The Component pane, shown in Figure 13.8, displays various information about the items in each catalog. The name of the catalog is displayed in the upper-left corner of the pane. You drag components directly from the Component pane into a layout window to create user interface objects.

The Component pane is discussed in the following topics:

• Content View buttons
• Component Information Bar
• Component list
• Sorting and resizing component lists

The Content View buttons toggle the display of the components in the current catalog:

Click the List View button to display the contents of the Component pane as a list. The List view, shown in Figure 13.9, displays all the components in the current catalog.

Click the Live View button to display the contents of the Component pane as live objects. The Live view, shown in Figure 13.10, is only available for component catalogs that you create. Refer to "Creating Component Catalogs" for more information.

The two views in the Component pane help you accomplish different tasks. The List view is useful for quickly browsing a catalog's components. The Live view shows graphical representations of your own catalog's components.

The Live view also helps you create a customized set of components for your application's layouts. For example, you can change the default size and shape of a component in the Live view. When you use the component to create a new interface object in the layout window, the new object retains the size and shape of the component.

The List view of the Component pane includes a Component Information Bar, shown in Figure 13.11. This information bar helps you organize the components in the current catalog.

You can sort the component list according to the columns in the Component Information Bar. You can also resize each column in the list. For more information, see "Sorting and resizing component lists".

Table 13.3 details the columns displayed in the Component Information Bar for various catalog types.

The component list, shown in Figure 13.9, displays all components in the current catalog and their associated Component Palette button icons. To place a particular component in your layout, drag it from the component list in the Component Catalog window and drop it into the layout window. As you drag the component inside the layout window, a heavy outline indicates the final position of the component. After you release the outline, the component is placed in the layout window.

Catalog Type	Column	Description
Java catalogs   (AWT Components,   Swing Components)	Name	The name of the component.
	Class	The class of which the component is a member.
Customized catalogs   (created or imported)	Name	The name of the component.
		Identifies whether the component is locked.
	Modified	The date the component was last modified.
	Class	The class of which the component is a member.
	Comments	Shows comments for the component.

If you decide against using the component while dragging it in the layout, just drag the component outside the layout window and release it. After releasing the component, you can go back to the component list and drag another component to the layout window.

For more information about removing objects from your layouts, see "Removing objects". Refer to "Layout editor contextual menu" for more information about contextual menu commands. To learn about the components in the component list, see "RAD Components".

You can sort the components in the List view according to the columns in the Component Information Bar, shown in Figure 13.11.

Click the column for which you want to sort the components. Each time you click the column, you toggle the sort order between ascending order and descending order. For example, if you want to sort the components by name, click the Name column in the Component Information Bar. Click the column again to sort the components in descending order.

To resize the columns in the Component Information Bar, position the cursor between two column titles. The cursor's icon changes to the icon shown at left. Drag and release this cursor to resize the columns.