size : 1952 uploaded_on : Tue May 11 00:00:00 1999 modified_on : Wed Dec 8 14:03:40 1999 title : Extending TOpenDialog org_filename : ExtOpenDlg.txt author : Mark Irving authoremail : markirivng@bigpond.com description : How to extend the TOpenDialog to add a file preview thumbnail keywords : tested : not tested yet submitted_by : The CKB Crew submitted_by_email : ckb@netalive.org uploaded_by : nobody modified_by : nobody owner : nobody lang : plain file-type : text/plain category : delphi-components __END_OF_HEADER__ With guess work (and following the Borland TOpenPictureDialog example) I managed to extend the TOpenDialog to add a file preview thumbnail and some file status info below the standard win98 common dialog. The key steps are defining a template dialog resource which seems to define the fixed size of the extension area and create some panels and controls on the fly to fit in this area. The dialog resource looked like DOCOPENDIALOG DIALOG 0, 0, 240, 160 STYLE 0x404L | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_CLIPSIBLINGS FONT 8, "MS Sans Serif" LANGUAGE LANG_NEUTRAL, SUBLANG_NEUTRAL { LTEXT "", 1119, 0, 0, 240, 80, NOT WS_VISIBLE | WS_GROUP } The new open dialog looks like TDocOpenDialog = class(TOpenDialog) private fthumbnail: tPicture; // picture to hold thumbnail { controls defined at runtime } fPicturePanel: TPanel; // panel all controls set on fThumbImage: TImage; // thumbnail image display BottomBox, // bottom group box TopBox: TGroupBox; // top group box SubjectLab, // data static labels AuthorLab, TitleLab, FileDataLab, AppNameLab, AppRevLab: tLabel; etc constructor TDocOpenDialog.Create(AOwner: TComponent); { Allocate memory and create custom control additions to commdlg } begin inherited Create(AOwner); { alloc mem } FPicturePanel := TPanel.Create(Self); fThumbnail:=tPicture.create; { create controls at runtime } with FPicturePanel do begin Name := 'PicturePanel'; Caption := ''; SetBounds(4, 5, 204, 200); BevelOuter := bvNone; BevelInner := bvLowered; BorderWidth := 3; TabOrder := 1; fThumbImage:=Timage.create(Self); with fThumbImage do begin Name := 'ThumbnailPic'; SetBounds(4, 4, 154, 114); AutoSize := False; Parent := FPicturePanel; Stretch:=true; end; etc This may help. I never found written documentation on this.