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MenuEdit.Doc
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How To Build A Simple Menu Using The Mantis Menu Editor
-------------------------------------------------------
To receive the complete printed manual and the latest revision Menu Editor
on disk, just send $15 to:
Mantis Development
Attn: David Pehrson
P.O. Box 4001
Bellevue, WA 98009
First, let's describe the various screen areas and what they're used for.
At the very top of the screen is the TITLE BAR. The title bar displays the
version number of this program (as well as the copyright notice). Below
the title bar is the ICON BAR. The icons on the icon bar can be used to set
the various attributes of your menu items. Each icon is described later.
Below the icon bar are two edit fields. The long field is for entering and
editing your menu titles, items, and sub-items. The short field to the right
is for your Amiga command key sequence. There are two large areas below the
edit line; the menu title area (on the left), and the menu item, sub-item area
(on the right). As you add new menu titles, they will show on the left.
Clicking on a title with the mouse will show the items under that title in
the menu item/sub-item area to the right.
Now that you're familiar with the various screen areas, we'll get on with the
tutorial and build a simple menu. It's a good idea to start up the Menu
Editor now and try out everything in the tutorial. When you're done, you'll
know the basics of menu creation with the Menu Editor.
First, press your right mouse button and select "About" under the "Project"
menu. After the graphics display, press the "Next" button and you'll get a
brief description of the Menu Editor's features. After reading, press "Next"
again to see the registration information. Press "Next" again and you're
back in the Menu Editor.
As you can see, the first menu title "Project" is already created for you, as
well as one blank menu item. Let's start by adding a couple new menu titles;
"Edit" and "Options". Click on the word "Project". The title "Project" will
appear in the edit field above the menu titles. Select the option "Append"
from the "Edit" pull-down menu and a new title (titled "New Title" of course)
will appear. To change "New Title" to "Edit", just type:
<spacebar>Edit<return>
<spacebar> means press your spacebar, and <return> means type your return key.
We type a space before each title to keep our titles from looking crowded and
bunched together. If you made a typing mistake, don't worry, we'll cover
editing a little later. Now append another title (you can use the short-cut
Right-Amiga-A key sequence if you want). For this title, Type in:
<spacebar>Options<return>
You now have 3 menu titles, "Project", "Edit", and "Options". Press the
button labeled "Test" on the Icon Bar. Now press the right menu button. Your
own menu titles should appear on the title bar. Press "Test" again to restore
the Menu Editor's menus. You can always use the test button to see what your
menus look like.
It's time to add some items under our titles. Click on "Project". Then,
click in the blank field in the menu item area to the right. Type in:
About<tab>A<return>
You just created a menu item "About" that will respond to the Right-Amiga-A
key sequence. Let's create another item, "Open...". Append another item and
type:
Open...<return>
Now let's attach a sub-menu to our "Open" item. Select "Attach Subitem" from
the "Edit" menu and a sub-item will be added to the right of the "Open..."
item. You enter the text for a sub-item just like you do for a regular item.
You can also append more items if you want.
Let's try editing the text for one of the menu items. Click on the "About"
item. The word "About" will show in the edit field. Use the mouse to place
your cursor anywhere in the edit field. Move your mouse to just after the "t"
in "About" and click the button. The cursor will appear, and you can type:
<spacebar> My Program<return>
The whole text should say "About My Program" now. Notice how the menu is
automatically re-sized to fit your longer text. You now have a basic menu,
so let's play with the attribute icons a bit. The different icons are (from
left to right):
P: Sets this menu item to use the Plain text style.
B: Sets this menu item to use the Bold text style.
I: Sets this menu item to use the Italics text style.
U: Sets this menu item to use the Underlined text style.
You can combine bold, italics, and underline in any combination you choose,
and use plain to restore menu items to normal.
Box: Sets this menu item to use the Box selection mode. When you select a
menu item that has this attribute set, it draws a box around the text
instead of complementing (inverting) it. This method of selection is NOT
recommended for textual menu items.
Comp: Sets this menu item to use the Complement selection mode. Menus with
this attribute are complemented (inverted) verses boxed.
Test: This icon sets the test mode, allowing you to view your menus just as
they will be when you add them to your own program. Remember to turn
test mode off when you return to editing your menus or the Amiga-key
short-cuts won't work.
E/D: This allows you to enable/disable menu items. Disable items are shown
in a 'greyed' fashion.
<check-mark>: You can add check marks to your menu items too. Since the
check marks are added to the left of your item text, type 3 spaces before
the text, leaving enough space for the check mark.
SME: Set Mutual Exclusion is an advanced feature explained in the printed
document you receive with your registered copy of the Menu Editor.
TOG: As of this release (1.1) of the operation system, menu toggling is not
available. The 1.2 operating system release should fix this problem and
the Menu Editor will be updated to support this feature.
Play with the different icons a bit, and use the test button to see how they
affect your final menus. There is a sample menu using all the different
attributes already created for you on disk. To load the sample menus, select
"Open..." under the "Project" menu. Be sure the test button is off, or you
won't get the correct menus. The open requester will display all available
files with filenames ending with a ".menu". The one we want should be called
"Sample.menu". Click on it, and press the "OK" button. The details of the
Open requester are described in the full manual. Suffice it to say there
are many short-cuts not immediately obvious to the user. If you are
interested in using the Open/Save requester (our "Standard File Package") in
your own programs, please let us know. Play with the sample menu using the
test button to see all the available attributes.
After you create your own menu, you can save them out in two different
formats. First, if you want to be able to update/change your menus later,
save them out using the "Binary Format". That's the format the sample menu
is saved under. When you are ready to add your menus to your program, save
them out using the "C Format". The Menu Editor will write a standard text
file you simply compile with your 'C' compiler (currently, both the Lattice
and Manx compilers are supported).
To actually attach the menu to your program takes only 4 easy steps.
1. Compile your menus.
2. Add this instruction to your variable declarations:
extern struct Menu Titles[];
3. After you've opened a window you want to attach these menus to, add this
statement:
SetMenuStrip(yourWindowPointer, Titles);
4. When you link your program, link it to your compiled menu file before you
link to your libraries.
What could be easier? Please remember, this program is "Freeware". If you
use this program, please support its author by sending your $15 registration
fee to Mantis Development, at the above address. Thank you for supporting
the "Freeware" form of software distribution.
Mantis Development