Setting a forms default screen position to desktop center in Delphi XE5

1
votes

I have recently upgraded from Delphi7 to Delphi XE5 and one of the differences that first jumped out at me is that by default, the IDE sets a forms default position to be in the top left corner of the screen instead of the center of the desktop like it was in D7 and I have looked all around in the options menu and have yet to find a way to set it so that when a new project is created, all forms default to be positioned in the center of the desktop and was hoping I was overlooked the option to do this or to confirm if it was not possible to set this option to be default.

I know there is the little box at the bottom right hand side of the form designer pane which allows you to move the form around so it is placed anywhere on the screen and of course you can set it to be in the center of the screen using the object inspector, but if I could set it to default to this position by "setting and forgetting" an option in the IDE, than that would be one less thing I need to bother with when starting a new project.

Anyway, any help would be appreciated and thanks in advance for any and all replies.

2
formsdelphipositiondefaultdelphi-xe5

2 Answers

1
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I figured it out myself in a roundabout way. It does not answer the question to the exact specifications that it was asked in but it works out close enough for my needs. The trick was to set the (now hidden) "Embedded Menu Designer" option to FALSE in the registry which causes the form to float independent of the rest of the IDE like it used to in Delphi 7.

Why this option was hidden from the options panel in Delphi XE3 and above is beyond me, but at least there is a way to get it back to the classic look I was after.

Source: http://theroadtodelphi.wordpress.com/2012/09/04/disabling-the-embedded-designer-in-rad-studio-xe3/

Note: The article talks about XE3, but the same technique applies to other Delphi versions as well. All that needs to be changed is the version number in the registry branch needs to match the version of Delphi that is being using. Everything else remains the same.

0
votes

Isn't poDesktopCenter (TForm.Position property) enough? You set it in design time and forget about this.

I don't know what will happen if you have 1500x1200 form and the screen resolition is 800x600 - try it youself :)