState | Specifies whether the control displays the hot state when the cursor is over the control. | |
| | AnchorFromPoint | Retrieves the identifier of the anchor from point. | |
| | AttachTemplate | Attaches a script to the current object, including the events, from a string, file, a safe array of bytes. | |
| | BackColor | Specifies the control's background color. | |
| | BackColorState | Specifies the background color for a specified state. | |
| | BackgroundExt | Indicates additional colors, text, images that can be displayed on the object's background using the EBN string format. | |
| | BackgroundExtValue | Specifies at runtime, the value of the giving property for specified part of the background extension. | |
| | BeginUpdate | Maintains performance when do changes one at a time. This method prevents the control from painting until the EndUpdate method is called. | |
| | BorderHeight | Sets or retrieves a value that indicates the border height of the control. | |
| | BorderWidth | Sets or retrieves a value that indicates the border width of the control. | |
| | Caption | Specifies the button's caption. | |
| | Debug | Specifies whether the control displays debugging information. | |
| | Enabled | Enables or disables the control. | |
| | EndUpdate | Resumes painting the control after painting is suspended by the BeginUpdate method. | |
| | EventParam | Retrieves or sets a value that indicates the current's event parameter. | |
| | ExecuteTemplate | Executes a template and returns the result. | |
| | Focusable | Gets or sets a value that indicates whether the control can receive focus. | |
| | FocusSkin | Specifies the skin file to display the specified state, when control has the focus. | |
| | FocusSkinV | Specifies the skin file to display the specified state, when control has the focus. | |
| | Font | Retrieves or sets the control's font. | |
| | ForeColor | Specifies the control's foreground color. | |
| | ForeColorState | Specifies the foreground color for a specified state. | |
| | FormatAnchor | Specifies the visual effect for anchor elements in HTML captions. | |
| | HFit | Specifies a value that indicates the horizontal offset to fit image with the caption. | |
| | HTMLPicture | Adds or replaces a picture in HTML captions. | |
| | hWnd | Retrieves the control's window handle. | |
| | Image | Specifies the image being displayed. | |
| | ImageAlignment | Specifies the image's alignment. | |
| | Images | Sets at runtime the control's image list. The Handle should be a handle to an Image List Control. | |
| | ImageSize | Retrieves or sets the size of icons the control displays. | |
| | ImageVAlignment | Specifies the image's vertical alignment. | |
| | IncClientState | Adjusts the control's client area for the specified side and state. | |
| | Mode | Specifies the control's mode. | |
| | MouseIcon | Sets or returns a value that determines a custom Icon to be displayed when the pointer moves over the control. | |
| | MousePointer | Sets or returns a value that determines the MousePointer to be displayed when the pointer moves over the control. | |
| | Picture | Retrieves or sets a graphic to be displayed in the control. | |
| | PictureDisplay | Retrieves or sets a value that indicates the way how the graphic is displayed on the control's background | |
| | Refresh | Refreshes the control. | |
| | RenderType | Specifies the way colored EBN objects are displayed on the component. | |
| | ReplaceIcon | Adds a new icon, replaces an icon or clears the control's image list. | |
| | Rotate | Rotates the HTML caption. | |
| | ShiftPushedState | Specifies the number of pixels by which the control's text (and image, if any) is shifted when the control is in the pushed (clicked) state. | |
| | ShowFocusRect | Sets or returns a value that determines whether or not the focus rectangle should be shown. | |
| | Skin | Specifies the skin file to display the specified state. | |
| | SkinV | Specifies the skin file to display the specified state. | |
| | State | Specifies the control's state. | |
| | Style | Specifies the control's style. | |
| | Template | Specifies the control's template. | |
| | TemplateDef | Defines inside variables for the next Template/ExecuteTemplate call. | |
| | TemplatePut | Defines inside variables for the next Template/ExecuteTemplate call. | |
| | ToolTipDelay | Specifies the time in ms that passes before the ToolTip appears. | |
| | ToolTipFont | Retrieves or sets the tooltip's font. | |
| | ToolTipMargin | Defines the size of the control's tooltip margins. | |
| | ToolTipPopDelay | Specifies the period in ms of time the ToolTip remains visible if the mouse pointer is stationary within a control. | |
| | ToolTipText | Specifies the control's tooltip text. | |
| | ToolTipTitle | Specifies the title of the control's tooltip. | |
| | ToolTipWidth | Specifies a value that indicates the width of the tooltip window, in pixels. | |
| | UseFocusSkin | Specifies whether the focus skins are used when control has the focus. | |
| | UserData | Gets or sets the user-definable data for the current object. | |
| | UseTransparency | Specifies whether the control supports transparency. The transparent regions in the control's skin indicates the transparency. | |
| | VAlignment | Specifies the caption's vertical alignment. | |
| | Value | Indicates whether the button is clicked or released. | |
| | Version | Retrieves the control's version. | |
| | VFit | Specifies a value that indicates the vertical offset to fit image with the caption. | |
| | WordWrap | Indicates whether a multiline text automatically wraps words to the beginning of the next line when necessary. | |
