| ThingMaker Documentation Chapter 3) Introductory Tutorials

| Tutorial 1: Creating your first Thing In this first tutorial you'll create a navigation Button for use on a web site. The Button will be multi-state. This means it will change its appearance when the cursor passes over it in MouseOver or when the cursor clicks on it in MouseClick. Multi-state capability is a key feature of this program; with this functionality, you can "Make Things Do Things."

Here are the steps you'll perform in this tutorial:

- Import graphics into the Gallery
- Drag graphics to the Scene to create a Button
- Add a URL to the Button
- Test the Button
- Preview it in your browser

  Getting Started
  1. Run the ThingMaker application
  It should appear in the Parable menu under Programs in the Start menu.

  2. You should see the Scene Window.
  If the "Tip of the Day" window opens with the program, close it. Later, you can decide whether or not to disable it on launch.

  If the Gallery Palette isn't open, pull down the View menu and choose Gallery to open it. You can move the Gallery by clicking and dragging it to another area of the screen. You can also resize it by moving the cursor to any edge of the Palette and clicking when the cursor becomes a double arrow. You will need to see the Scene Window and the Gallery for this exercise.

  3. Choose "Add to Gallery" from the File menu, or click the "Add to Gallery" Button on the Gallery Palette to import media into ThingMaker.
  Either method performs the same function. The File menu is located on the menu bar at the top of the Scene Window. The Add to Gallery... Button can be found at the bottom of the Gallery Palette itself. If the Gallery Palette is collapsed, press the Expand Palette Button to expand the Gallery Palette. In either case, a File Type Dialog will appear.

  4. Select bitmap files(*.bmp) in the File Type Dialog box.
  The three images we will use for this tutorial are in the *. bmp format. This Dialog lists all the file formats ThingMaker accepts. If you have a lot of content, this Dialog helps reduce confusion by filtering out all of the unnecessary choices. Go ahead and select bitmap files (*.bmp) and then click on the OK Button.

  5. Choose and open the Tutorial directory.
  After selecting the file type you want to work with, an Open File Dialog Window appears. At the top of the Open Dialog is a "Look in" prompt. You should be in the ThingMaker directory in the Open File Dialog. Select the Tutorial directory in the Window and then click the Open Button.

  The Tutorial directory is contained inside the drive:/Program Files/Parable/ThingMaker directory.

  6. Use the "Add to Gallery" Button to add graphics.
  When you select Tutorial, you should see a screen listing various files. Click once on the file labeled default.bmp. Then click on the Add to Gallery Button. This will import the graphic contained in that file into your Gallery. Repeat the process for the down.bmp and over.bmp files.

  When you select a file to add to your Gallery, a copy of that image will appear in the preview box in the lower left of the window. Reference parameters for that image will appear in the box to the right of the image.

  7. Close the Open file Dialog by pressing the Cancel Button.
  After you have added the images you want to the Gallery, select the Cancel Button to close the Open File Dialog.

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