Inside Macintosh: More Macintosh Toolbox /

Chapter 8 - Control Panels

Creating Control Panel Files

This section describes how to create your control panel's resources, including the code resource that implements the control panel. This section discusses how to

• define the user interface for your control panel
• create resources for your control panel, including those that define
  • control panel rectangles
  • the item list resource
  • icons
  • the machine resource
  • the file reference, bundle, and signature resources

• specify the font of static text in your control panel
• write a control panel function

Before you begin, consider whether the feature that you have in mind is best governed by a control panel. It should be a systemwide feature amenable to manipulation by the user, who would use the control panel only occasionally to set or change preferences. If you find that you need special menus or nested dialog boxes to implement your control panel, create a small application instead.

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Subtopics

Defining the User Interface for a Control Panel

Creating a Control Panel's Resources

Specifying the Font of Text in a Control Panel

Writing a Control Panel Function