Centralized support for application user interface elements

Described are techniques for displaying a user interface of an application. A property file identifies a user interface element included in the user interface and specifies a first value for a first property of the user interface element. Executing the application includes: creating the user interface element having a set of properties and a default value for each property in the set; obtaining and processing the property file, setting the first property to the first value rather than the default value, wherein if the first value is not specified in the property file, the first property is set to the default value; and displaying the user interface including the user interface element in accordance with the first value.