| ThingMaker Documentation Chapter 7) Windows and Palettes

| Settings Palette The Settings Palette is the center of making interactive Things. Although you can add Paths and color and make Shapes in the Scene Window, the Settings Palette is where you fine tune the parameters, add Actions and Media, and otherwise transform the appearance of Things. When you click on a Thing in the Gallery or Scene, the Settings Palette will display the Settings information for that Thing. To take full advantage of the multimedia capabilities of ThingMaker, you'll want to experiment with the Settings Palette.

The Settings Palette

State Tabs
You'll find the all-important State Tabs at the top of the Settings Palette. A State in ThingMaker describes the behavior of a Thing in relation to the Actions of the mouse. Default is the State the program automatically assigns to a Thing when you add it to the Gallery or move it to the Scene. The MouseOver State describes what happens when the mouse moves over a Thing but is not clicked. The MouseClick State describes what happens when a user clicks the mouse on a Thing. Because Things can exist in more than one state, they offer endless design possibilities.

Clicking on individual State Tabs brings the Settings for that State to the foreground. Adjustments made in the Settings for each State will be reflected in how the Thing behaves when it is played. Place Media and Actions in the Settings Palette to determine what the Thing will do in each State. Media and Actions may be different for different States. For example, Actions placed in the MouseOver state are only triggered when the cursor is over the Thing. You might choose to place a Collision Action in this State but not in the Default State. If the Thing does not perform as you would expect, make sure that you have made the Settings changes in the State you intended.

The Information Tab (I) is not a State per se, but it is a Tab site, because it relates to the other key feature of the program besides States - publishing protection and credit identification. Inside the Information Tab is where you add protection and publishing Actions that determine subsequent use of your Things and how you want your information to link back to you. Add Lock, ID and Copyright Actions to the Information Tab of a Thing.

The Settings Tray lies just below the State Tabs. The Settings Tray displays the Media and Actions for the State as Icons. These Icons are copies of the Icons that appear in the Gallery and in the Actions and in the Tool Palettes. When you click on an Icon in the Settings Tray, the information for the Media or for the Action represented by the Icon will appear below the Tray in the Settings Sheet. It will change for each Media and Action you attach to a Thing. The Settings Sheets display the parameters for the selected Media element or Action. Make adjustments to Things by changing or fine-tuning parameters in the Settings Sheets. Some Actions have two or more pages of Settings Sheets. These are indicated by the small Tabs at the bottom of the Sheet. Click on these smaller Tabs to access these pages.

You must learn to read the Settings Sheets carefully. If the Thing does not perform as you intended on Playback, check the Settings Sheets and the Settings Tray - as well as the States of the Thing.

Using Tabs To Add Actions and Media to the Different States of a Thing
Add Actions and Media to Things by dragging them from the Actions Tool Palette or from the Gallery Palette to one of the State Tabs in the Settings Palette, or to the Settings Tray in one of the Tabs. You can also drag Actions and Media to the Settings Tray for the State you are viewing.

Some Actions, such as the Drag Action, can only be added to the MouseClick State. If you attempt to drag the Action to the wrong Tab, the program will display an error message and prompt you to place the Action in the correct State.

Learning to Read the Settings Palette
The Settings Palette includes the following features

The Settings Sheets for a specific Action are described in the Reference section for that Action.

Close Palette
Click the Close Button to hide the palette. To make the Palette visible again, choose the Settings entry from the View menu.

State Tabs
Provides access to the three states of a Thing: Default, MouseOver and MouseClick. The current Tab is highlighted in the same color as the rest of the Settings Sheet. The contents of the State are accessible from the Settings Tray. Media and Actions can be added to a State by dragging to the appropriate Tab, as well as by dragging to the Settings Tray. The fourth Tab, the Information Tab, is used to store the Copyright, ID/Credit and the Lock Actions.

Information Tab
Contains information about the Thing, holds the protection and the publishing Actions.

Settings Tray
Holds Icons, symbols for the Media and Actions that are stored in the current State of the Thing. Clicking on the Icon displays the Settings Sheet for that Media or Action.

Media Icon
Is a thumbnail version of a Gallery Icon. Click this Icon to see the Settings Sheet for the Media. To remove this Media from the Thing, drag the Icon to the Trash. A Thing can have only one visual Media element in each State.

Type Logos
Tells you the type of Media you have attached to a Thing. Type Logos are small black and white "stamps" that appear in the lower right corner of the Media Icon in the Settings Tray. These Logos also appear in the Gallery Palette to denote Media attached to Things stored there.

Action Icon
Represents an Action that has been added to a State. These are the Icons that appear as Actions in the Actions Tool Palette. You drag these Actions to the Settings Palette to attach them to a Thing.

Trash Can
Lets you remove items from the Settings Tray by dragging them here.

Settings Sheet
Contains parameters for the currently selected Media element or Action. Settings sheets are displayed by selecting the Icons in the Settings Tray.

Settings Sheet Tabs
Indicates additional Settings Sheets for fine-tuning the Actions and Media elements that spread their parameters over multiple Settings Sheets. These appear at the bottom of the Settings sheet, e. g., Basic, Detail, and Editor.

Make same as Default
Is available as a check box only in MouseOver and in MouseClick. If this box is checked, the parameters in the Settings Sheet for a Media element are the same as the parameters in the Default Settings Sheet. When you import Media into a Gallery to create a new Thing, this option will be checked in the MouseOver and MouseClick states by default. If you replace the Media in the MouseOver or MouseClick state, or adjust the parameters for the Media, such as the speed of the Animation, then this check-box will not remain checked. Putting a check back into this box will change the Media in that state, so that it reverts to Default.

Collapse Palette
Shrinks the Palette down, so that only the State Tab and Settings Tray are visible. When collapsed, the Button is replaced by an Expand Palette Button.

Animation Settings
The Animation Settings Sheet provides control over all the parameters for the playback of Animation sequences. The Settings Sheet for Animation Settings consists of four "pages" - Basic, Detail, Editor and Alignment.

Speed controls
Adjusts the speed at which the Animation sequence will play on the screen.

Play controls
Refers to the number of times the sequence is repeated.

- Continuously
  This means the Animation sequence will play until the Scene ends or the State of the object changes.

- Number of Times
  means the sequence will play that number of times and then stop.

  Sequence controls
  Determines how the sequence will be played.

  Loop
  This means the sequence will play through the last frame and replay the sequence backwards.

  Preview Window
  Can be used to test what the Animation will look like in the Scene.

  Preview Play/Stop Button
  Use to start and to stop Preview.

  Animation Detail Setting Sheet
  The Animation Detail Setting Sheet provides transparency controls, as well s Stop State and Play to end of sequence parameters.

  Stop State
  Indicates what Frame in the sequence will be is displayed when the Animation has played the number of times specified in Play in Basic settings. When Continuously is chosen as the Play Setting in the Basic Tab, this option isn't available.

- Stop on Last Frame
  This means that the last Frame of the Animation sequence will stay on-screen.
- Stop on First Frame
  This means the first Frame of the Animation sequence will stay on-screen.

  Transparency Controls
  These controls are used to make a chosen color area of a Thing transparent, so that you can see "through" part of the Thing to another Thing or the Scene underneath. Typically, you will want to make the white regions of a graphic transparent. The program defaults to Transparency On and the color white set as the transparent color.

  Enable Transparency
  Turns on transparency. When you select a color using the Change transparent color option, the graphic will be transparent.

  Make Transparent Area Respond To Mouse Actions
  Check this parameter if you want the Thing to switch to the MouseOver or to the MouseClick states, when the cursor is over the transparent part of the graphic.

  Transparency color
  Use this parameter to choose the transparent color for the graphic.The Default Transparency is set to the color white. This parameter is set to On by default, when a graphic is imported.

  To change the color, click on the Ink Dropper Button. This displays the Color Palette for the graphic. You can choose another color by clicking on it in the Palette.

  Using Transparent Color
  You usually want to use white as the transparent color, so that your graphic doesn't appear to be sitting on a white square; but this may cause a problem if the center of the graphic is white. To fix this problem, you must change the color of the center of the graphic or the color of the graphic's surrounding area to another color using your Paint program (see below).

  Examples of Transparency Color

  These three examples show graphics with and without transparency. In the first example, the graphic has white surrounding it and a blue center. Setting white as the transparent color creates a Button that has been "matted" to the surrounding scene color.

  In the second example, both the center and the surrounding are white. Setting white to transparent mattes the object to the surrounding but also makes the center transparent. This may be desirable in some cases, such as an Animation.

  In the final example, the graphic has been changed so that the surrounding is a color other than white. This color is, then, set as the transparent color. This results in a red-colored graphic matted to the surrounding with a white center.

  Choose a color that is easily distinguishable from other colors in the graphic. This will make it easier to find the color in the color Palette.

  Play to end of sequence
  This option controls how a Thing behaves when reverting to a previous State. When you move the cursor over a Thing or click on it, the Thing changes states imMediately. What happens when you move the cursor off the Thing? With the parameter, Play to end of sequence, you can determine whether the Thing will switch back to the Default State Animation immediately or finish playing the MouseOver Animation before switching.

  If Play to end of sequence is set, then ThingMaker will play the State Animation the number of times specified before reverting to the previous State. For example, if you set Play to two (2), then the Animation in MouseOver will play twice before switching back to the Default Animation. There are two exceptions to this rule: if the cursor remains over the Thing and the Animation finishes playing as specified, then the Animation will hold on the Stop State Frame. If you MouseClick on the Thing, the Thing will switch to the MouseClick State imMediately. You can also use the Play to end of sequence control between the MouseOver and MouseClick States. (See also "Stop State under "Animation Settings Sheet in this Reference.)

  If you set the Animation to play Continuously and Play to end of sequence is on, then the Thing will continue playing in that State. In the MouseClick state, a Thing could, theoretically, play forever.

  Effect on Actions
  Play to end of sequence effect Things when Actions are triggered, as follows: If you have "Play to end of sequence" set and set the parameter, Wait for end of Animation, the Action won't be triggered, until the Animation has played the number of times you set. The one exception to this rule occurs when you set Continuously as the parameter for playing time - the Action will be triggered imMediately.

  The examples, below, demonstrate how these two options interact. A Thing has been created with a Web Action and an Animation in the MouseClick state, and the Animation set to Play twice:

  Play to end: | N
  Wait for end: | N

  When clicked, the Animation starts playing: the Web Action is triggered imMediately.

  Play to end: | Y
  Wait for end: | N

  When clicked, the Animation starts playing but the Web Action is triggered imMediately.

  Play to end: | N
  Wait for end: | Y

  When clicked the Animation starts playing: the Web Action is not triggered until after either the mouse is released, or the Animation finishes playing twice.

  Play to end: | Y
  Wait for end: | Y

  When clicked the Animation starts playing: the Web Action is triggered after the Animation finishes.

  Note that the first two examples above react the same way, but that the last two work very differently.

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