The Datafile PD-CD 4/DATAFILE_PDCD4.iso/utilities/utilss/sprgrab/!SprGrab/!Help

Text File | 1996-03-05 | 6.0 KB | 181 lines

             Sprite Grabber
      (C) 1996 Digital Interactive

    Sprite Grabber is a utility providing
various facilities for capturing sprites.
These include grabbing windows, menus and the
icon-bar as well as saving the sprites held
in ROM and RAM.
    Sprite Grabber also contains interactive
help. To get more specific information about
the buttons and the menu items use an
interactive help display utility such as
Acorn's Help.


Grabbing windows and menus
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    To capture a window or menu, click menu on
the Sprite Grabber icon-bar icon and click on
the 'Grab window/menu...' menu-item.
    A window will appear which allows you to
specify which parts of the window or menu
will be included in the final sprite.
    From this window you can specify whether
the final sprite has a mask and/or a palette.
    To initiate grabbing a window, click on
the 'OK' button. The pointer will change
shape. The icon on the icon-bar will become
'active' and the word 'Window' will appear
under it. To grab a window, click the left-
hand mouse-button on the window you wish to
grab. To cancel the operation, press
'Escape'.
    To bypass opening this window every time
you wish to grab a window or menu, Sprite
Grabber contains a hot-key. By pressing Alt-
Print, Sprite Grabber will allow you to grab
a window or menu using the options as they
are currently set in the 'Window- and menu-
grab options' window.
    If you wish to grab a menu, you will have
to either set a time-delay (see later
section) or use the hot-key (see above). For
example, to grab the palette menu, click menu
on the palette icon on the icon-bar and press
Alt-Print. When the pointer changes shape,
click on the menu and it will be grabbed.
    Use the 'Grab window/menu' option to grab
the currently-visible part of the icon-bar.
Note, however, that if there are any windows
obscuring the icon bar, they will appear in
the final sprite.
    The 'Grab window/menu' option can be used
to grab the entire backdrop (the entire
desktop without the icon-bar). To do this,
press Alt-Print (or go via the 'Grab window/
menu options' window) and click on the
backdrop. The backdrop, however, is larger
than the screen and so grabbing the pinboard
will grab a sprite larger than the screen.


Grabbing areas of the screen
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    To capture an area of the screen, click
menu on the Sprite Grabber icon-bar icon and
click on the 'Grab area...' menu-item.
    A window will appear which allows you to
specify whether you want the whole screen or
a defined part grabbed.
    From this window you can specify whether
the final sprite has a mask and/or a palette.
    To initiate grabbing an area, click on the
'OK' button. If you have specified that you
want to grab a defined area of the screen,
the pointer will change shape. The icon-bar
icon will become 'active' and the word 'Area'
will appear under it.
    To define the area, drag out an area with
the left-hand mouse-button held down.
    The defined area has corner boxes so that
you can adjust the area to better suit your
requirements. To adjust the area, click and
drag one of these corner-boxes.
    To grab the area, click the right-hand
mouse-button. To cancel the operation, press
'Escape'.
    To bypass opening the 'Area-grab options'
window every time you wish to grab an area of
the desktop, Sprite Grabber contains a hot-
key. By pressing Alt-Shift-Print, Sprite
Grabber will allow you to grab an area using
the options as they are currently set in the
'Area-grab options' window.


Saving sprites from memory
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    To save the sprites held in ROM and/or
RAM, click menu on the Sprite Grabber icon-
bar icon and click on the 'Save memory...'
menu-item.
    A window will appear which allows you to
specify whether you want to save ROM-sprites,
RAM-sprites or both sets.
    To save any of the sets, click on the 'OK'
button.


Saving the images
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    When a sprite has been captured, a save-
box appears. The save-box is slightly
different to those produced by other
applications in that it has a close icon.
This is so that the save-box won't close if
you click outside it.
    This means that the save-box will only
close if you click on the close icon or drag
the sprite-file icon to a directory-viewer or
another application, such as Paint.


Setting a time-delay
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    To cause Sprite Grabber to wait between
the user initiating a grab and the sprite
being grabbed, a delay can be specified. In
order to do this, click menu on the Sprite
Grabber icon-bar icon and enter a delay (in
seconds) in the delay sub-menu.


Hiding the Sprite Grabber icon
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    To cause Sprite Grabber's icon-bar icon to
be temporarily removed while grabbing, click
menu on the Sprite Grabber icon-bar icon and
ensure that the 'Hide icon' menu-item is
ticked.


Saving the status
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    To save the status of the options in the
'Window-/menu-grab options' and 'Area-grab
options' windows (as well as the status of
the icon-bar menu options) click menu on the
icon-bar icon and click on the 'Save options'
menu-item.
    Note: This function will not work if the
Sprite Grabber application is 'locked' by the
filer.



The software is supplied 'as is'. Digital
Interactive make no warranty, express or
implied, of the merchantability of the
software or its suitability for any
particular purpose. In no circumstances will
Digital Interactive be liable for any damage
or loss of profits, or for any indirect or
consequential loss arising out of your use of
the software.
Sprite Grabber is freely distributable under
the conditions that:
    - No profit is made from its sale
    - It is distributed in its entirety and in
its original form.




E-mail bug-reports and suggestions to:
    [e-mail]
Or leave player-mail on MBA4, addressed to
'Scarecrow':
(telnet address) jumper.mcc.ac.uk 3214
    Alternatively 'talk' to 'Scarecrow'.