Screen Conversion

After you have compiled and executed the program, you are ready to convert your text-based screens into graphical ones. See Tips and Techniques for a list of things you may want to consider before beginning.

Note: Don't bother converting message screens, because these screens come from the Windows message handler rather than your application. The Windows runtime automatically displays messages in a Windows message box.

Perform the screen conversion operation as follows:

  1. With the relevant program running, right-click in the screen you want to convert.
  2. To capture the screen for conversion, select the Build Graphical Screen command from the resulting pop-up menu. At this point, a graphical version of the application screen is created based on the wizard’s internal conversion rules. The new graphical screen is displayed along with a Properties dialog box. You can use the Properties dialog to make global changes to the window created by the wizard. This is described in Editing Screen Properties. You can also change the size of the graphical window by dragging its borders.

    Note that the original application screen is still present, but it is disabled until you finish with the wizard.

  3. Navigate to the next screen that you want to convert and repeat the process until you have converted each screen in the program. The results are saved together in a single text file named import.out. If a file named import.out already exists in the current working directory, it is overwritten.
  4. Terminate the program normally. The converted screens are represented in your AcuBench project in the workspace Structure view in a new program. From there, they can be moved, opened, and modified as needed. Multiple screens are opened cascade style in the Screen Designer.