Configure Delphi Tools Menu

The Delphi Tools menu is configurable. By default, the menu item for the Delphi Tools Tool menu is "Database Desktop", "Image Editor", "Package Collection Editor", "XM L Mapper" menu items.

Users can add their own tools to the "Tools" menu, such as adding other common Delphi tools or frequently used programs to the Tools menu. You can also change the order of the menu items in the Tools menu, or even remove them.

Using the Configuration Tool dialog box (using the Configure tools Dialog box)

Users can add almost all of their common applications to the Tools menu, so that they can quickly tune into frequently used programs during program development. Adding tools to the "Tools" menu is a simple matter that only takes a few minutes. Add, remove, and move menus on the Tools menu, which can be done through the Tool Options dialog box. From the main menu, select Tools | Configure Tools ... menu item to display the Tool Options dialog box. The following figure:

The list box in the Tools area displays the tools that are currently on the Tools menu, and the list box is arranged in the same order as the "Tools" menu. To change the order in the tool table, click the tool you want to move and click the up arrow (or DOWN arrow) button. To remove a tool on the Tools menu, select the tool from the list box and click the Delete button, and the selected tool will be removed from the Tools menu.

Add tools to the menu

To add a tool to the Tools menu, click the Add button, and the Tool Properties dialog box is displayed where users can enter the tool attributes to add.

The Tool Properties dialog box is shown in the above illustration, which shows the tool properties for Windows Explorer.

Enter the tool title in the Title field, which appears on the Tools menu, and you can use the & symbol to indicate shortcut key characters.

Enter the path and file name of the tool in the program field, and if you do not know the exact path and filename, you can find the file by using the browse button below.

The Working dir field is used to set the working directory of the tool, and if the tool is found through the browser button, the working directory is automatically set to the program's directory.

Parameters field, the simplest form of the field is used to set the command-line arguments for the tool, where all the parameters required to run the tool are entered; However, users can use Delphi predefined macros in the Parameters field; Click the Macros button below, A list of macros is displayed for the user to select, as shown in the following figure:

To use a macro, you can enter it directly into the Parameters field, or you can select it from the list of macros, and then click the Insert button.

Macro $exename returns the full path of the target executable file for the project. For example, if there is a project named MyApp in the directory projects directory, then the parameter $exename passes the string "C:projectsmyapp.exe" to the program. Some macros require parameters, and if you use only the path of the engineering directory instead of the file name, you can specify a parameter string $path ($EXENAME) that will produce the string "c:projects".

Tools in the Edit Tools menu

It's easy to edit tools in the Tools menu. Click the Edit button on the tool Options dialog to display the Tool Properties dialog box and modify the field contents as needed.

When the user finishes adding, editing, or rearranging tools, click the Close button and the Delphi Tools menu changes to the user.