Welcome to the Cool Gradient Caption. Free component.
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Abstract:
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This is a non-visual component that will show a gradient caption
on the form where it is dropped. This has been tested and found
to work on Delphi 3 and Delphi 4, under Win95, Win98, Win NT 3.51
and Win NT 4.0. However, it has been developed with Delphi 4 under
Win NT 4.0 Workstation. Support for Delphi 2, C++ Builder 1 and 3 
is available only for registered users.

The Cool things are:
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1. You can choose the start and the end color.
2. Company, Application and Caption strings displayed on caption
bar, each of them with different font, size and color. You can
even choose which of them be displayed.
3. You can add buttons, text and date/time areas on caption bar,
even a client painted user area (use the OnPaint event).
4. You can paint the caption yourself, using OnPaint event.
5. Caption areas could be on left side or on right side.
6. Caption areas can respond to mouse clicks or cannot respond to
mouse event at all (GraphicOnly property), they behaving like 
normal caption area.
7. You can assign a popup menu to a caption area.
8. Caption areas design editor.
9. 3D look for your forms (Ctl3D property).
10. Buttons, texts and other areas could be transparent or opaque.

Installation:
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Open the GrCaption.dpk package source into Delphi IDE and click
install. This will compile the package source and install it.

Quick test:
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Drop a GradCaption component (found in 'Cool Stuff' on Component
Palette) on a form. You should see the new look for your form.
Double click the GradCaption component. This will bring up the
Caption Areas Editor, then, using local popup menu (right
click), you can add caption areas.

Known bugs:
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1. You should close the Caption Areas Designer before compiling,
otherwise you will get an error message and compiling won't work.
I'll try to correct it in a future release.
2. This is not a bug, but a designed behaviour: a button area is a
caption area that fill the entire rectangle given by its Width 
property and caption's height, but it is drawn using BtnHeight and
BtnWidth for dimensions, so that's why clicking near a button
with BtnHeight and BtnWidth different by default sizes will also
generate a OnClick event.
3. I don't know yet how to set form's caption without SetWindowText.
This function redraws Form's caption by itself, not by sending a
paint message to the form, where I can paint it. That's why the
caption flickers when changing form's caption. If I don't set
the form's caption, when you press Alt+Tab, you will see the old
caption text for you application. Also, Delphi does not send
WM_SETTEXT when changing caption, so you should always use 
TGradientCaption.Caption.Text to change the Form's caption. That's
why I don't care anymore about synchronizing TForm's caption with
TGradientCaption.Caption.Text.

Versions:
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I started developing this component on October 97, and I never
considered it done (neither do now). First version consisted
only in gradient painted caption. Then, in December 97 I added
the three caption titles (Company, App and Caption). I left 
this component as it was until June 98 when I added 3D look for
forms, and, in September-October 98 I added caption areas. Now
I finished the Caption Areas Editor.

Other things I made:
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This is my first public release of something I ever created.
Soon I'll make public releases of other cool components:
- a wallpaper component with transparecy and incremental drawing;
- a gradient filled background component;
- cool transparent buttons, check boxes and radio buttons
(windowed controls -> can receive focus) and maybe others;
- a cool dbgrid, with 3D look and colored areas;
- cool baloon hint window
- a component for easy internationalization of your forms (using
some mouse clicks)
The attached demo includes some of them.

Disclaimer:
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This software is provided "AS IS". I give not warranty since you
didn't pay me for the component. I assume no responsability for 
damaging your computer, disk, compiler, sources or anything else
could be. Use this component on your own risk.

License:
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You can use this software free for non-comercial purposes.
You should ask me and pay if you want to use it for comercial 
purposes. However, if you register this component 
(even without sources), you will receive:

1. An improved Caption Areas Editor, with separate left and
right areas, and changing order of areas;
2. More Caption Areas types, more properties and events for 
existing Caption Areas and GradCaption itself;
3. Popup menu for caption itself and for other areas 
(system buttons or even the form's border);
4. Mouse Move sensitivity for buttons 
(and for other areas, too);
5. Complete documentation for all component properties
(and Help file if needed, not created yet);
6. How to create your own Caption areas and support for them
in new Caption Areas Editor;
7. Technical support and upgrade for future releases;
8. Support for Delphi 2 and C++ Builder 1 and 3 if needed;
This component will never work on MS Windows 3.1 so
there will be no version for Delphi 1 (I hope you don't use
it under Win 95).
9. Source code, for extra fee.

Registration is $35 without sources and $59 with sources.

Where can I be found:
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My name is Paul Cazan, I leave in Bucharest, Romania.
E-mail me for any bugs or for registration at

paulcazan@altavista.net

