Chapter one

Quick links:

Menus and their functions

The pull-down menus across the top of your computer screen provide you with commands for working with animations and animation files. The following sections describe the menus and submenus in detail.

File Menu

The File pull-down menu allows you to work with VSE Animation Maker and VSE Animation Maker files.

    New
    Creates a new set. Open Opens a sample animation or one you created and saved.

    Close
    Closes the active window.

    Save
    Saves the current animation.

    Save as
    Saves the current animation in the VSE Animation Maker 3.0, GIF or PICS format.

    Revert to saved
    Opens the last version of your animation set that you saved.

    Preferences
    Opens the Preferences dialog box (see: Preferences).

    Quit
    Quits VSE Animation Maker.

Edit Menu

The Edit pull-down menu allows you to make changes to a specific part of a picture in an animation:

    Undo
    Undoes your last operation and changes the menu item to Redo in case you change your mind. If the last operation cannot be undone, the menu item will appear as Can't Undo.

    Cut
    Copies the current frame to the clipboard and deletes it from the screen. If you select an object in the animation frame, the menu item changes to Cut Selection.

    Copy
    Copies a frame to the clipboard. If you select an object in the animation frame, the menu item changes to Copy Selection. Copy does not delete the original frame or object

    Paste
    The effect of the Paste command depends on the option you chose in the Preferences- Dialog. When using VSE Animation Maker the first time, the Paste command inserts an object you select and cut or copied to the clipboard without altering its size.

    Clear
    Removes the contents of a frame without saving it to the clipboard. If you select an object in the animation frame, the menu item changes to Clear Selection.

    Deselect
    Undoes a selection you made with the selection tool. Select all Selects the whole frame so that you can copy, cut, move, or delete it. Select     Inverse Inverts the current selection.

Set Menu

The Set pull-down menu allows you to specify the screen size of an animation and determine how it plays:

    Play Animation
    Starts the animation and changes the command to Stop Animation. You can also start and stop animations by pressing the space bar or using the Play and Stop button in the main window.

    View Size
    Displays a size submenu that allows you to select the screen size of an animation frame.

    Speed
    Displays a speed submenu that allows you to select the animation speed.

    Settings
    Displays a dialog box that allows you to change the screen size of your animation. Moreover, you can choose how often your animation should be looped.

    Animate Frame Selection
    Highlights the name of the current frame in the frames window when you play an animation.

    Loop Back and Forth
    Plays your animation in a continuous loop. For example, a series of three pictures would play 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, and so on.

Frame Menu

Some Frame menu commands are doubles of the buttons on the frames window: Create, Duplicate, Make Alias, and Delete. The Frame menu allows you to work with the currently selected animation frame:

    New
    Creates a new frame.

    Open and Insert
    Allows you to open any image in the PICT format and inserts it as an animation frame.

    Duplicate
    Makes a copy of a frame you select in the animation set.

    Make Alias
    Makes a copy of a frame in the animation set by referring to the original. This takes less memory than duplicating a frame.

    Information
    Opens a dialog that allows you to change the name of the frame. Moreover, you can determine the relative delay of that frame. You can also access this dialog by double clicking on a frame name.

    Move
    Opens a dialog that allows you to alter the position of a frame.

    Open and Replace
    Allows you to open any image in the PICT format and replaces the currently selected frame.

    Save as…
    Allows you to save an individual frame as a PICT or GIF file so that you can open that frame with another graphic program.

    Delete
    Removes a frame from an animation set.

Tools Menu

The Tools menu allows you to modify objects in an animation frame:

    Flip Horizontal
    Flips a frame or a portion you select along an imaginary horizontal line in the middle of the frame or selection.

    Flip Vertical
    Flips a frame or a portion you select along an imaginary vertical line in the middle of the frame or selection.

    Invert
    Inverts the foreground and background colors of a frame or a portion of the frame you select.

    Roll up, down, left, right
    Moves every pixel of the current animation frame one pixel up, down, left or right. Pixels, which disappear at the top of the frame, will reappear at the bottom etc.

    Move up, down, left, right
    Moves every pixel of the current animation frame one pixel up, down, left or right.

The Tools menu commands might cause an unexpected effect when using them on a GIF animation that has not 4, 16 or 256 colors.

Window Menu

    Zoom Window
    Zooms the animation window to its optimal size.

    Stack, Tile, Tile Vertical
    Adjusts the animation windows of simultaneously open sets.

    Adjust floaters
    Adjusts the floating toolbox and frames windows to the animation window.

    Frames window
    Lets you determine whether the frames window should be displayed or not.

    Toolbox
    Lets you determine whether the toolbox should be displayed or not.

Preferences

The Preferences command opens a dialog box. You can select or deselect any of the preferences by clicking the check box. Selecting these preferences makes the following adjustments to VSE Animation Maker:

The General group box

    Show about screen at startup
    VSE Animation Maker displays the copyright information every time you launch the program.

    Adjust toolbox and frames window automatically
    VSE Animation Maker adjusts the toolbox and the frames window around the animation window every time you change the position or the size of the animation window.

    Ask before deleting a frame
    VSE Animation Maker displays a confirmation window asking you whether you are sure to delete the frame or not.

    After launching
    This drop-down menu allows you to choose whether VSE Animation Maker displays a window for creating a new set, opens an existing set, or only displays the menu bar after launching.

The Frame Editing group box

    Ask before editing an alias frame
    VSE Animation Maker displays a confirmation window telling you that alias frames can't be edited and asking if you want to edit the original frame instead.

    Coordinates start at '000' instead of '001'
    VSE Animation Maker establishes the range of coordinates from 0 to 'n' instead of 1 to 'n'

    Remove selection from background
    VSE Animation Maker allows you to cut an object from the background when you select an move that object in the animation frame. VSE Animation Maker fills the background where the object was with the background color.

The Paste group box

    Clipboard picture gets the other frames size
    Expands or shrinks the picture on the clipboard to the size of all the other frames in the set.

    The other frames get the clipboard pictures size
    Expands or shrinks all frames in a set to the size of the picture on the clipboard.

    Paste clipboard picture as selection
    Pastes the picture from the clipboard to the current frame without altering its size.


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