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____ | | | | | | • __ | ___| | | | | \ |———— / | \ /\ / | | | | | | \/ \/ | | | |____ \__/| A shareware template editor for RISC OS 3. Author: Tony Houghton 271 Upper Weston Lane Southampton SO19 9HY United Kingdom Email: tonyh@tcp.co.uk WWW: http://www.tcp.co.uk/~tonyh/ This manual describes release 2.34 of WinEd. CONTENTS About WinEd............................................................1 Requirements...........................................................1 About shareware........................................................1 Installation and registration..........................................1 Upgrades...............................................................2 Distribution...........................................................2 Disclaimer.............................................................2 Units used.............................................................2 Mode independence......................................................3 WinEd’s dialogue boxes.................................................3 Error boxes............................................................3 Interactive help.......................................................3 Loading and creating templates.........................................3 Keyboard control of the pointer........................................4 Sprite files and sprite areas..........................................4 The icon bar menu......................................................4 The Choices dialogue box...............................................5 Browsers...............................................................6 Mouse operations in browsers...........................................6 The browser menu.......................................................7 Selected window(s) submenu.............................................8 Saving templates.......................................................8 Statistics windows.....................................................8 The browser tool bar...................................................9 Preview windows........................................................9 The preview menu......................................................10 Editable windows......................................................10 Mouse operations in editable windows..................................10 The editable window menu..............................................11 Selected icon(s) submenu..............................................12 The editable window tool pane.........................................13 Edit window dialogue box..............................................13 Button types..........................................................15 The colour picker.....................................................17 The monitor...........................................................17 Creating icons: the Icon picker.......................................18 Work area dialogue box................................................18 Edit icon/title dialogue box..........................................19 Align dialogue box....................................................22 Space out dialogue box................................................23 Resize icons dialogue box.............................................23 Frame dialogue box....................................................24 Hints & tips..........................................................25 Customising WinEd.....................................................27 Bug reports & suggestions.............................................28 Acknowledgements......................................................28 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ About WinEd ——————————— WinEd is a shareware template editor. Its features are aimed at designing templates for RISC OS 3 with a 3D look, but it can also be used for 2D templates. The most attractive features of WinEd are: • Main editing interfaces use dialogue boxes. • Icons can be dragged between windows, including a customisable ‘Picker’ window containing the most commonly used icons. • Multiple files can be loaded by one instantiation of WinEd. • Conventions are based on Acorn’s Style Guide. • Statistics are available on the size etc of template files. • Powerful features for positioning icons relative to each other. • Optional rounding of coordinates in high resolution modes to ensure low resolution compatibility. • Optional tool panes and keyboard short cuts enhance convenience. • Fast loading and saving. Requirements ———————————— WinEd requires RISC OS 3.1 or later, but will work on 1Mb systems. No modules are required, except that because it is designed for a 3D look you should use the NewLook suite supplied by Acorn if you have RISC OS 3.1. This includes the WindowUtils module, without which some 3D applications may crash. About shareware ——————————————— WinEd is shareware, not public domain. Shareware means that you are legally obliged to register by sending a fee to the author if you decide to continue using the software after an evaluation period. Registration of WinEd is described below. Please do not fail to register any shareware you use, not just WinEd. Your support helps to preserve an excellent way of allowing users to try before they buy and independent authors to distribute their software conveniently. Installation and registration ————————————————————————————— WinEd can be run from any filing system, but the registration process requires a writable medium. To install WinEd drag it from the directory you receive it on to the directory you want it to ‘live’ in. To ensure your new copy is used in preference to the original open the application directory with Shift-Double-click and double click the !Boot file. You only need to do this if you have just made a new copy and intend to use it without rebooting the computer. When you first install WinEd, you will most probably have an unregistered version. This will be made evident by the start-up banner asking you to register, and the string “*** Unregistered ***” in the User field of the Info dialogue box. After registration a User file is Page 1 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ created: the banner will be removed and your name inserted in the User field. The first thing you must do to register WinEd is send £10.00 sterling (cheques payable to A. Houghton) to: Tony Houghton 271 Upper Weston Lane Southampton SO19 9HY UK Please state your name exactly as you wish it to appear in the User field, and the version number of WinEd you are currently using. In return I will send you your personal registration code and the latest version of WinEd if you have an earlier version. Overseas customers need not pay extra for postage, but S.A.E’s will be much appreciated. When you have a registration code run WinEd and click on the Register button in the registration banner. A sub-program takes your user name and registration code and uses them to create the User file within !WinEd. Upgrades ———————— Your User file will be compatible with all future versions of WinEd. Its main ftp site on the Internet is ftp.tcp.co.uk/pub/acorn; check my web site (see title page of this manual) for news of updates. Users without access can get updates from APDL at 39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London SE26 5RN. Alternatively you can get upgrades directly from me at the above address; please state your registration code and include a preferably padded SAE with a formatted disc (HD or DD acceptable). Distribution ———————————— WinEd may be freely distributed provided all the files, including this and other documentation, are left intact and unaltered, except for any User file which must be removed. Customised template files must be replaced with the originals. If you are doing more than giving a copy to a friend (eg you run a BBS or PD library) please ensure you have the latest version. Disclaimer —————————— I, the author can accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by installing or using WinEd. I reserve the right to change the specification of WinEd without notice and upgrade it or not as I see fit. Units used —————————— The units used and referred to throughout are OS units, except where Page 2 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ stated. If a writable icon expecting a number is left blank, zero is assumed. Remember that work area coordinates have the origin at the top left and anything below this is negative. Mode independence ————————————————— WinEd has been designed so that you do not have to design your templates in low resolution modes to ensure compatibility. This is done by providing an option to round all coordinates to the nearest 4 OS units (equivalent to one pixel in the lowest resolution desktop modes), including the dashed outline in drags. WinEd’s dialogue boxes —————————————————————— Most of WinEd’s dialogue boxes are static ie a click outside them does not close them. This slightly improves convenience and consistency. Action buttons generally close the dialogue box they are in unless clicked with Adjust instead of Select. Cancel buttons always close the dialogue box. Pressing Return in any writable icon has the same effect as clicking Select on the default action icon. Use the up and down cursor keys or (Shift-) Tab to move the caret between icons. When clicked with Select, down ‘bumper’ icons (arrows) decrease values shown in adjacent fields, up bumpers increase the values. Adjust does the reverse of this. Error boxes ——————————— Error boxes are usually used when WinEd encounters a problem such as lack of memory or missing resources. Where possible, when WinEd is being used to edit data, it tries to continue after such problems, but you should save your data as soon as possible. If WinEd can not continue there will be a Cancel button instead of OK or Continue. Interactive help ———————————————— WinEd supports interactive help, including its menus; you may find this helpful at first. Loading and creating templates —————————————————————————————— WinEd can be loaded by double clicking it in a directory display or by double clicking any template file. Naturally the WinEd icon appears on the icon bar, also a browser (see below) is opened for any template file that was used to invoke WinEd. Once WinEd is loaded any more template files can be loaded by double clicking or dragging to WinEd. The number of files WinEd can load and edit is only limited by memory. To create a new file click once with Select on the WinEd icon; this Page 3 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ opens an empty browser (see below). Files can be merged by dragging one file into a browser containing the other. Keyboard control of the pointer ——————————————————————————————— While WinEd is on the icon bar and no other windows have input focus, each press of one of the cursor keys moves the mouse pointer by one pixel in the appropriate direction. Sprite files and sprite areas ————————————————————————————— In some windows it is necessary to create icons with sprites that belong to an application instead of the Wimp’s sprite pool. You can load 'user' sprite files into WinEd by dragging them to its icon. WinEd only has one sprite pool which it shares between all windows loaded in it, but it can load sprite files dragged to any of its windows or its icon bar. Holding shift while dragging a sprite file to WinEd causes it to be merged with the Wimp sprite pool and the screen is redrawn. From version 2.30 onwards, all sprite area fields are saved with the value 1 (use Wimp sprites) and WinEd makes no distinction between the Wimp sprite pool and the user sprite pool. RISC OS 3 allows all sprite area pointers to be set to a user sprite area and it will look for sprites in the Wimp pool if they are not found in the user's area. It is up to the target application to change sprite area pointers to its own sprite area if necessary. The icon bar menu ————————————————— Info ---- Moving the pointer right opens the Info dialogue box which contains information about WinEd including the version and whether there is a registered user. Icon picker ----------- This opens the icon picker immediately above the right hand end of the icon bar. The icon picker is described in a later section. Monitor ------- This opens the monitor window at the top right of the screen. The monitor is described in a later section. Choices ------- Page 4 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ This opens the Choices dialogue box, described later. Clear sprites ------------- Clears the user sprite area to save memory. Quit ---- This removes WinEd and all its files from memory. If data has been altered without saving you will be presented with a warning dialogue box. Click the Discard button to discard data and allow WinEd to quit, or the Cancel button to keep WinEd and its data. This dialogue box also appears if the Task Manager asks WinEd to quit without saving data, eg during a Shutdown. The Choices dialogue box ———————————————————————— Opened from the icon bar menu, this allows you to configure some of WinEd’s behaviour. The choices will not take effect until you click OK or Save, but will then take immediate effect, updating any displayed windows if necessary. The Save button creates a Choices file within the !WinEd directory, to read the options from next time WinEd is loaded. If WinEd can not find a valid Choices file it quietly chooses suitable defaults. Automatic monitor ----------------- If selected the monitor will automatically open and close when editable or preview windows are opened and closed, as described in the section about The monitor. Automatic icon picker --------------------- This makes the icon picker open and close with editable windows in a similar way to the monitor. Browser tool bar ---------------- This causes a tool bar to be displayed along the top of browsers. Editable window tool pane ------------------------- This causes a tool pane to be attached to the top left of editable windows. Keyboard short cuts ------------------- If selected, browsers and editable windows will claim input focus and respond to keyboard short cuts. The short cuts are shown in the menus if this option is selected. Page 5 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ Hatch user-drawn windows ------------------------ If selected, a cross hatch pattern will be displayed in any editable window which needs the task’s help to be redrawn. Round coordinates ----------------- This causes all coordinates to be rounded to the nearest 4 OS units as described in the section on Mode independence. Editable window tool icons -------------------------- This causes editable windows to be displayed with all the tools (title bar, scroll bars etc) to save you having to repeatedly switch them on and off every time you want to move or scroll the window. A Preview system is provided to see how your windows will actually look. Auto-load sprites ----------------- When a template file is loaded WinEd will load a Sprites or Sprites22 file from the same directory if one exists and this option is set. Browsers ———————— Browser is the term for a window which displays a list of the window/dialogue box definitions in a file. Each entry is shown as a small icon depicting a dialogue box (with no scroll bars) or window (with scroll bars) next to its template identifier. The windows are displayed in the order they appear in the file left to right. The title bar of a browser shows the file name of the templates, with an asterisk if they have been edited. Closing a browser removes the templates from memory, unless they have not been saved in which case you will see a warning dialogue box. Click Discard to discard the templates and close the browser, Cancel to keep the browser open or Save to open the save dialogue box. If you choose the latter the browser will be closed following a successful save. If you click Adjust on a browser’s close tool WinEd will attempt to open the directory the templates were last loaded or saved in, keeping the browser open if you hold Shift. Iconising a browser (Shift-Select on the close tool) closes any windows which ‘belong’ to it, thus it can be used for a quick tidy-up. Mouse operations in browsers ———————————————————————————— Where ‘work area’ is shown in brackets below it refers to clicking over a part of the window not covered by an icon. Similarly, ‘(icon)’ means clicking over an icon; each icon corresponds to a window or dialogue Page 6 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ box definition. If neither are present it refers to any part of the window. Select (icon) Exclusively select icon Select (work area) Clear selection Adjust (icon) Toggle selection state of icon without affecting others Double-click Select (icon) Open window for editing, or close it if already open Double-click Adjust (icon) Open window for preview, or close it if already open Drag Select Start dragging rubber box; when complete all icons within the box are selected Drag Adjust Start dragging rubber box; all icons inside will have their selection state toggled Menu Open browser menu. If not more than one icon was previously selected, any icon under the pointer is selected instead The browser menu and the processes of editing and previewing windows are described below. The browser menu ———————————————— The Selection and Clear selection entries are greyed out if there is no selection, and the Selection entry is changed to Window ‘xxxx’ if only one window is selected. Create ------ Move the pointer right to a small dialogue box to enter the name (identifier) of a new window. This must contain at least one character, and you will be asked for confirmation if you are about to overwrite any existing windows with the same name. Selection --------- Move the pointer right to open the Window/Selection submenu described below. Select all ---------- Selects all the windows in a browser. Clear selection --------------- Clears the selection. Save ---- Page 7 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ Move the pointer right to open the Save as dialogue box. Statistics ---------- Opens a statistics window for the file in the browser. This is described below. Selected window(s) submenu —————————————————————————— If more than one window is selected only the Delete entry can be selected, the others are greyed out. Copy ---- Move the pointer right to make a copy of the selected window. This is similar to creating a new window, described above. Rename ------ Move the pointer right to enter a new name for the selected window; again, see the section about creating a new window. Delete ------ Deletes the selected window(s). Edit ---- Open the selected window for editing (see the section on Editable windows below). Preview ------- Open the selected window for previewing (see the section on Preview windows below). Saving templates ———————————————— The Save as dialogue box is opened from the browser menu. Drag the file icon or enter a path name in the writable icon and click Save. If one or more windows are selected the Selection button will be selectable. Select this if you only want to save the selected templates. Note that when you save a selection, the fonts for the whole file are saved with it. To remove superfluous fonts load the file back into WinEd. Statistics windows —————————————————— The top row shows the column headings. The Identifier column shows the name of the window, Icons shows how many icons the window contains. Buffer shows the size of the buffer needed to load the window block Page 8 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ with Wimp_LoadTemplate; similarly Indirected shows the size of buffer needed to hold the icons’ indirected data. Note that the Buffer size is the size that will be requested by Wimp_LoadTemplate and includes a temporary buffer for indirected data. Each row in the main section of the window shows the data described above for each window definition in the file. The penultimate row shows the total of each column for all the windows in the file. The bottom row shows, from left to right, the number of windows in the file, the number of different font definitions used, and the size in bytes of the file as stored on disc. Note the latter is generally smaller than the total size needed to load the templates, this is because only the parts of indirected strings which contain data are stored in the file, but the application using the templates needs to reserve space for the maximum possible length of the string. The browser tool bar ———————————————————— This is a row of tool icons which can optionally be displayed along the top of browser windows. The tools provide short cuts for the functions described above, available from the browser menu. They are (from left to right): Create (opens writable submenu) Select all Clear selection Save Copy (opens writable submenu) Rename (opens writable submenu) Delete Statistics Edit Preview Preview windows ——————————————— Since editable windows have their attributes altered to make them easier to edit, it is necessary to have a system of viewing exactly how your finished windows will look and behave. This is what preview windows are for. They can be opened by double clicking Adjust on a window in a browser or by choosing Preview from the browser menu. Previews can also be used to fine tune the size and appearance of windows in ways which are not practical or possible with editable windows. It is possible to drag a preview window by dragging an empty part (ie not covered by an icon) of its work area while pressing Ctrl. Using Select has the same effect as dragging the title bar (move window) and Page 9 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ Adjust is the same as dragging the adjust size tool (resize window). It may also be necessary to see how windows fit with each other (eg for panes) without superfluous tools. Once you are satisfied with the size and position of a preview window remember to store the position and size with the preview menu (see below), otherwise they will be reset next time you open the window. The preview menu ———————————————— Close ----- Closes the window (in case there is no close tool). Store position ------------- Stores the current on-screen size and position of the window in the template definition. Store icon states ----------------- Stores the selection states of the window’s icons in the template definition. However, it is better practice to leave any selection to the application which finally uses the templates. Editable windows ———————————————— The changes you make to editable windows directly affect the template data, including moving and resizing. Editable windows are optionally always shown with all tools (title bar, scroll bars etc) to make editing easier. All icons are given the same button type to make them selectable. To see how your windows will really look use the preview system. Many of the following sections refer to dialogue boxes; each of these is described in its own section. Mouse operations in editable windows ———————————————————————————————————— These are summarised below with numbered notes. Note also that all mouse operations in editable windows can be modified in the same way with the Ctrl key. This has the effect of making the operation act as if over an empty bit of work area instead of over an icon. All irreversible drags (ie excepting rubber boxes) can be cancelled by pressing Esc when you release the mouse. Select (work area) Clear selection Select (non-selected icon) Exclusively select icon Menu Open editable window menu. If not more than one icon was previously selected, Page 10 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ any icon under the pointer is selected instead Adjust (non-selected icon) Select icon without affecting others Adjust (selected icon) Deselect icon Drag Select (work area) Drag a rubber box to select icons ¹ Drag Select (icon) Move (local)/Copy (export) icon ² Drag Adjust (work area) Drag a rubber box to invert the selection state of icons ¹ Drag Adjust (icon) Resize icon, moving the edge nearest the pointer ³ Drag Shift-Adjust (icon) Resize icon, moving the corner nearest the pointer ³ Drag Shift-Select (icon) Copy (local)/Move (export) icon ² Drag Shift-Adjust (icon) Resize icon, moving only the edge nearest the pointer ³ Drag Shift-Ctrl-Select Move window as if dragging title bar Drag Shift-Ctrl-Adjust Resize window as if dragging adjust size tool Double click Select (work area) Edit window (open dialogue) † Double click Select (icon) Edit icon " † Double click Adjust (work area) Edit work area " † Double click Adjust (icon) Minimise icon ‡ Double ⇧-Select (work area) Edit window title icon " † ¹ This is similar to the same type of drag in browsers. ² This follows the conventions of Drag & Drop as outlined in the Style Guide. The unmodified drag and Shift-modified drag have the opposite effect depending on whether the drag is local (finishing in the same window as it started) or an export (to a different window). In the local case an unmodified drag moves the icon and a Shift-drag copies it, in the export case an unmodified drag copies the icon, a Shift-drag effectively moves the icon by making a copy in the destination window and deleting the original. If the pointer leaves the window during a drag the window is scrolled if possible; if the drag turns out to be an export the scroll bars are reset to their original positions. The Shift key is polled at the start of the drag, not the end. ³ Resize drags are limited by the window’s visible area. † These operations open the relevant dialogue box. ‡ This minimises both the width and height of an icon; minimisation makes the icon just large enough to display its contents and is described in more detail in the section about the Resize icons dialogue box. The editable window menu ———————————————————————— The Selection and Clear selection entries are greyed out if there is no selection, and the Selection entry is changed to Icon nnn if only one icon is selected. Selection Page 11 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ -------- Move the pointer right to open the Selection submenu. Select all ---------- Selects all the icons in the window. Clear selection --------------- Deselects all the icons. Work area... ------------ Opens the Work area dialogue box. Edit window... -------------- Opens the Edit window dialogue box. Edit title... ------------- Opens the Edit icon dialogue box for the title icon. Close window ------------ Closes the window. Selected icon(s) submenu ———————————————————————— If only one icon is selected, the title bar of the menu shows Icon and the Align... option is greyed out. The Edit... option is greyed out and the title bar shows Selection for multiple selections. Delete ------ Deletes the selected icon(s). Deleted icons are entirely removed from the template; any icons with higher numbers are renumbered to ‘fill the gap’. Renumber nn ----------- Renumbers the selection, starting from the number shown. A different number can be entered by moving the pointer right. Groups of icons can be renumbered as well as single icons. When renumbering a group they are kept in the same order but are made consecutive, starting from the new number. After renumbering the number in the menu and dialogue box is updated to the number following the new number of the last renumbered icon. Edit... ------- Opens the Edit icon dialogue box, a long winded alternative to Page 12 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ double-clicking. Align... -------- Opens the Align icons dialogue box. Space out... ------------ Opens the Space out dialogue box. Resize... --------- Opens the Resize icons dialogue box. Frame... -------- Opens the Frame icons dialogue box. The editable window tool pane ————————————————————————————— This is optionally attached to the top-left edge of editable windows and provides short cuts for the menu functions described above. The tools are (left to right, top to bottom): Select all Clear selection Work area... Edit window... Edit title... Delete Renumber (Select opens writable submenu, Adjust renumbers with value currently shown in menu) Align... Space out... Resize... Frame... Edit window dialogue box ———————————————————————— This can be opened from an editable window menu or by double clicking Select in the window’s work area. It is for editing various attributes of a window. The identifier of the window being edited is shown in the title bar. Most monitors will not be capable of displaying the dialogue box at full height, but the tall, narrow design seems to be the most convenient. If necessary the dialogue box can be redesigned by the user (see the section on Customising WinEd). Tools ----- These option icons determine which of the named tools will appear Page 13 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ around the border of the window. Btn type -------- This shows the button type of the window’s work area. The button icon to the right of this field pops up the button type menu when clicked. Button types are described later. Update ------ Updates the template data with the settings in the dialogue box. The following option icons affect the state of the window’s flags. Each explanation refers to when the flag is set. Movable ------- The window can be dragged by its title bar. Auto redraw ----------- The window can be entirely redrawn by the Wimp, the application does not need code to redraw it. Pane ---- The window is a pane. This makes the title bar of the window behind (parent) change colour when the pane gains input focus. Force to back ------------- No windows can be opened behind this one; it becomes a backdrop. Hot keys -------- Keypress events will be passed to the application without the window having input focus. Note that the event data does not necessarily indicate the window which claimed the event in this case. Allow off screen ---------------- The window can be opened off screen; usually (when this flag is cleared) the Wimp forces the window entirely on screen when first opened and after mode changes. Keep on screen -------------- The window cannot be dragged off screen. Ignore right extent ------------------- Ignore bottom extent Page 14 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ -------------------- I am not sure what these are for; the only noticeable difference is that the pointer can move outside the Adjust tool when resizing. Scroll events ------------- If either of the radios is set the window receives scroll events when the scroll arrows are clicked. Debounced means the mouse button has to be released and clicked again to reproduce an event, auto repeat means events are received at the same rate as the keyboard auto repeat is set. Click Adjust on whichever is currently selected to deselect both and ignore scroll events. The following items are for editing the window’s colours. Each icon (from left to right) is: colour name, abbreviated to its initials to save space in the dialogue box; a display of the current colour; bumper arrows for changing the colour by one step at a time; a pop-up menu button for choosing the colour from WinEd’s colour picker (see below). TF Title bar Foreground. TB Title bar Background. WF Work area Foreground. WB Work area Background. SO Scroll bar Outer. SI Scroll bar Inner. IF Input focus (the colour the title bar changes to when the window has input focus). Default ------- Sets all the colours to their recommended default values. This button doesn’t close the dialogue box. GCOL colours ------------ If set the above colours are taken to be GCOL values. This was originally intended for 256 colour modes and should not really be used. WinEd only supports colours in the usual range of 0-15 (and 255/-1 for transparent). Button types ———————————— Button types for icons and work areas are chosen from a menu which can be popped up from the editing dialogue boxes. Note that in all cases a click with Menu causes an event with a button state of 2 (Menu button) no matter what the button type of the icon/work area is. 0 Never ------- All clicks are ignored except Menu. 1 Continuous Page 15 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ ------------ The task is continually notified (with click events) while the pointer is over the icon/work area. 2 Auto repeat ------------- A click notifies the task; if the mouse button is held the event is repeated at the rate of the keyboard auto repeat setting. 3 Click ------- A click notifies the task without auto repeat. 4 Release --------- Releasing the mouse button causes a click event. 5 Double click -------------- A double click notifies the task as if it was a single click. 6 Click/Drag ------------ As 3, but a drag causes an additional event with the button state multiplied by 16. 7 Release/Drag -------------- As 4, but can also be dragged (returns button state * 16). 8 Double/Drag ------------- As 5, but can also be dragged (returns button state * 16). 9 Menu ------ For work areas this has the same effect as 3. For icons, moving the pointer over the icon selects it, moving the pointer away deselects it. A click notifies the task. 10 Double/Click/Drag -------------------- A click returns the button state * 256. A drag returns the button state * 16. A double click returns the button state * 1. 11 Radio -------- A click returns the button state * 1. If over an icon the icon is selected. A drag returns the button state * 16. Page 16 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ 12 (Reserved) ------------- 13 (Reserved) ------------- Use is undefined. 14 Writable/Drag ---------------- As 15 but can also be dragged. Not applicable to work areas. 15 Writable ----------- A click causes the window to gain input focus. If over an icon the caret is placed in the icon. The colour picker ————————————————— This should not be confused with the RISC OS colour picker introduced with RISC OS 3.5. WinEd’s colour picker is for picking Wimp colours and transparent where allowed. The colour picker should be treated as a menu rather than a dialogue box; the only reason a dialogue box is used is because it is a more convenient shape. Clicking on a colour or the Transparent button immediately updates the field, and closes the colour picker unless Adjust is used. The monitor ——————————— The monitor always opens at the top right of the screen. When first opened only the top two fields are visible, it can be resized to show dimensions. The monitor shows the following information about any window/icon under the pointer, provided it is in a template loaded in WinEd. Window ------ The identifier of the window under the pointer. A trailing * means it is an editable window, otherwise it is a preview window. Icon ---- The number of the icon under the pointer, or “Work area”. Position ------- The work area coordinates of each edge of the icon is shown in its relative position to the Position label. Size Page 17 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ ---- The size of the icon, shown as <width> x <height>. If the pointer is over an empty bit of work area instead of an icon, the dimensions refer to the visible portion of the work area. This information is generally the most useful, it can be used to accurately position icons near the visible edge of a window. The monitor can be opened from the icon bar menu and closed with its close icon as a manual override, but it also opens automatically (this is optional) when any editable or preview windows are opened and closes when no editable or preview windows are open. Creating icons: the Icon picker ——————————————————————————————— The icon picker is a convenient alternative to creating icons from a menu. You simply drag one or more icons from the picker to where you want them in an editable window. It behaves rather like an editable window, but most of the functions are suppressed. The only action which can be carried out, apart from making selections, is to export icons from it to other editable windows. The icon picker always opens immediately above the right end of the icon bar. Like the monitor it can be opened from the icon bar menu and closed with its close icon as a manual override, but it also opens automatically when any editable or preview windows are opened and closes when no editable or preview windows are open. The icon picker contains examples of most of the common types of icon, but it can be customised. See the section on Customising WinEd. Work area dialogue box —————————————————————— This is for editing the size of a window’s work area, opened from an editable window menu or by double-clicking Adjust in a window’s work area. The identifier of the window being edited is shown in the title bar. Work area --------- The work area coordinate field icons are arranged in a formation which indicates which icon refers to which edge. New coordinates can be typed in or changed with the bumper arrows. Keep origin ----------- This has a similar effect to the Minimise button (below), but the origin (X0 & Y1) coordinates are set to zero. Minimise -------- This sets the values in the work area coordinate fields to the work Page 18 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ area coordinates of the portion of the window currently visible. It is not recommended that the origin (X0 & Y1) coordinates are set to any value other than zero, hence the Keep origin button is provided. Neither the Keep origin or Minimise buttons close the dialogue box. Minimum size ------------ These icons set the minimum size (both values are positive) the window can be dragged to with the Adjust size tool. Zero values mean the size will be determined by the size of the title bar and window tools. The Maximise button sets the values to the current size of the window (without closing the dialogue box). Update ------ Updates the template data with the settings in the dialogue box. Edit icon/title dialogue box ———————————————————————————— This is opened from an editable window menu or by double clicking Shift-Select over an editable window’s work area. The number of the icon being edited or the word Title is shown in the dialogue box’s title bar. Like the window editing dialogue box, the shape and size of this window may not suit some users, but it can be customised. To edit an icon double click it with Select, to edit a title use the editable window menu or double click Shift-Select over the work area. Some of the icons are greyed out depending on the state of others (eg the Validation field if not indirected) or if they do not apply to title icons (eg button type, colours) and a title is being edited. Txt/sprt -------- If the icon contains a text or sprite, enter the text or sprite name here. Text ---- Sprite These flags determine whether the icon contains text and/or a sprite. Indirected ---------- If set the icon is indirected. It is set automatically if the text becomes longer than 12 characters. Validation --------- Page 19 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ You can enter a validation string here for indirected text icons. Max text length --------------- Enter the maximum allowed length (including terminator) of the text for indirected text icons. This can be set to the length of the string in the Txt/sprt field by clicking the Minimise button (this doesn’t close the dialogue box). Btn type -------- As in the Edit window dialogue box. Don’t resize ------------ Update ------ These both update the template data with settings from the dialogue box. Update also resizes the icon if it is currently too small to display its data (see Resize icons dialogue box). The following icons affect the icon flags. Each description refers to the flag being set. Border ------ The icon has a border. H centre -------- V centre -------- R align ------- These affect the alignment of the icon, horizontally centred, vertically centred and right aligned respectively. Right alignment overrides horizontal centering. Filled ------ The icon’s background is filled in with its background colour. Needs help ---------- If the icon is deleted etc the part of the window it occupies will be redrawn. Allow adjust ------------ If the icon is part of an Exclusive Selection Group it can be selected without deselecting its fellows by clicking with Adjust. Page 20 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ Half size --------- If the icon contains a sprite it is displayed at half size. Selected -------- Shaded ------ Deleted ------- These are only provided for completeness, their actions should only really be carried out by an application using the template. Icons are displayed as if these flags are clear in editable windows. ESG --- The ESG (Exclusive Selection Group) can be set to any value from 0 to 31 by typing or using the bumper arrows. Out of range values are changed to zero. Icons grouped with the same non-zero ESG can usually only be selected one at a time, selecting one deselects any others. Foreground colour ----------------- The colour used to draw the icon’s text, and its border if not 3D. Background colour ----------------- The colour used to fill the icon if filled. Editing colours is described under Edit window dialogue box. If the icon has an outline font the values for the colour fields are read from the L command in the validation string, if any. Outline font ------------ If set the icon uses the outline font shown in the field below; fonts can be chosen from a menu by clicking the menu button. The height can be entered in points (decimals are allowed). The Aspect ratio is the ratio of width to height expressed as a percentage. Outline fonts do not seem to work in icons with validation strings containing the L command. Validate -------- Font handles overwrite the colour fields in icon flags, therefore the colour data is held in an F command in the validation string. The Validate button reads the colours from the fields in the dialogue box and ensures the validation string contains the correct L command, Page 21 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ forcing the indirected flag on if necessary. Align dialogue box —————————————————— This is opened from an editable window menu tree. It is for aligning groups of icons with each other. The top group of radio icons determines along which edge the icons will be aligned. Left ---- The icons will all share the same left (minimum x) coordinate. H centre -------- The icons will be arranged so that half their width is each side of a notional vertical mid-line. This mid-line is calculated from the left-most or right-most mid-point of all the icons, depending on whether the Move left or Move right icon is selected. Right ----- The icons will all share the same right (maximum x) coordinate. Top --- The icons will all share the same top (maximum y) coordinate. V centre -------- The icons will be arranged so that half their height is each side of a notional horizontal mid-line. This mid-line is calculated from the topmost or bottom-most mid-point of all the icons, depending on whether the Move down or Move up icon is selected. Bottom ------ The icons will all share the same bottom (minimum y) coordinate. Group box & label ----------------- This is only applicable if exactly two icons are selected in the editable window and the lower-numbered of them has a border and no text and the other has text and no border. The icons will be aligned so that the label’s left edge 32 OS units to the right of the left edge of the group box and its bottom edge is 24 OS units below the top of the group box (ideal for labels 44 OS units high). Move ---- Resize ------ Icons can either be moved or resized to achieve alignment. If Move is Page 22 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ chosen, icons are moved without changing their size. If Resize is chosen, only the edge that has to be aligned is moved, thus resizing the icon; icons will not be allowed to become too small to be selected. Move left/down/label -------------------- Move right/up/box ----------------- These determine which way the icons will be moved or resized. For instance if one of the horizontal alignments is selected above and Move left is selected all the icons will be aligned with the originally left-most icon. In the special case of Group box & label these options determine whether the label or the box is moved. Space out dialogue box —————————————————————— Opened from an editable window menu tree, the Space out dialogue box can either be used to space a group of icons out from each other or a single icon from the edge of the visible area. The icons are sorted into order depending on their horizontal or vertical positions and spaced out from each other by the number of OS units entered in the Gap icon. The direction radio icons determine which icon is used as the ‘anchor’ eg if you choose From left the left-most icon stays still and all the others are spaced out to its right. If only a single icon is selected it is spaced out from the edge of the visible area corresponding to the direction radio icons. Resize icons dialogue box ————————————————————————— This dialogue box is for changing the size of icons, either making a group all the same size, making a single icon or group just large enough to display its data, or a single icon a specified size. The resizing is carried out on the right and top edges, leaving the bottom left corner fixed. Minimise -------- These action buttons change the width and/or height of the selected icon(s), making it just large enough to display its data, using fairly intelligent rules. The size needed for text (taking outline fonts into account) is first calculated, adding a few pixels to each side to satisfy Style Guide conventions. Then the size needed for any sprite is calculated if possible. These two sizes are combined, taking into account the icon’s alignment flags. If there is a border, sufficient pixels are added, depending on the type of border. If the icon still has a zero size it is made just large enough to click with the mouse. Page 23 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ Icons with ‘L’ validation commands can now also be minimised fairly sensibly. The program ensures that the current width is sufficient to display the longest word, then makes the icon just the right size to preserve the current format of the text. This does not take outline fonts into account; they do not work with the L command in RISC OS 3.1 anyway. Versions 2.12 onwards ensure that icons that use the system font are also large enough for the current RISC PC Desktop font. If the Desktop font is the System font or you are using RISC OS 3.1 Homerton.Medium (12pt) is used. Note that this does not apply to L validation, but it is unlikely that an outline font will take more room than the System font for long strings. Make same size -------------- This only applies to multiple selections. All the icons can be set to the same width or height, either taking on the width of the narrowest or the widest or the height of the tallest or shortest. X & Y ----- In the case of a single selection a new width (X) and/or height (Y) can be typed into the writable icons; press Return or click Resize to make the change. Frame dialogue box —————————————————— This is for placing a frame around the selected icons. The frame can consist of the window’s visible area or an empty bordered icon (group box) with a lower number than any of the selected icons. Gap --- Enter the minimum gap (OS units) to leave between the frame and any icons inside it. This varies depending on whether the frame is the window’s visible area (8-16 looks best) or an icon with a 3D border (usually R4 validation, 20 or more looks better). Visible area ------------ If selected the frame is made by resizing the window’s visible area to fit the selection. The window’s work area must be large enough to accommodate it. Icon ---- If selected the frame is made by moving and resizing the icon specified in the adjacent writable field to make a group box. It must satisfy the requirements outlined above. Allow for label Page 24 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ --------------- Group boxes often have a label at the top. If this option is selected an extra gap (read from the writable icon, the default is 24 OS units) is left between the top of the frame and the topmost selected icon to make room for a text label. Top, Left, Right, Bottom ------------------------ Only the frame’s edges indicated by which of these icons are selected are moved (unless the frame would become too small or have negative size). This is useful because frames are often initially placed in relation to objects outside them and resized when their contents have been entered. Hints & tips ———————————— Size of dialogue boxes ---------------------- When designing dialogue boxes and non-scrollable windows, try to make sure they will fit on screen in as many modes as possible. Mode 22 support (768 * 576 OS units) is not strictly necessary, but you should at least fit your windows on a Mode 27 screen (1280 * 960 OS units). The Style Guide recommends a maximum of 800 * 600 OS units for dialogue boxes. Positioning icons ----------------- Icons with similar functions should be the same size as each other and aligned. When aligning icons, some of which have double borders (eg R6 validation), align with the inner border (use the centre alignment options). If a dialogue box has several groups of icons (eg two or more groups of radio icons with two or more different ESG’s) place group boxes around them. Place action icons, particularly the default action and Cancel buttons aligned up the side or preferably along the bottom of dialogue boxes. Position the default action button at the bottom right. Your dialogue boxes will look more attractive the more you space out icons, up to a point. The larger the dialogue box, the more space you should leave. The Style Guide suggests a gap of at least 8 OS units between icons, but 16 or more generally looks far better. Note that WinEd’s window and icon editing dialogue boxes are not spaced out very much, in this case it was considered more important to make them as small as possible. It is also unconventional to have scrolling dialogue boxes unless they are a pane with the default action and Cancel buttons in the parent window so they are also visible. Panes were used in WinEd 1.00, but were too restrictive. Writable icons -------------- Page 25 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ The Style Guide is a bit contradictory on the subject of validation strings for writable icons; it says the string should be Ktar;Pptr_write, followed by any necessary ‘A’ command, but also says that pressing Return in any icon should act as a click on the default action button. The above validation string causes Return to move the caret to the next writable icon and only causes key press events with a code of 13 (Return) when it is pressed in the last writable icon. You would expect that you could arrange for your application to receive all Return key events by using Kta instead of Ktar, but it isn’t that simple. There is an OS ‘feature’ (in RISC OS 3.1 at least) which causes the presence of ‘t’ or ‘a’ in validation commands to act as if ‘r’ is also present. One fix is to use Ktan and receive all key events, but then you should strictly filter out keys trapped by your application before passing them on with Wimp_ProcessKey. However, passing on all keys should not do any harm. In its own icons WinEd does away with the ‘K’ validation command altogether and handles the up and down cursor keys and (Shift-) Tab with its own code. This way it can also confine the caret to icons in the same ESG in RISC OS 3.1 as well as 3.5. In RISC OS 3.1 the ‘A’ validation command must be the last command in the string or subsequent commands will not work. This appears to have been fixed in RISC OS 3.6, but I am not sure about 3.5. Outline fonts ------------- Outline fonts in icons should generally be avoided. Apart from the latest versions of RISC OS now being able to automatically use outline fonts in all icons there are a couple of bugs. In RISC OS 3.1 using an outline font in the title bar of a window causes a terrible mess if a customised title bar (eg NewLook’s 3D one) is used. In RISC OS 3.5 using an outline font in slabbing icons (R5 and R6 validation) causes the default desktop font to be reset or disappear or something. In RISC OS 3.1 at least, outline fonts seem to be incompatible with ‘L’ validation commands. Modifying other people’s templates ---------------------------------- Be careful when modifying other people’s templates; always make sure you have a backup of the original file. Some programs may object to changes in their template files eg adding outline fonts, changing the order of windows in the file, and increasing the amount of indirected data. Never renumber any icons. Page 26 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ Deleting icons -------------- Unlike many template editors, when deleting an icon in WinEd its definition is entirely removed from the template, subsequent icons are renumbered to ‘fill the gap’. The Delete flag is best avoided, having deleted icons in your templates can cause confusion when using other template editors. Customising WinEd ————————————————— As well as the Choices dialogue box WinEd can be customised by editing its own template file; this is the file called ‘Templates’ within the !WinEd directory. WinEd can not handle outline fonts in its own template file, but changing the order of windows and the amount of indirected data is not a problem. Some windows you may wish to customise are: Icon picker ----------- You can put any icons you want in here (but no outline fonts), depending on which icons you like to create most often. Its initial position depends on its template. Monitor ------- The monitor’s initial position depends on its template. Edit window dialogue box ------------------------ Edit icon dialogue box ---------------------- The shape, size and initial positions of these dialogue boxes may be inconvenient to you so you may wish to rearrange the icons. Do not renumber or delete any icons; if you want to get rid of any non-functional icons such as group boxes and labels, temporarily enlarge the work area and move them out of the way. Tool panes ---------- You can customise these by editing the WinTools and BrowTools templates and/or the Sprites and Sprites22 files. Note that you will have to disable the Editable window tool icons option to avoid inadvertently resizing the current browser tool bar. You can make these panes any size you like, within reason. If you design some that you think are better than mine, which are perhaps a little small, please let me know. Many of the default values shown in writable icons etc in the dialogue Page 27 WINED ________________________________________________________________________ boxes are determined by the values in WinEd’s templates. If you alter WinEd’s templates be sure to back up the original file; WinEd must be distributed with this Templates file. Bug reports & suggestions ————————————————————————— I hope that you will find WinEd to be reliable; I would not release it with known bugs. However, no application is entirely bug free and this is still a sufficiently early version of WinEd to be considered beta, so you are advised to keep backups and save your work regularly. Bug reports will be welcome from all users, even if you have not registered (yet). Suggestions will be more welcome from registered users; please do not say things like, “I’ll only register if you add such and such,” if a feature is really worth adding I’ll add it. If you do find a bug please do your best to inform me of the exact circumstances that cause it, ideally sending template files on disc or by email if they seem to be triggering a problem. Where possible I will personally send you a corrected upgrade if the bug is serious and a corrected version is not already in circulation. Acknowledgements ———————————————— WinEd was written in C (compiled by Acorn C Release 5) with extensive use of DeskLib. DeskLib is a set of freeware C libraries written by Jason Williams and many others. All C programmers should consider this an essential replacement for RISC_OSLib. The text editor used was !Zap, an excellent PD program written by Dominic Symes with extensions by several other skilled programmers. The templates were initially created with TemplEd, a PD template editor. I consider this to be WinEd’s main rival and I have aimed to improve on it in every aspect. I would like to thank David Holden of APDL for his advice from one shareware author to another and for some useful suggestions about WinEd. Page 28