This is actually much harder work than you might imagine, but the results can be worth the trouble if you're willing to give it a try. The first thing to bear in mind is that each individual button in a DOpus button bank has to be the same size as all the other buttons in the same bank, so laying a grid down in PPaint, Brilliance or DPaint is a must. The next thing to think about is how much palette you have to play about with. Us graphic card owners are lucky, we could have a 24-bit picture, but AGA and ECS owners have to be a lot more careful. If you are using a MagicWB palette I recommend that you make do with the eight colours that this one provides. If you try to create any more than that, your machine will start to slow down.

It's probably best to start by working out which buttons you want in this bank. If you're aiming to replace your existing bank then you are going to need plenty of space, but if you're just going to, say, replace your ftp button bank then you'll probably only need a few buttons. Remember also that unless you like to have a full window around your buttons, you will need to work the vertical or horizontal strip drag bar into the design of your backdrop somehow. Ideas that came to my mind when thinking about this tutorial included making a backdrop that was full of Workbench windows, so that our full windowed button bank wouldn't look out of place, or using short vertical bars to create an abstract "Mondrian-esque" design for the other style. However, the fact is that until there's an option to remove the button bank's bar altogether, integrating your button banks is always going to be a little tricky.

The example button bank shown uses a picture of a Beretta as a backdrop and the bullet as the button bank. Obviously this only has a single button button bank, but you get the idea.

Of course, there's a lot more to button banks than this. For instance, did you know that if you hold the Alt key down while clicking on a button it will bring it straight up for editing? This means no more having to use the button bank pop-up menu, selecting edit and then choosing the button you wish to edit. One modifier, one click and boomph, you're there. In fact, as far as I'm concerned Jon Potter may as well just remove the "Edit..." menu item altogether. This neat trick also works with the button banks at the top of listers. Just hold down the alt key while clicking them and Robert will be your father's brother!

Also useful to bear in mind is the fact that you can drag and drop buttons while the edit window is open. You can drag and drop from one button bank to another, do the same within the same button bank -- you can even drag buttons into the action editor if you want to add another command, or drag them into a function window if you want to make a button list. Tres handy.

While we are talking about creating buttons, it's also worth discussing the commands that make them work. As you probably already know, DOpus has its own internal commands as well as the ability to use AmigaDOS scripts to make things happen. This gives the user (that's you) almost unlimited power to create any type of button you want. As an example, I find the Miami interface to be somewhat intrusive. But Miami has a lovely ARexx port which I'm never going to make full use of. However, even I can set up a button in Directory Opus to go online and another to go offline by making a script that simply says:

/* Get Miami online*/ Address Miami.1 Online

I change online for offline when I want to link down. And, if I was more ARexx- aware, I could use Miami's ISONLINE command so that I only need one button to do both jobs. The only trouble with this script is that it gives no visual feedback to tell me when I've got online (or off again). This is where DOpus wins out again. By adding:

command FinishSection
command Beep

after calling my Miami script, I can make DOpus beep to inform me that I'm either on or offline. For this to work, you'll need to make sure that you don't have "Run asynchronously" turned on in the list of options down at the bottom right of the function editor window. I thought this might initially be a problem until I remembered that even buttons are regarded as separate processes in DOpus, so it won't affect the normal running of the rest of the program.

The "FinishSection" beep sound can also be very handy tool to have if you are in the habit of copying long files or making huge archives and it isn't that difficult to add to an existing button. You don't even have to use DOpus' internal beep -- Nick used to have his machine doing a round of applause when copying from his notoriously slow IDE drive.

For my last trick, I'll explain how to add new buttons to a button bank interactively. For this to work, you'll need your standard button bank with a button spare. For me, this is the red on green button labelled "Net buttons". Before editing this button, change the title of the bank and save it under a different name. For me, the new bank becomes known as MainNet. Then you can put the commands, shown in the grab below, in the function editor for this button. Now, if you click on the "Net buttons" button the bank disappears and is replaced with the clone bank. You can now add new buttons to this bank to give you Net functions as I have done and change the "Net buttons" button to "Close Net" and reverse the function for the button. This looks pretty nifty and you'll be glad to know, doesn't take a whole lot of effort either.

Making your graphical button bank blend in with your backdrop can be tricky, but effective.