Patent ID: 7802186

Claim:
A program storage medium readable by a computer having a memory and a processor, the medium tangibly embodying one or more programs of instructions executable by the computer to implement a system that facilitates in-situ editing of a property in a form displayed in a visual designer, the system comprising: a property selection component that presents one or more properties associated with those controls that are part of the form, facilitating selection of the property; a control selection component that receives a property selection from a visual designer user and, based on the property selection, determines which of the controls on the form has the selected property; an overlay component that simultaneously and selectively displays a separate graphical overlay on top of each control on the form that has the selected property such that multiple separate graphical overlays are displayed on the form at the same time, each corresponding to an individual control that has the selected property, the graphical overlays comprising a current value for each control having the selected property such that each separate graphical overlay is configured to display a different, individually determined value at each separate control, wherein upon selection of a second, different property, the multiple separate graphical overlays corresponding to each control having the newly selected different property are updated with the current property values for each corresponding control and the previously displayed graphical overlays that do not have the newly selected different property are removed from display; and a property edit component that facilitates the in-situ editing of the property corresponding to the one or more controls, where in-situ editing of the property is performed on the design surface of the visual designer, such that the user can toggle between the various graphical overlays and edit property values for each control via the graphical overlay, thereby eliminating any need for the user to leave the design surface to enter a property grid.