Setting Column Properties at Design Time

Column properties determine how data is displayed in the cells of that column. Most column properties obtain their default values from properties associated with another component (called the default source) such as a grid or an associated field component.

To set a column's properties, select the column in The Columns editor and set its properties in the Object Inspector. The following table summarizes key column properties you can set.

Column properties

Property	Purpose
Alignment	Left justifies, right justifies, or centers the field data in the column. Default source: TField.Alignment.
ButtonStyle	cbsAuto: (default) Displays a drop-down list if the associated field is a lookup field, or if the column's PickList property contains data. cbsEllipsis: Displays an ellipsis (...) button to the right of the cell. Clicking on the button fires the grid's OnEditButtonClick event. cbsNone: The column uses only the normal edit control to edit data in the column.
Color	Specifies the background color of the cells of the column. Default source: TDBGrid.Color. (For text foreground color, see the Font property.)
DropDownRows	The number of lines of text displayed by the drop-down list. Default: 7.
Expanded	Specifies whether the column is expanded. Only applies to columns representing ADT or array fields.
FieldName	Specifies the field name associated with this column. This can be blank.
ReadOnly	True: The data in the column cannot be edited by the user. False: (default) The data in the column can be edited.
Width	Specifies the width of the column in screen pixels. Default source: TField.DisplayWidth.
Font	Specifies the font type, size, and color used to draw text in the column. Default source: TDBGrid.Font.
PickList	Contains a list of values to display in a drop-down list in the column.
Title	Sets properties for the title of the selected column.

The following table summarizes the options you can specify for the Title property.

Expanded TColumn Title properties

Property	Purpose
Alignment	Left justifies (default), right justifies, or centers the caption text in the column title.
Caption	Specifies the text to display in the column title. Default source: TField.DisplayLabel.
Color	Specifies the background color used to draw the column title cell. Default source: TDBGrid.FixedColor.
Font	Specifies the font type, size, and color used to draw text in the column title. Default source: TDBGrid.TitleFont.