When a user opens a container, the contents of that container are displayed in a window. A container window can present various views of its contents, and each view can provide different information about its container items. The following table describes the views the container control provides:
┌───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │View Type │Contents Displayed │ ├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │Icon view │Displays either icons or bit maps, with text │ │ │beneath the icons or bit maps, to represent │ │ │container items. These are called icon/text │ │ │or bit-map/text pairs. Each icon/text or │ │ │bit-map/text pair represents one container │ │ │item. This is the default view. │ ├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │Name view │Displays either icons or bit maps, with text │ │ │to the right of the icons or bit maps, to │ │ │represent container items. These are called │ │ │icon/text or bit-map/text pairs. Each │ │ │icon/text or bit-map/text pair represents one│ │ │container item. │ ├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │Text view │Displays a simple text list to represent │ │ │container items. │ ├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │Tree view │Displays a hierarchical view of the container│ │ │items. Three types of Tree views are │ │ │available: Tree text, Tree icon, and Tree │ │ │name. │ ├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │Details view │Displays detailed information about each │ │ │container item. The same type of data is │ │ │displayed for each container item, arranged │ │ │in columns. The data in each column can │ │ │consist of an icon or bit map, text, numbers,│ │ │dates, or times. │ └───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
If a text string is not specified for a view in a place where a text string could be used, a blank space is used as a placeholder. For example, if a text string is not placed beneath an icon in the Icon view, a blank space is inserted just as though the text string were there. If this blank space is not a read-only field, the user can put text into the space by editing it directly.