Using Screen Designer

To open an existing DDS display file for editing with Screen Designer, right-click the member in the Remote Systems view, the i Project Navigator view, or the Navigator view and select Open with > Screen Designer.

Screen Designer opens for the selected display file with three pages, Design page, Source page, and Preview page. The Design page is displayed.

The Design page is used to visually build and change your DDS display file. The page is divided into three areas:

The main design area looks like a 5250 screen and shows a graphical representation of the display file.
The integrated palette contains record and field palette items that you can drag onto the design area to create new records and fields. Alternatively, you can use the Workbench Palette view. See Palette for more details.
Above the design area is the Design page screen controls area. You use it for defining and managing screens. A screen is a Screen Designer concept that is used to simulate a group of records that are displayed together when your application runs. You can create new screens and delete existing screens and then add records to a screen or remove existing records from it.

The Source page gives you access to the code of your display file in a Remote Systems LPEX Editor. This is the same editor that opens when you select Open with > Remote Systems LPEX Editor. Here you can edit the DDS source directly. Screen Designer automatically updates all related views when you make changes to either the Source page, the Design page, or the Properties view.

The Preview page shows you what the screens will look like when you run your application. There is no compile required for this, you just tell Screen Designer which records belong to a screen and optionally specify additional runtime conditions. You do this in the Preview page screen controls above the preview area.

You can switch between the Design page, Source page, and Preview page by selecting the respective tab below the design area.