Colors and Attributes

Fields and constants can carry display attributes — color and DSPATR-style flags such as reverse image, underline, blink, column separators, or non-display — rendered in the Screen Preview so you can check the result without compiling.

Applying colors and attributes

Right-click a field or constant and choose Colors or Attributes to add one. From the Screen Preview, the same actions are available from the ⋮ Actions menu on a selection — including a multi-selection, so you can apply a color or attribute to several elements at once.

Managing the attributes and colors of an element

When the field or constant already has attributes, Attributes opens a list of them, each with the indicators that condition it. Colors does the same for its colors: an element can have several, each applying under its own indicators.

• Pick a row, or its ✏️ button, to change that attribute’s or color’s indicators — see Conditioning an attribute.
• The 🗑️ button removes just that one. If an attribute shares a keyword with others, as HI does in DSPATR(UL HI), the others stay.
• Add attributes… / Add colors… adds more, asking for up to three indicators for each.
• Remove all attributes / Remove all colors clears them.

Conditioning an attribute

Each attribute can itself be conditioned by indicators, with the same AND/OR support as fields and constants — see Indicators and Conditions. This lets an attribute (e.g. highlighting a field in red) apply only when a given indicator is on.

To set or change the condition, open Attributes or Colors and use the ✏️ button of the row. It opens the same menu as Indicators on a field: up to nine indicators per condition, and up to nine conditions joined with OR.

Indicators condition a whole source line. If the attribute or color shares its line with something else — the field’s own line, another keyword, or other attributes in the same DSPATR() — it is first moved to a line of its own, keeping the condition it had, so that nothing else changes.

Removing an attribute

Right-click the attribute node under a field or constant in the Schema Tree and choose Delete, or use the 🗑️ button in the Attributes list described above.

Default underline on input-capable fields

Per the DDS reference, every input-capable field (usage I/B) is underlined by default, regardless of DSPATR(UL) — the Screen Preview matches this. A field’s own DSPATR(UL), indicator-conditioned or not, always takes priority when present; otherwise, the only way to remove that default is CHGINPDFT (with no parameters) at file, record, or field level — see Change Input Default.

Preview color scheme

The colors used to render the green-screen preview itself (not the DDS color keywords on your fields) can be adjusted from Configure Preview Colors…, and reset back to the defaults with Reset Preview Colors to Default. See Configuration.