In the space of a single month, we have made dramatic progress in increasing the number of Helix properties available for editing in its Graphic User Interface (GUI), either through the Inspector or other graphic interface elements, such as dialogs.

Without requiring the use of AppleScript, more than 80% of Helix’s functionality is now accessible through the Inspector.

Because the list is so large, we have created a separate technote that provides an “at-a-glance” overview, showing which properties are already available in the GUI and the status of those yet to be completed. This chart will serve as our “progress meter” and will be updated periodically until the project is finished.

Here is a summary of the current state of each Helix icon:

• Collection: 100% GUI; View by Icon/View by Name not yet available.
• Relation: 100% GUI; View by Icon/Name not yet available.
• Sequence: 4 of 4 Properties; step editor in progress.
• User: 4 of 4 Properties; Menu construction in progress.
• Abacus: 3 of 3 Properties; Drag-and-drop tile construction not yet available.
• Field: 9 of 9 Properties; 100% GUI
• Form Query: 2 of 2 Properties; 100% GUI
• Index: Construction by GUI not yet available, work in progress.
• Post: 1 of 7 Properties; Complete except for triplet construction, work in progress.
• Power Query: 3 of 3 Properties; 100% GUI
• Template: 4 of 5 Properties; Rectangle construction not yet available.
• View: 35 of 41 Properties; Subform and Post linking not yet completed, work in progress.

Other improvements in the Inspector have been made as well:

• R7226: Window coordinates can now be read and set
• R7500: The Icon and Window properties are split into separate sections, and the Window properties are hidden for icons that do not respond to them
• R7509: The Inspector can now specify ‘none’ in places where that is a valid option
• R7511: The expression of a tile validation is now shown in the Field Properties; clicking this line opens the tile validation dialog
• R7512: Changing the Window Properties now activates commit/revert when appropriate
• R7514: The Form Query Inspector now includes Window Properties
• R7515: The Inspector is no longer of a fixed width; lines are no longer of a fixed height
• R7526: Very long text can now be seen and edited
• R7529: Changing the View Inspector’s Current Index or View Query property now updates (on commit) the view if it is open.
• R7538: The View Inspector Current Index and Default Index properties now have separate settings
• R7543: The Abacus Inspector now includes the data type property (read only)
• R7552: The Form Query Inspector now includes the expression property (read only)
• The Abacus Inspector now includes the common calculation property
• The “novice” and “expert” validations are now known as tile validation and abacus validation respectively.
• Cold Form (also known as ‘Keep Current’) is now found in the Window Properties section
• Seldom used property sections are closed by default
• Changes made in other places are shown much more consistently. (Open the Location Properties section and drag a view around!)
• Rows can now be resized by click and drag; cursor changes to show action
• Properties that contain long text now wrap when the row is expanded vertically
• The property name column should now be wide enough for the widest title
• After editing a property, pressing Tab moves to the next editable property