| ThingMaker Documentation Chapter 7) Windows and Palettes

| Gallery Palette The Gallery Palette is your warehouse. It stores all your source material, including material you've imported and the Things you've created. You can perform some editing functions while Things are in the Gallery. You can also edit Things in the Scene Window and return them to the Gallery. You can create multiple Galleries, and you can change your Default Gallery, as well.

All ThingMaker galleries have the file extension ".TMG." A default Gallery called ThingMaker.TMG is provided with this program and is located in the ThingMaker directory.

ThingMaker opens the default Gallery when launched. If you open a different Gallery, however, that Gallery will become the default Gallery to be opened the next time ThingMaker is launched.

Importing Media
All external media is imported into ThingMaker through the Gallery. When media is imported into the Gallery, ThingMaker creates a new Thing. Until you modify it, the Thing will hold that media in all three of its states.

Moving Things to the Scene
Once a media element has been imported as a Thing in the Gallery, it can be added to a Scene just by dragging it from the Gallery. It can also be moved from the Scene back to the Gallery by clicking and dragging.

The Gallery Palette contains the following features:

Tabs
The Tabs appear on the right side of the gallery and look like a series of Manila file folder tabs. When you click on a Tab, the program immediately switches you to that section and displays the contents for that particular Tab.

Move content between sections of the Gallery by clicking on an element and dragging it to the Tab of another section. The element being dragged will reduce in size. This indicates that the Thing can be "dropped" into the new section.

Rename Gallery Tabs by moving the cursor to the Tab and double-clicking. The name will be highlighted and can now be edited. Click on another Tab or elsewhere within the Gallery to exit Edit mode.

Type Logos
These are small black and white graphics which are attached to Things in the Gallery and indicate the type of media the Thing contains.

ThingMaker labels Things in the Gallery with identifying black and white graphic Type Logos. If a Thing contains the same media element in all three states and has no actions attached to it, it will be indicated by a Type Logo matching the type of visual media (image, animation, or shape). If an Action or Path has been attached, the Logo will change to a Thing Type Logo. A Thing Logo signifies a Thing containing actions and/or different media across different states.

Scrolling Media List
You can scroll the gallery by moving the vertical bar between the up and down arrows.

View Buttons
The contents of the Gallery can be viewed in three different ways by clicking the view buttons at the bottom of the Scrolling Media List. The Icon View is the default view. It displays the Icons and their Type Logos. List View provides a scrolling list of Logos and file names. Detail View offers a more detailed description.

Trash can
To remove Things from the Gallery, click and drag them into the Trash can. The Trash can will highlight and open, and you can throw your unwanted things out.

Objects cannot be removed from the trash, but it is possible to "revert" the Gallery by choosing another Gallery and not saving changes to the current one.

Collapse Palette Button
To reduce the size of the Gallery Palette, click the Collapse Palette Button. This hides the Gallery Buttons. You can still access the Gallery Button functions through Menus or expand the Gallery by clicking the Expand Palette Button.

Gallery Buttons
The Gallery buttons provide a shortcut to menu commands that are used with the Gallery. These buttons perform the following menu-type functions:

New Gallery
Creates a new blank Gallery. If the existing Gallery has been edited, the program will first prompt you to save changes to the existing Gallery. The new Gallery will be untitled. When you want to quit, you will be prompted to Save the Gallery and name it if you want.

Open Gallery
Lets you switch to another Gallery file. If you have edited the existing Gallery, you will be prompted to save it before ThingMaker displays the Open File Dialog which lets you select another Gallery file.

Add to Gallery
Displays the Open File Dialog which imports different types of media into ThingMaker. Pressing this button first displays a File Type Filter Dialog. The File Type Filter Dialog chooses which types of files are to be displayed in the File Open Dialog. This helps you when you have lots of media to choose from. You can still choose other media by changing the Files of type selection in the Open File Dialog.

ThingMaker imports all of the following media types:

Bitmap files | .bmp
FlashPix files | .fpx
GIF files | .gif
JPEG files | .jpg, .jpeg
Macintosh PICT files | .pct
MacPaint files | .mac
MS Paint files | .msp
PCX files | .pcx, .dcx
PhotoCD files | .pcd
PhotoShop files | .psd
PNG files | .png
PostScript files | .eps
SUN Raster files | .ras
TARGA files | .tga
TIFF files | .tif
Windows Metafiles | .wmf
WordPerfect Raster files | .wpg
Wave files | .wav
ThingMaker Scenes | .tms
ThingMakerGalleries | .tmg

Files of Type
Filters the display of media elements being displayed in the Open File Dialog Window to show only the type of media you have selected.

Preview Pane
Displays a preview of graphic images, although the Pane will be blank if multiple graphics or sound files are selected.

Media Details
Displays information about the element that has been selected. If multiple files are selected, nothing will be displayed.

Blend/dither Check Box
The dither check box indicates how your graphics will be adapted to the ThingMaker Palette.

ThingMaker adapts all imported graphics to its 8-bit Palette. With dithering, ThingMaker uses patterns of pixels to approximate the colors in the original graphic. If this check box is not selected, ThingMaker simply finds the closest color it can for each individual pixel within the image. In general, check "Dither" when importing photographic images but not for solid color computer graphics.

Compress Check Box
(See Importing Sound Files below.)

Open Dialog Button Options
The Open Window provides you with Buttons to make adding Things to your Gallery easy. Open imports the selected items into the Gallery and closes the Open File Dialog. Cancel closes the Open File Dialog.

If you have already used the Add to Gallery and the Create Animation buttons to imported elements, pressing the Cancel button will not remove the imported items from the Gallery. You must drag the imported elements from the Gallery to the Trash.

Add to Gallery Button
Adds the selected element(s) to the ThingMaker Gallery. If multiple image elements are selected, you can add them to the Gallery as individual Things or combine them into an animation. If multiple files of different types are selected, they will be added to the Gallery as individual Things.

Create Animation Button
Adds the selected elements to the ThingMaker Gallery as a single animated Thing. This button will generate an error message if you select a single image, an audio file, or a file that already contains an animation like some .GIF files.

Importing a Single Image
Select the file that you want to import by clicking on the file name in the Dialog box. Then, click either the Open or the Add to Gallery button to import the image, and it will appear as a new Thing in the Gallery.

The Open and the Add to Gallery Buttons import objects and turn them into Things in the Gallery. However, the Open Button closes the Dialog after adding the Thing, whereas the Add to Gallery button leaves the Dialog open which lets you import more items before closing.

Click the Add to Gallery Button if you want to import several objects as Things at once.

Importing multiple images as an animation
You can also easily import multiple images as a single animation in ThingMaker.

Hold down the shift key to select multiple files in the Open file Dialog box, or select multiple files in a discontinuous list by holding down the Control Key and clicking. Once the images have been selected, click the Create Animation Button. When complete, press the Cancel button to close the Open Dialog Box.

If you click the Open or Add to Gallery Button, then the images will be added as multiple individual Things. You will also be asked if you want to combine these images into a single animation.

Importing Sound Files
When importing sound files, the Media Details section of the Open Dialog will have two extra features. The Preview Audio Button plays the audio before importing it. Compress will compact the size of the sound file when it's imported. This check box is on by default.

ThingMaker's sound compression routine can result in significant file size reduction. We recommend that you choose Compress when importing sound to reduce the size of Things for most purposes.

Save Gallery
Save Gallery lets you save part or all of the current Gallery in a new ThingMaker Gallery file. This function is also automatically performed when you create a new Gallery, open an existing Gallery or make changes to the Gallery. The Save Gallery Dialog (see below) lets you rename the Gallery and choose whether to save the entire Gallery (Save all Tabs) or to save selected sections. Click Save to save the Gallery.

If a Tab section of the Gallery does not contain any content, then a Tab will be disabled.

Resizing the Gallery
The Gallery Window can be resized by clicking and dragging on the Frame that borders the Gallery itself. You can also hide the Gallery Buttons by pressing the Collapse Button in the lower right hand corner of the Gallery Palette.

Any deletions, additions or other changes you make to the Gallery are immediate and permanent. They cannot be undone.

Moving Things from the Gallery to a Scene
( See "Scene Window: Adding Things to A Scene" in this Reference.)

Editing Things in the Gallery
If you don't want to publish your Things right away, drag them from the Scene Window to the Gallery. You can also add media and Actions to Things in the Gallery and in a Scene. To edit a Thing in the Gallery, simply click the Thing's Icon in the Gallery Palette. ThingMaker will display the details for the Thing in the Settings Palette. You can then drag media and Actions to the Settings Palette where you may edit the parameters. (For a more detailed discussion of how to do this, see "Settings Palette" in this Reference.)

<--Previous | table of contents | Next -->