Defining a style

Style names

In the definition of a style, the 'name' attribute is used as a selector to apply style attributes to graphical elements.

You can define a style as global or specific to a class of graphical object:

• A style identified by a star (*) is a global style that is automatically applied to all elements:

  <Style name="*" >

• A style identified by an element-type is a global style that is automatically applied to all objects of this type:

  <Style name="Window" >
  <Style name="Edit" >
  <Style name="ComboBox" >

• A style identified by a style-name is a specific style that can be applied to any element types using that style:

  <Style name=".important" >
  <Style name=".smallfont" >

• A style identified by an element-type followed by a dot and a style-name is a specific style that will only be applied to elements of the given type:

  <Style name="Window.main" >
  <Style name="Edit.mandatory" >

Style selection order

When different styles can be applied to an element, the following priority, from the most precise to the most generic, is used to determine the style definition to be applied:

1. element-type.style-name
2. .style-name
3. element-type
4. *

For instance, to find the style which will be applied to an Edit having the style attribute set to 'mandatory', the following styles will be analyzed:

1. Edit.mandatory
2. .mandatory
3. Edit
4. *