Using a Box to Create a Separator

An NSBox instance can be used to create a visual separator between controls, as shown in Figure 1. This is the Cocoa equivalent of the Carbon theme separator.

Calling the method setBoxType: and specifying NSBoxSeparator as the box type will configure the receiving NSBox instance to display as a separator.

The separator will be drawn centered in the view, and oriented along the longest axis of the view. If the bounds of the NSBox are equal, then the separator is drawn in a horizontal orientation.

The example code in Listing 1 demonstrates how to create visual separators.

Listing 1  Example code to create visual separators

// create a horizontally oriented separator

NSBox *horizontalSeparator=[[NSBox alloc] initWithFrame:NSMakeRect(15.0,250.0,250.0,1.0)];

[horizontalSeparator setBoxType:NSBoxSeparator];

// create a vertically oriented separator

NSBox *verticalSeparator=[[NSBox alloc] initWithFrame:NSMakeRect(250.0,15.0,1.0,250.0)];

[verticalSeparator setBoxType:NSBoxSeparator];