There is one case of something you can add to a window that is not actually an object, and that is text.

To add text to your sample window:

  1. Select the Text icon from the Palette and click above the editor object to add a text field as a label for it.

    Note that the Object field in the AppBuilder window is not enabled. This is because the name the AppBuilder assigns to the text is not meaningful; it is simply TEXT- plus an integer ID. The name is not actually referenced within the code.

  2. Enter a Text value of Customer comments: for the text:

    Note that you have to include the colon if you want one because the ABL Virtual Machine (AVM) does not automatically recognize this as a field label and does not add the colon for you.

  3. Stretch the text field in the design window to hold the text you entered and position it above the editor.

    This is the code the AppBuilder generates for the text field:

    DEFINE FRAME CustQuery
.
.
.
"Customer comments:" VIEW-AS TEXT
          SIZE 20 BY .62 AT ROW 5.52 COL 81.6 WIDGET-ID 38

    It is simply a literal value inserted into the frame definition. It has no name, and it is not created as an object with a handle or any attributes.

  4. You can change the font and color of the text in its limited property sheet if you wish:

    However, if you wanted to be able to manipulate the text in some way at run time, for example to change the value displayed when some event happens, you cannot do this because you have no access to the text at run time. If you want to access a text string as an object in this way, then you need to define it as a fill-in field rather than as text, and then set the VIEW-AS-TEXT attribute in its property sheet. The visual appearance will be the same as a simple text string, but the text is an object with a handle and attributes you can set and query at run time.

To see the final effects of all your changes, Run the window one more time: