Except that the chicken became a turkey as the graphic progressed, ╥Join the Crowd╙ is one of the few computer posters that turned out looking something like my original conception. Why that happened this time, and happens seldom otherwise, I have no idea.
You╒ll enjoy using ╥Join the Crowd╙ for almost any purpose╤to announce a party at home or a special event at work, school or church/synagogue. Never mind that the folks you╒ll be trying to rope in are represented by a turkey╤this graphic has been field tested in one of the most critical environments (a congregation of Presbyterian little old ladies) and found to offend absolutely no one (the fact that it was stapled face in on the bulletin board was observed to be universally unnoticed by the target group). So use it with confidence.
The ╥Step-And-Repeat╙ technique used here to group the ducks consists of picking up an object (in this case, one duck) with the scissors tool (or, in Platinum Paint, you can use the ╥Brushify╙ command), clicking an image of it on the screen, moving the cursor (or selected object) and clicking again, and so on. By this means, one (duck) quickly and easily becomes many (ducks). This always works swimmingly with solid objects but when, as in the case of these blasted ducks again, you try to step and repeat a hollow object, you end up with lines from the object underneath showing through the object next overlaid on it. What to do?
My standard solution to frustrating problems is to quit and make myself a ham sandwich. In this case, however, one needs only to fill the hollow spaces of the first object, using the paint can (fill) tool, with any color which is not already in use in the object, complete the step-and-repeat process, and then, using the paint can again, refill the solid areas with white (or, in Platinum Paint, which has ten ways to do virtually anything), employ the ╥Replace Color╙ command in the Edit Menu to change the fill color back to white. As always when you read my explanations, you╒ll find this easier to do than to read about.
Using Spencer╒s Corner
Spencer╒s creations will load into almost any paint program (ie Platinum Paint, Deluxe Paint II, Paint 256, Dream Graphix, AppleWorks GS, etc). Just launch and load. Have Fun!
To create an AppleWorks GS template of ╥Join the Crowd,╙ launch AWGS and open a page layout folder. Select ╥Import╙ from the File menu and, in the dialogue box that next appears, click on ╥Join the Crowd.╙ Select ╥No╙ when AWGS asks if you want to change the colors to match the picture. Save the folder you create for a permanent AWGS template, if you like.
A Spencer van Gulick Tip for AWGS
You have probably noticed by now that when you open an Apple Preferred Format graphic in the AWGS paint program you can╒t select various elements or objects in that graphic by clicking on them; you can only select the whole graphic. This is because APF is a compressed filetype and AWGS graphic formats are stored with specific and elaborate ╥Put this pixel color here and that color there╙ information (and they occupy at least twice the disk space of APF files). To make APF paint objects selectable in AWGS, use the clipboard to prepare them, as follows:
(1) Open your APF graphic in the AWGS paint program.
(2) Using the lasso tool, encircle as much of the object you want to isolate as you can see on the screen, and cut it to the clipboard.
(3) Open a new AWGS paint screen and paste the clipboard contents to it. If your APF graphic is using an edited palette, open the APF graphic a second time, click the mouse with the cursor visible anywhere on the screen and press the delete key, then paste the clipboard contents into that screen -the original palette will thus be retained.
(4) Bring your original graphic forward by clicking on its name in the Windows pull-down menu, capture the remainder of the original graphic with the lasso tool and cut it to the clipboard.
(5) Return to your destination screen and again paste the clipboard contents.
(6) Using the cursor to select and drag (or a combination of the command and arrow keys for pixel-by-pixel ╥nudges╙), position the two halves of your pasted graphic together properly.
(7) Choose ╥Select All╙ from the Edit Menu and then ╥Group╙ from the Arrange Menu.
If you save your work now, you will have a single paint object that can always be selected and moved to and from the clipboard independent of its background. And you can follow the same procedure for any or all other portions of an APF file.
Enjoy the new flexibility these hints will give you!
Spencer╒s Background
The Rev. C. Spencer van Gulick has been a Presbyterian minister for 23 years (excluding a two year hiatus as an advertising account executive) and currently lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with his wife, Ginny. His fifteen-year art avocation has been as a sculptor and dioramist. His work has been commissioned across the country and has won him numerous national awards. A long-time victim of ╥computerphobia,╙ he was convinced, by a parishioner, to buy a IIgs, and began immediately, he says, to ╥piddle with the AWGS paint module.╙
╥I didn╒t want to do works of art on the computer,╙ he observes, ╥because those have to hang on the wall, and my walls are full of dioramas.╙ So he concentrated on poster/flier templates and greeting cards, ╥something that people can actually use,╙ he says.
Spencer╒s ╥piddles╙ have been appearing on Softdisk G-S for more than a year, and now his creations, as well as how he performs his magic, appear every month as a regular Softdisk G-S feature. These creations will be importable into AWGS page layout but stored in Apple Preferred Graphics Format. We know y╒all will LOVE it!
Copying Spencer╒s Corner
Select ╥Installer...╙ from the File Menu (or press I) and the Installer will be launched. Then highlight ╥Spencer╒s Corner╙ by clicking on it. Next, be sure the disk you want to copy the files to is inserted and click on the Disk button until that disk comes up. Click on the Install button and the copying will be done.
Remember: there is a paragraph on using the Installer in the Help article. Check it out if you are confused by the terminology.
