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# Qt GUI Designer

The Qt Designer is a visual design tool that makes designing and implementing user interfaces a lot easier.

Here's a brief overview of its key features. For further information, please browse the online manual or start the designer with `designer` and select Manual from the Help menu.

### Dynamic geometry management for full i18n and cross-platform support

The designer offers all the strength of the Qt layout system with a a well-designed point and click interface. Geometry management makes an application adjust automatically to language changes, different GUI styles on different target platforms and different desktop settings like font sizes.

### Visual access to Qt's signal/slot mechanism

In the designer, you can connect signals to slots by dragging a line with the connection tool.

### Internationalization (I18n)

In its output, the designer quotes user strings with a tr-macro. Thus it works well together with Qt's built-in or any other i18n system.

### Custom widgets

Qt Designer supports custom controls. You add your own widgets with Tools->Custom->Edit Custom Widgets

### Nested widgets/layouts

Both widgets and layouts can be nested in a hierarchy, just like in hand-crafted Qt code.

### Unlimited undo and redo

The unlimited undo and redo system makes it simple to try different arrangements of the widgets until the result satisfies you.

### Convenient editing of all widget properties

Qt Designer uses a generic and very powerful property editor for most widget properties. Special editors for some widgets (like listboxes or comboboxes) allow you to fill these widgets with content without writing extra code.

### Direct tabfocus editing

A graphical tab-order tool makes it possible to edit the tabfocus chain intuitively with point and click.

### Ensures unique keyboard accellerators

Qt Designer checks that your keyboard shortcuts don't clash.

### XML format

The designer's native file format (*.ui files) is a well-defined true XML format.

### Clean extensibility through subclassing

No need to modify generated code. If you need extended functionality inside a generated dialog, you can easily do this by subclassing.

### User Interface Compiler (uic) integrates into your build system

No need to add generated code to the source repository of your version control system. With Qt Designer, you only deal with ui files. The uic compiler will then integrate the necessary C++ code on the fly during compile time.

### Works together with emacs and Visual Studio (tm)

Qt Designer is a visual dialog designer, not an integrated development environment. For writing code, use whatever environment you prefer. If you use emacs or Visual Studio (tm), we provide tighter integration with an elisp file or plugin respectively.

### Searchable and indexed documentation and help system, includes the Qt API reference

Hit F1 and you get a help browser with useful index and search capabilities (click on the question mark). Try it yourself, it's much faster than using a traditional web browser on the Qt Reference documentation.

If you are interested in the Qt Professional Edition or the Qt Enterprise Edition, please write to sales@trolltech.com. In case you have any bug reports, suggestions or wishes, send them to bugs@trolltech.com. Other mail can be sent to info@trolltech.com.