Exporting All Dialogs to an .rc File
InstallShield 2020
If you would like to edit your dialogs’ resources in a resource editor such as Visual Studio, you can export the dialogs to an .rc file.
To export a dialog to a resource script (.rc) file:
| 1. | In the View List under User Interface, click Dialogs. |
| 2. | In the Dialogs explorer, right-click All Dialogs and click Export Dialogs to Resource Script. |
InstallShield copies all of the dialogs’ resources for the default language to a file named <project name>.rc in the project location.
Every attempt is made to preserve each dialog’s layout as much as possible. However, since some information in the Dialog Editor has no counterpart in a resource editor, InstallShield exports the resources as they appear in the Dialog Editor with the following exceptions:
|
Exception |
Description |
|
String entries |
All strings entries are resolved to the value of the default language. |
|
Paths |
The paths, including any path variables, to any resources, such as text files or bitmaps, are preserved to make it easier to import the dialog at a later point. |
|
Selection trees |
A Windows Installer selection tree becomes a standard tree control in the .rc file. |
|
Text style |
While the Dialog Editor maintains separate properties for font information (base text style and text style) and maximum character length, these properties are grouped together as they are in the Windows Installer tables. |
|
Behavior |
Unlike .isd files, which contain complete copies of the dialog’s layout and behavior, .rc files store only the resources. |
Editing the Dialogs in a Resource Editor
You can edit the dialogs’ geometry in a resource editor—or Notepad—as you would for any Windows dialog.
Before importing the dialogs back into your project, you must compile the .rc file into a .res file and then build it into a .dll file.
Assuming again that you use Visual Studio, follow the steps below to build MyProject.rc into MyProject.dll:
| 1. | Use the Resource Compiler (Rc.exe) to compile MyProject.rc into MyProject with the following command-line statement: |
rc MyProject.rc
| 2. | Run the Incremental Linker (Link.exe) to build a .dll file with the following command: |
link /DLL /NOENTRY /NODEFAULTLIB /MACHINE:iX86 /OUT:MyProject.dll MyProject.res
See Also