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VGA Storymaker+ Help File

copyright © 1992-1994 Elson Embry
Storymaker+ Help Screens

· INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL TOPICS *
1. Storymaker+ VGA Overview
2. Help Screens
3. Colors and Color Tools
4. Book Reader
5. Mouse and Keyboard
6. List and Input Dialogs
7. Storymaker+ Files
8. Missing Pictures
9. Other Information
10. Setup

· UTILITIES MENU *
11. Utilities
12. Text-To-Speech Rules
13. Clean Library

· TEXT EDITOR *
14. Text Editor
15. Text Editor

· MELODY MAKER *
16. Melody Maker

· GRAPHICS EDITOR *
17. Graphics Editor

· GRAPHICS EDITOR'S FILE MENU *
18. File Menu

· GRAPHICS EDITOR CLIPBOARD MENU *
19. Clipboard Menu

· GRAPHICS EDITOR CELS MENU *
20. Cels Menu

· GRAPHICS EDITOR TOOL BOX *
21. Tool Box Overview
22. Scenery Picture
23. Select Color
24. Brush Styles
25. Patterns
26. Crayon
27. Draw Line Tool
28. Draw Rectangle
29. Draw Oval
30. Draw Filled Rectangle
31. Draw Filled Oval
32. Pattern Flood-Fill
33. Rainbow Tool
34. Recolor Tool
35. Spray Paint
36. Draw Text
37. Zoom Editor
38. Zoom Editor
39. Clear Picture
40. Oops or Undo
41. Scroll Up
42. Scroll Down
43. Scroll Right
44. Scroll Left
45. Flip Vertical
46. Flip Horizontal
47. Picture Cels
48. Brightener Tool
49. Darkener Tool
50. Smudge Tool
51. 3D Perspective Modes
52. 3D Perspective Color
53. Current Color Tones
54. Current Color Shades
55. Color Palette
56. Adjust RGB Palette
57. Brush Tool
58. Cels Animator

· BOOK EDITOR *
59. Book Editor

· BOOK EDITOR'S FILE MENU *
60. File Menu

· BOOK EDITOR'S PAGE MENU *
61. Page Menu

· BOOK EDITOR'S SCRIPTS MENU *
62. Script Menu

· GROUP SCRIPT EDITOR *
63. Script Group Editor

· BOOK EDITOR'S TOOL BOX *
64. Tool Box Overview
65. Picture Area
66. Status Box
67. Reader's Keyboard Commands
68. Load Picture
69. Flip Picture
70. Recolor Picture
71. Move Picture
72. Delete Picture
73. Script Editor
74. Background Picture
75. Caption Editor
76. Animate Word
77. Animation Sequence
78. Display Effects
79. Book Setup
80. Object Locator
81. Background Number

· SCRIPT EDITOR *
82. Script Editor

· CAPTION EDITOR *
83. Text Editor
84. Preview Page
85. Book Reader
86. Book Reader
87. No Mouse Device
88.
89. Shareware Information

 

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1. STORYMAKER+ VGA OVERVIEW
What is Storymaker+ VGA
Storymaker+ VGA is a software for creating and reading interactive multimedia storybooks with speech, animation, music and sound effects. Storybooks of up to 99 screen pages can also be compiled into personalized, stand-alone programs that can be easily distributed among friends, family, or for educational and commercial purposes.

Creating a Storybook
A Storymaker+ VGA book consists of graphics files for the sceneries and animation shapes, sound files and text files for the sound effects, and the book file for the storybook itself. The program has all the necessary editing tools for users to create the needed files except for two of the five types of sound files that can be included although samples for each type are distributed with the program.

The editing tools are in separate and independent program modules to make the program compact and easy to use: the Scenery and Shape Editors for drawing the sceneries and shapes, the Melody Maker for composing music and sound effects, the Text Editor for entering text for the computer to read, the Book Editor to design and write the book, and the Book Reader to preview or read completed books. Help on how to use the tools are available in each module.

Storymaker+ VGA also has a sample storybook "Kids, Kids, Kids" that demonstrates some examples of how to use the Book Editor module of the program. You can use the storybook to get familiar with the editing tools by loading it in the Book Editor in order to examine the animation scripts of the various characters and objects in the story. Editing changes are not saved to the file so feel free to experiment also with all of the editor's tools.

Compiling a storybook into a stand-alone program in the Utility module is an easy process. The compiled book can be personalized and has its own screen book covers for displaying information such as the book's title and author's name.

Users of Storymaker+
Storymaker+ comes in two versions, the original EGA version and the VGA version you have now. The EGA version was written and designed primarily for the use of parents participating in the education of their younger children and for the use of elementary-school-aged children. Although the VGA version has more features that makes it more suitable for older users, its intended primary use is still as teaching and learning tools. Children can still use the Melody Maker, with its animated piano, to explore music and sound; the Scenery and Shape Editors with its special tools, to explore shapes and colors; the Book Editor with its various animation tools, to do creative and logical thinking; the Text Editor even with its simple features, to do some writing and have some fun; and the Book Reader, to share their creations with others.

Other users of the program are computer learning centers and educational institutions which will find it useful as a teaching tool for reading, writing or multimedia introduction. Some unexpected users of the EGA version are professionals who finds the program useful as a therapeutic tool especially for disabled children.

The Screen Keyboard interface, a new feature of Storymaker+ will also be of special interest to those who, because of a physical handicap, can operate a computer only through a device that emulates a mouse. By pointing and clicking at the keyboard diagram on the screen through the emulator device, a user can enter text without using the computer keyboard.

Writers of children's storybooks may also be interested to use Storymaker+ as a low-cost, simple multimedia authoring system. Storybooks may be distributed royalty-free with no further arrangement with the author.

Running The Program Under Microsoft Windows Storymaker+ VGA is written to run under the DOS operating system. It is not designed to run under the Windows environment and will likely run erratically because of Windows use of shared resources. But if you do need to run it under Windows, try assigning the program as much control as possible for best results.

Run-time Memory Requirements
Although some program modules require much less run-time memory than other modules, Storymaker+ VGA should be run with as much RAM memory as possible. Examples of memory-intensive operations are using several pictures for backdrop in the Book Editor or modifying large clipboard images in the graphics editor.

If you are encountering insufficient memory errors because of limited RAM memory, before running Storymaker+ remove first unnecessary TSR - terminate and stay resident - programs that use up part of the RAM available. Consult your DOS manual for information on how to manage better the RAM memory.

The files STORY.DOC, HISTORY.DOC and other document files that comes with the program also contain more information. Use the VIEW FILES or PRINT FILES in the ABOUT menu to view or print the files.

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2. HELP SCREENS
Main Help To load a module's help topic, click on its ? icon with the mouse left button or press F1. Specific Help To get help on specific items like the drawing tools, click on the ? help icon first with the right button. This will change the cursor into the ? help cursor. Click next on a command box, icon or item to display its help data.

While in the Help dialog:
Click on the arrow keys to go to the next or previous page.

Click on the Swap Screen icon to view temporarily the main screen - this may be useful in certain parts of the program like the Book Editor's Script Editor. Click the mouse button to return to the help screen.

Click on the OK icon to exit.

Saving Help Screens
To save the help screens to the disk, select Save Help Screens in the General Topics Help menu. All help screens' text will be saved to the file SMHELP.DOC in Storymaker+ directory.

NOTE Storymaker+ was designed to be user-friendly so that most of its functions should be easy to use after some familiarity with the program. Learning how to use the program should be done in an intuitive manner, so as not to clutter the brain with all kinds of information. The function and icon names appearing in the help files are not meant to be remembered; the descriptive names are there only as an aid in understanding the help files.

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3. COLORS AND COLOR TOOLS
Storymaker+ VGA uses 30 main VGA colors, each with 8 color shades or tones for a total of 240 colors. Since the palette set can not be changed, the color palette of imported graphics are converted into Storymaker+ color palette.

Keyboard Color Keys
In the Scenery and Shape Editors, pressing the keyboard's SPACE BAR or F10 key is used as a handy way to change the foreground and background drawing colors. To change colors with the special keys, point the cursor at a pixel on the screen, then press SPACE BAR to assign the pixel's color as the new foreground color, or F10 as the new background color. The feature is very handy especially when drawing in the Zoom Editor and is active in all drawing modes except when entering text.

Transparent or Background Color
When saving a picture in the Scenery or Shape Editor, the area that is saved is the entire drawing area of the Scenery Editor or all the drawing cels in the Shape Editor. Since the drawing cels are in the form of a frame box, a special color - called the transparent color - may be assigned as a non-drawing color which does not get displayed when placing or animating the picture on the screen. A picture with no transparent color will be displayed as if inside a box. The suitable transparent color is black unless it is a drawing color.

When capturing an image from the drawing area to the clipboard, the current background color is automatically assigned as the transparent color. To capture the image correctly, temporarily set the background color to the non-drawing color of the image.

When using the Recolor Picture and Adjust RGB utilities, the transparent color of a picture can not be changed.

Following are the color tools, some of which are shared by different program modules.

Recolor Picture

The Recolor Picture tool is for assigning new individual colors to an object.

Colors are changed through the Recolor dialog. The colors in the dialog box are divided into 2 sets of rows of color boxes. The bottom boxes shows all of Storymaker+'s VGA colors. Any new colors assigned to them will appear on the upper row of boxes.

To assign new colors, pick first the new color you want to assign by clicking on it in the bottom row. Next look for the color - also in the bottom row - which you want to change and click on the box directly above it. The new color will fill the box to let you know of the change. Repeat the process for the other colors you want to change.

Click on the All box to change all 8 tones of a color at once. To go back to changing only one color tone at a time, click on the One box. Another handy feature is grabbing a pixel's color in the drawing area by clicking on the pixel.

The picture box on the left side of the screen displays the original picture, while the one on the right displays the recolored picture.

NOTES
1. When using the utility in the Book Editor's screen or import picture, change only the colors that appear on the objects to avoid making your storybook file unnecessarily larger as all new color assignments are saved in the file.

2. Recoloring is always done on the pictures' original colors.

3. Since the transparent color of a picture - usually black - does not get drawn, you can hide a color in the picture by assigning it the background color as its new color.

Adjust RGB
The Adjust RGB tool is for assigning new colors to an object through the RGB (red/green/blue) color values. Since each VGA color is made up of varying values of the red, blue and green primary colors, increasing or decreasing some or all three default RGB values will change individual colors carrying the affected values. The values range from -64 to +64.

In the Adjust RGB dialog, increase an RGB value to get brighter colors, decrease the value for darker colors. To see what primary colors are carried by a VGA colors, try turning off the red color by setting its value all the way down to -64. Experiment the same way with the green and blue RGB values. As you get familiar with the color composition through their RGB values, you can use the tool for interesting color animations in your storybooks.

COLOR ANIMATIONS
There are three ways to animate an object in a storybook: either by moving it around the screen or by one of the two types of color animation: changing colors continuously by selecting individual colors and changing colors continuously by adjusting the RGB primary color values.

Recolor Picture Animator
The Recolor Picture Animator is the first method of color animation and makes repeated use of the Recolor Picture utility discussed above to assign the colors. To use the animator:

Step 1 Change the 1st set of colors with the Recolor Picture utility. Click on the OK icon when done.

Step 2 Repeat Step 1 for the other sets of color changes.

Step 3 When done, click on the OK icon without changing any color.

One technique you can employ: since the transparent color of a picture does not get drawn, you can hide a color in the picture by assigning it the transparent color.

A disadvantage of using the 1st method: since the number of color changes depends on how many individual colors are changed, this can take up a lot of space in the script file. For this reason, there is limit count for each set of color change and it is recommended that you change only colors that are present in an object.

Adjust RGB Animator
The second method of color animation makes repeated use of the Adjust RGB utility discussed above. And as with the first method, you exit the utility by clicking on the OK icon without making a change in any of the 3 RGB values.

One technique you can employ: you can also hide colors through the selective use of colors in an object or text for display on the screen. This requires though knowledge of how much of the Red/ Green/Blue primary colors is contained in a VGA color and it is left to the user to experiment with it through the Adjust RGB utility.

The second method does not take a lot of space in a book file and so is a more efficient method of color animation. A disadvantage on using it though is that it takes a lot of computing time to calculate and set up the new color values which may cause a noticeable delay before the animation occurs (animation speed however is not affected, only the setup time).

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4. BOOK READER
The Book Reader reads the storybooks created in Storymaker+. There are two ways to read a story:

READ THE STORY BY YOURSELF
To read the story by yourself, you need to click on objects in the picture area or words in the caption to run animation scripts. You also have to click on the Reader icon to read the caption.

THE COMPUTER HELPS TO READ THE STORY
The Book Reader will help you read the story. The computer will read for you the page caption. And although you can also click on objects and words to run their animation scripts, the computer will also run animation scripts in the right sequence if you have not run any animation for a while.

Press the ESC key or click the right mouse button to stop an animation in progress.

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5. MOUSE AND KEYBOARD
Using the Mouse
When clicking the mouse button, do the common practice of clicking on the left button unless an instruction asks you to use the right button. Although in most cases left and right button clicks mean the same in Storymaker+, there are a few times when they are not. Examples are selecting colors and pasting clipboard pictures in the graphics editor.

Special Keyboard Keys
To place a picture at its exact location on the screen, use the arrow keys and the Ins Del PgUp PgDn keys to move it to its location one point at a time. Press the ENTER key next or the ESC key to cancel. The same keys also move the drawing cursor in the graphics editor one point at a time and is handy when drawing lines, boxes or circles, and in sizing frames.

Screen Keyboard Interface

Refer to the Setup help for information about the Screen Keyboard interface.

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6. LIST AND INPUT DIALOGS
List Dialog
The List Dialog is the Storymaker+ function for selecting from a list of items such as the storybooks, pictures or melodies.

To select an item in the list, highlight the item first by clicking on it, then click on the OK icon or press the ENTER key. Double-clicking, clicking quickly the mouse button 2 times, will also select the item.

Scroll through the list by clicking on the arrow icons or by clicking on the scroll bar icon and dragging it up or down. Using the PgUp PgDn Home End keyboard keys will also scroll the list.

When selecting from a long list of items that are displayed in alphabetical order such as melody titles, press a letter from A to Z to search through the list.

Input Dialog
The Input Dialog is the Storymaker+ function for entering one line of text such as a filename, picture name, title or page number.

The keyboard keys Ins Home End Del Backspace work the same way as in the Text Editor. Click on the OK icon or press the Enter key to get your input accepted. Click on the Cancel icon or press the ESC key to cancel your input.

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7. STORYMAKER+ FILES
Saving Files
When entering a filename in Storymaker+, enter a name from 1 to 8 characters long. Do not enter a filename extension. The name may contain only letters, numbers or special characters such as:

` ! @ # $ % & ( ) _ - .

Make sure also that the filename that you provide is not the same as that of another file as its data will be overwritten.

Backing Up Data Files
It is a good idea to back up your data files occasionally. The data files are located in Storymaker+ subdirectories BOOKS, GRAPHICS, MELODY, MISC, PCX, SOUNDS, SCRIPTS and TEXT.

Storybook's File Name
Click on the status box in the Book editor where the book's title, and page information are displayed to display temporarily the filename of the storybook you are working on.

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8. MISSING PICTURES
When creating a storybook that you intend to keep, make sure that its pictures are not deleted from its library.

The library's filename must also remain unchanged.

Missing Pictures
When the Book Editor or Book Reader loads a page from a storybook, it beeps for every missing picture and loads a MISSING PICTURE icon. Missing pictures may be caused by a missing picture library or by deleted pictures. If you can not restore the library, load the page in the Book Editor and delete the picture this way:

Select the Elevator from the Display Effects, then run the page script. If the MISSING PICTURE icon stays at the top left corner of the screen then the missing picture is the scenery picture and you must change it. If the icon does drop down then it is a shape picture which you can delete through the Delete Picture command, making sure to click on the right picture.

Missing Picture Libraries
The Book Editor adds a picture to a storybook by saving its index number and the filename of its picture library. When the picture is loaded later either by the Book Editor or Book Reader, the program looks first for the library file name, then loads the picture by using its index number. A missing picture error may occur if the library has been deleted or its name changed. Restore a deleted file if you can; in a case of name change, restore the old name or make a copy of the file under the old name.

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9. OTHER INFORMATION
Please refer also to the file STORY.DOC for more information on Storymaker+. The file includes instructions on how to access the remaining utilities, how to make the program automatically read story files, how to run only the Book Reader and hide the other editors.

See the file also for instructions on configuring supported sound cards, and for descriptions and locations of Storymaker+ data files.

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10. SETUP
Use the Setup to select and configure the sound device and the Screen Keyboard interface. All settings except for the Sound Switch are saved permanently.

Sound Device Sets the sound device card. At present, only Sound Blaster compatible cards are supported.

Sound Switch Sets sounds on or off. Select Sound Off if you want to use Storymaker+ in quiet mode - this also turns off beeps caused by user errors.

Screen Keyboard Sets the special keyboard interface on or off. Turning on the interface enables you to enter text through the mouse device, in addition to the computer keyboard, by pointing and clicking at the characters on the screen keyboard diagram.

The switch is disabled in the Text Editor so you need to close the editor first if you need to either turn on or off the interface.

NOTE The keyboard interface is intended for someone who has a physical handicap that prevents use of the computer keyboard, but can interact with the computer through a special device that emulates pointing with the mouse.

The keyboard interface is activated when entering text in the Text Editor, entering text in the Graphics Editor, entering the book's caption in the Book Editor and all other dialogs that requires text entry such as saving files and entering titles or descriptions.

Sound Volume Sets the volumes for the melody player, text-to-speech player and the digital-sound player. You can turn off a sound player by clicking on the left button until all bars disappear.

NOTE The FM music volume is not adjustable.

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11. UTILITIES
The Utilities module provides file maintenance for the graphics and dictionary files. It also includes a utility to compile storybooks into run-time EXE files so that you can easily distribute your books to others. Following are the descriptions of each utility.

Library
Select the current library to work on. This is needed in the View Graphics, Rename Graphics, Delete Graphics and Clean Library utilities.

Dictionary Exceptions
Use this utility to enter in the dictionary file the correct pronunciation of special words. Although the text-to-speech player has an unlimited vocabulary, its internal pronunciation rules apply correctly only to a limited number of words.

The file must contain only pronunciation of words mispronounced by the text-to-speech player to prevent it from being unnecessarily large as it is loaded in its entirety while Storymaker+ is in use.

Create Run-Time File
You can make a storybook available to others either by distributing exact copies of its files or by using this utility to create a run-time storybook as a stand-alone executable program that will run even from a floppy disk. The utility compiles all the storybook's data files and a stand-alone book reader module into a single EXE program file.

A storybook EXE file also adds two extra screen pages to the storybook: the book's front cover and an owl-reader page.

In the front cover you have the option to display the book's title and other information such as author's name and copyright notice. You can also include in the INFO button of the front cover a list of text files that can be viewed or printed by readers of your storybook.

In the owl-reader page, you can personalize the book with a belong-to-name. If your storybook also has a preface or Intro part, the owl-reader page will also display an INTRO button which readers can click on. To read a compiled storybook, exit to DOS, change the current directory to the Storymaker+'s BOOKS directory, then run the program by entering its filename.

The title of the book, the list of text files for viewing or printing, and the Intro pages are entered in the Book Setup of the Book Editor module.

View Graphics Library
Use this utility to view the contents of a picture library without making any changes to the file. Among the library data displayed are the total picture count, the current picture's width and height, and its run-time and file storage sizes.

The Run-Time Size is the number of bytes a picture occupy when it is loaded in the computer's memory. You may need to know this if you're having memory allocation problems because of too many pictures loaded at once, for example, when using too many backdrop motion animations.

Below the Run-Time Size is the Disk File Size which is the number of bytes a saved picture occupies on the disk. A picture that is saved without special compression - see the Clean Library utility below - has the same disk-file and run-time sizes.

Things you may need to know about pictures sizes:

1. A picture when loaded is always converted into its run-time data format.

2. The run-time data is usually already compressed with a simple compression method so that a Storymaker+'s picture file may actually have 2 different types of data compression if you also choose to use the special compression discussed below in the Clean Library section.

3. Pictures with grainy or spray-painted texture do not compress well while those with solid colors, repeated patterns do.

Rename Picture
Use this utility to change the name or description of pictures in a library file.

Delete Picture
Pictures not referenced in any storybook and no longer needed can be deleted through this utility. Be sure you understand how Storymaker+ saves and uses picture data before attempting to do any deletion.

Pictures saved in the graphics editor are assigned internal index numbers in their picture libraries. In the Book Editor, pictures used in a storybook are assigned the same index numbers plus a reference to the library file - picture names are NOT SAVED NOR USED in a storybook file. The Book Reader when reading a storybook uses the index numbers to display pictures - it does not know nor care what their names are. This means that if a picture is deleted accidentally, trying to undo the error by redrawing and saving a new picture under the old name will not work since the new picture will most likely end up with a different index number.

Clean Picture Library
If you do a lot of deleting or editing of pictures, you may have seen the graphics editor go through the special process of cleaning up the library file before saving a picture. Because of the way pictures are saved, a library file usually ends up with garbage data from edited or deleted pictures. This makes the file larger than it should be. Index numbers assigned to the garbage data are also wasted and made unavailable when saving pictures. When all index numbers are used up, the graphics editor will automatically clean the library in order to free index numbers.

Since the graphics editor removes garbage only when it needs to, use this utility anytime you want to free unused space in library files.

In addition to removing unneeded space, the utility also has an option of doing a Special Compression which may cut file sizes up to one-half or greater without any time loss in running animation scripts. The option is very useful if you plan to widely distribute your storybook and not burden your users with files that may be too large. Please be warned however that the compression process may be very slow especially on slower computers and if the picture being compressed has grainy texture. The utility does a separate compression of each scenery or shape picture. Please keep in mind also that resaving a picture in the Graphics Editor will undo any special compression since the editor save pictures without going through the slow compression process.

You can examine the results of compression through the View Graphics utility.

NOTE
The program does not allow access to some of the utilities unless the /UNLOCK command switch is added when running the program. This is done to prevent accidental changes in the utility files' critical data. Please refer to the file STORY.DOC for information on how to use command switches.

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12. TEXT-TO-SPEECH RULES
Pronunciation keys are highlighted in red in the list. On the right of each key are 1 or 2 examples with the capitalized letters representing the key.

To enter the pronunciation of a word, you must combine all its applicable pronunciation keys. For example, the keys of the word "bring" are "b", "r", "IH" and "NG". To add "bring" to the dictionary file, enter:

Add Word: bring

Pronounced As: brIHNG

Pronunciation keys are case-sensitive: enter a 2-letter key in capital letters and a 1-letter key in small letter. Otherwise, you'll get an error message, or worse, save the wrong pronunciation data (entering "brIHng" won't sound right!).

To pronounce a word, the text-to-speech player looks first for the word in the dictionary file. If the word is not in the file, internal rules are used to pronounce it. To avoid program space problem and to optimize program speed, only words that do not follow the internal rules can be added to the dictionary. Words that follow the rules are only implicitly saved.

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13. CLEAN LIBRARY
The Clean Library utility includes an option to do a special data compression on the library file. As the compression process may be very slow, be sure to back up first the files that you will be compressing to prevent loss of data in case of unexpected interruptions during file processing.

Press any key on the computer keyboard to interrupt any compression in progress and turn off the option. Refer to the Utilities help for more information about the Clean Library utility.

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14. TEXT EDITOR
The Text Editor module is for creating the text files of a storybook. A text files added as part of an animation in a storybook is either read by the text-to-speech player or displayed as static text on the animation screen. Please refer to the Script Editor of the Book Editor on how to add a text file as part of animation scripts.

The text that can be edited by the Text Editor is limited to a screenful of text. The text file that can be added to a storybook however has no size limit. If you need to add larger files, use a standard text editor to create the file, then copy it to Storymaker+ TEXT directory.

You can choose from a number of fonts with different sizes. As the amount of text that can be entered also depends on the size of the font, be careful when switching fonts as text that does not fit in a line or on the screen is discarded by the editor.

Use the File menu to load or save a text file, or to exit the Text Editor.

NOTE If a font or font color is selected, the font and font numbers are embedded in the text file as the first line of text with the format:

>FONT:nn COLOR:cc where nn & cc stands for the numbers.

If you want to specify the fonts in a file from another text editors, insert the information using the above format in the very first line. The font number - starting from 1 - is the corresponding position of the font name in the List dialog box when loading fonts.

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15. TEXT EDITOR
Editing Keys
Move the cursor
Ins      Insert or type over
Home      Go to the start of line
End      Go to the end of line
Enter      Move the text from the cursor to the next line
Del      Delete character under the cursor
Backspace Delete character before the cursor

Click on the Font box to change fonts. Make sure that you won't lose any text data when switching to a larger font.

Click on the Font Color box to change the font color.

Click on the Reader icon to test reading of the text by the computer. Reading starts at the line where the cursor is.

Click on the Trash Can icon to clear the text. Click on the File menu to save or load a file, adjust the text-to-speech player's volume, or to exit from the editor.

NOTES When the Screen Keyboard is on:

1. The text area under the keyboard diagram is not available.

2. Clicking on the available text area with the right button will reverse the case of the character under the cursor, converting an 'a' into 'A', or an 'A' into 'a'.

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16. MELODY MAKER
Melody Maker is Storymaker+'s module for adding music and sound effects to storybooks. Melodies entered in Melody Maker can be loaded later in the Book Editor for inclusion to storybooks. Entering melodies is done by directly placing notes on the screen music sheet or by recording what is played on the animated piano keyboard through the mouse device or the computer keyboard.

With its file of different-sounding musical instruments, you can compose not only tuneful melodies, but also sound effects that can dramatize animations in your stories through the use of the right sounds and musical instrument.

File Menu
Use the File menu on the top screen to load or save a melody, to change the setup configuration and to exit Melody Maker. To select a menu item, click on the File menu, then drag the mouse to the menu item and release the mouse button.

Make sure to add a title or description to a melody before saving it to a file. Melodies without titles are listed as Untitled when loading melody files. Use a descriptive filename so it's easy to tell what melody is in a file in case you need to make file copies or do file maintenance later.

Melody Maker's workspace can be divided into 4 areas: 1) the upper part of the screen is the Melody Box area; 2) the left side of the middle part of the screen is the Tool Box area which includes the Octave and Tempo tools; 3) the right side of the middle part of the screen is the Notes Box, 4) the piano keyboard. Following are the descriptions and functions of each area.

Melody Box
The screen music sheet occupies most of the melody box. The notes of a melody or sound effects are placed and displayed in the music sheet.

Placing Notes Notes are placed manually by clicking inside the music sheet. The note that is posted is the Current Note which is also the note highlighted in red in the Note Box. You can also drag a note, including a rest note, by clicking on a note or rest note in the Note Box, then dragging the note to the music sheet area. Moving Notes Click on a note in the music sheet, then drag it up or down to its new location. You can also move it to a different column or remove the note by dropping it outside the music sheet.

Replacing Notes Click on a note in the Note Box, drag the note to the music sheet, then drop it over the note you want to replace.

Deleting and Inserting Notes Click on the shaded box to the right of INSERT-DELETE marker with the left button to insert a column for a new note, or with the right button to delete the note below the mouse cursor. Adding or Deleting Bar Lines Click on the shaded box to the right of the BARS marker to insert or delete a bar line under the mouse cursor. A bar line will be added where there is none, or deleted if one exists. Scrolling Notes and Status Bar There are several ways to scroll the notes of the melody in and out of the Melody Box.

Click on the Rewind or Fast Forward buttons at the bottom part of the Melody Box to go to the beginning or end of the melody.

Click on the Left Arrow icon to move back one note at a time. Hold the mouse button to continue scrolling.

Click on the Right Arrow icon to move forward one note at a time. Hold the mouse button to continue scrolling.

The long bar box between the arrow icons is the Status Bar box. A dark bar is displayed to measure the size of the melody in memory. The red line inside the dark bar marks the relative position in the melody of the notes displayed on the screen. To display any part of the melody, click inside the dark bar on the part you want displayed. You can also click on the red line marker, then drag it to the left or right side to scroll the notes.

NOTE You can add notes to your melody until the dark bar fills up the Status Bar.

The last way to scroll the notes is by pressing the computer keyboard PageUp or PageDn keys. This scrolls the note a screen page at a time.

Tool Box Area
Following are the descriptions of the functions located in the Tool Box area.

PLAY
Click on the icon to play the melody starting from the notes displayed in the melody box. Press the SPACE BAR to pause play. Press any key to resume play. Press the ESC key or click on the right mouse button to stop play.

RECORD
Click here if you want Melody Maker to record notes played on the piano keyboard. Notes, including pauses, are saved as played.

NOTE Since Melody Maker will attempt to save notes and pauses exactly as played, note and rest icons placed in the melody box do not represent fixed time duration but only approximate the playing time.

CLEAR
Click on the icon to clear the melody and start a new one.

Be sure to save any changes made before clearing a melody.

TITLE
Click on the icon to enter a title for the melody. The title is displayed on the top screen and is used instead of the filename when selecting a melody for loading.

Instrument
Click on the icon to select the melody's musical instrument.

HELP
Click on the icon to load the help file.

TEMPO
Click on the left meter box to give the melody a slower tempo. Click on the right meter box for a faster tempo.

Try to "discover" new melodies by guessing the right tempo of melodies you are not familiar with. Octaves

You can raise or lower the overall pitch of a melody by changing its octave range. A melody in Melody Maker can have up to about 5 octaves from a total of 7 available octaves.

Click on the left or right meter box to select the octave range.

Try to select a right octave range especially when testing different musical instrument to play the melody. Notes Area

The Notes Area contains all the different note and rest symbols used in Melody Maker to compose melodies. The note highlighted in red is the current note - it is the one placed on the Melody Box when clicking on the screen music sheet. Click on another note to change the current note.

Below the notes are the rest notes corresponding to each note. As a current rest note is not used, to place a rest note in the music sheet, click on the rest note that you need and then drag and drop it on the music sheet. Melody Key

Below the rest notes to the right is the current melody key signature. Using the correct melody key for a melody makes entering notes easier as you can skip adding a sharp, flat or natural note symbol to a note unless it is needed.

Click on the box to select a new key for the melody that will go in the Melody Box.

NOTE Melody Maker uses melody keys only for entering notes. When changing the melody key, it does not transpose notes that are already in the Melody Box.

Melody Key Exceptions
Below the rest notes to the left are the musical symbols used to indicate whether a note is played half a note higher or lower than its default value. Assigning a melody key to a melody makes it easier to enter and read melodies as you do not need to enter the special symbols if your melody is in a key other than natural C. Not all notes however have to be played in the assigned melody key and special symbols are attached to notes that do not follow the melody key. The special symbols are:

SHARP The # sharp symbol means the note is to be played half-a-note higher than the melody key. FLAT The b flat symbol means the note is to be played half-a-note lower than the melody key. NATURAL The n natural note symbol means the note is to be played naturally, ignoring the Sharp or Flat attribute assigned by the melody key.

Click on the flat, sharp or natural note icon if you need to enter notes that do not follow the melody key. Click on the empty box to go back to using the melody key.

PIANO KEYBOARD
The last part of Melody Maker's workspace is the animated piano keyboard. The keyboard can be played with the mouse or computer keyboard. Click on the RECORD icon in the Tool Box to save automatically what you are playing.

To play the piano with the mouse

Point and click at the white or black piano keys.

To play with the computer keyboard

Press the computer keyboard keys. The rows of keys are arranged in octaves.

The 1stst row (Z,X,C,V,...) starts with the 1stst octave.

The 2ndnd row (A,S,D,F,...) starts with the 2ndnd octave.

The 3rdrd row (Q,W,E,R,...) starts with the 3rdrd octave.

The 4thth row (1,2,3,4,...) starts with the 4thth octave.

To play a black piano key, press either the right or left SHIFT key while pressing the note's key.

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17. GRAPHICS EDITOR
The graphics editor utility of Storymaker+ is for creating the scenery and animation pictures of storybooks. Pictures drawn in the editor and saved in picture library files can be loaded later in the Book Editor module to add in storybooks.

The graphics editor is shared by two of the program's main modules: the Scenery Editor module for drawing scenery backgrounds and the Shape Editor for drawing the animation shapes.

NOTE The Scenery Editor also has a special use:
although Storymaker+ comes with ready-made caption boxes for storybook captions, you can also make your own caption boxes by saving it as a scenery picture in the Scenery Editor. Refer to the Book Editor caption utility on how to use and load caption boxes.

Drawing is done through a number of drawing tools like the Crayon for simple sketching and the Fill tools for drawing geometric shapes. Brushes of different styles and thickness, patterns, and 3D perspective are used with some of the drawing tools. Graphics files in the PCX format can be imported and exported.

In addition to the standard drawing tools, the editor also have special tools when opened by the Shape Editor. You can add or delete animation cels, change the size of the cels, copy or swap contents of one cel with the contents of another, test cel animations.

Up to 12 animation cels are available in the Shape Editor. All cels are also displayed on the screen, so you can use larger but fewer cels or more but smaller cels.

WORKSPACE
The graphics editor workspace is divided into the File Menu, Clipboard Menu, Cels Menu and the Tool Box containing the drawing tools. Refer to the help file of each section for information on how to use the Scenery Editor and Shape Editor.

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18. FILE MENU
The File menu contains the main functions of the Graphics Editors: load and save pictures, start a new picture, export the drawing screen to a PCX file, change and create picture libraries, load a new font, load the main help and exit from the editor.

Following are the descriptions of each function.

Load Picture
This loads for editing a picture from the current picture library. In the Scenery Editor, only scenery pictures can be loaded and in the Shape Editor, only animation shapes can be loaded.

Save Picture
This saves in the current library the picture that you are editing. Before a picture is saved, you need to enter its name or description in the Save Picture dialog box.

You also need to assign its transparent color especially if you are saving animation shapes in the Shape Editor. A picture's transparent color does not get drawn when the picture is displayed on the screen. Black is usually assign as the transparent color unless it is part of the drawing colors.

The top part of the Save Picture box displays on the left 4 boxes you can click to make your selection. The box to the right displays the picture's current transparent color.

Click on the first or second box to assign either the default black or purple color.

Click on the box with the "?" pattern to select a color from the entire color palette.

Click on the box containing the "None" pattern if your picture uses all colors as drawing colors or if you do not want to assign a transparent color.

IMPORTANT Pictures can be renamed only in the Utilities module of Storymaker+. If you are editing a picture from the library, keep its old name unless you want to copy it under a different name.

NOTE When saving a picture, the program sometimes needs to remove unused space from the library to make room for new data. A warning message will appear when this is about to happen. Cleaning the library may also take some time, but you should not interrupt the program while it is reading and writing data to the disk. In a special case, the program may ask you to use instead the Utilities to clean the library before a picture can be saved. When this happens, save the picture first to a temporary library so you won't lose its data.

New Picture
This clears all drawing cels so you can start a new picture. Make sure this is what you want to do as this can not be undone.

Export Picture
This saves the drawing screen as a PCX file in the PCX directory of Storymaker+. Use this feature to export your picture to another graphics editor for further editing or printing.

Refer to the Import Picture tool in the Clipboard menu about importing PCX files.

Picture Library
This selects the current picture library used for loading and saving of pictures.

Create Library
This creates a new picture library for loading and saving of pictures. A library file can have up to 180 pictures. Try to group your pictures by saving them in different library files. Also use a filename that best describes the type of pictures going into the new library file. VERY IMPORTANT Do not rename a library file already used in a storybook as this will cause missing picture errors when reading or editing the book.

Select Font
This selects the current font for entering text with the Text tool.

Exit
This closes the graphics editor. Be sure to save first any changes you have made in your picture.

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19. CLIPBOARD MENU
The Clipboard Menu provides several tools for using a clipboard image that can be pasted on the drawing area or used as a drawing brush. The clipboard picture may be loaded from the current picture library, imported from a PCX file or grabbed from the drawing area.

The clipboard picture may also be used in place of the ready-made patterns by the various tools that use patterns for drawing. Try creating your own unique colored patterns by making use of the clipboard's Copy tool below.

The following are the clipboard menu functions.

Load Clipboard
This loads a picture to the clipboard from a picture library. The loaded picture is immediately available for pasting to the drawing area or as a pattern.

Paste Clipboard
Makes the clipboard picture available for pasting on the drawing area or drawing cel. The Paste tool also serves as a drawing brush in that the clipboard picture can be continuously pasted on the drawing area.

NOTE If you are in the Shape Editor, you can not switch drawing cels while the Paste tool is active. This is done in order to be able to move well the clipboard picture around the screen. To get rid of the Paste tool, turn if off by clicking the mouse right button or by clicking on another drawing tool.

Flip Clipboard Picture
This flips the clipboard picture horizontally.

Import PCX Graphics
The Graphics Editor can import graphics in the PCX format into the clipboard. PCX graphics files are used in several standard paint programs and come in different sizes, resolutions and palette.

Only files using the PCX standard format are supported. Each element of the file's color palette is also converted into Storymaker+'s color palette and may not match the PCX file actual colors.

If the PCX graphics will not fit in the clipboard, you have the option of resizing the captured image into a smaller one, or limiting the capture size into one that will fit in the clipboard without resizing.

Refer also to the Export Picture tool in the File menu about exporting your images as PCX files.

NOTE PCX files can be loaded from any directory path in Storymaker+ drive; the latest path used is also saved. Recolor Clipboard Use the tool to assign new colors to the clipboard picture through the Recolor Picture utility.

Help on how to use the Recolor Picture utility is in the General Topics area under Color and Color Tools.

Copy Clipboard Picture
The clipboard Copy tool is for grabbing an image from the drawing area into the clipboard. In the Shape Editor, you can copy from the drawing cel only.

To capture an image on the screen, click on its top left corner, drag the mouse to its bottom right corner and release button.

NOTE The current background color tone is assigned as the clipboard picture's transparent color. The transparent color does not get drawn when pasting the clipboard picture on the screen. Set the current background color temporarily to the non-drawing color of the image you want to capture or if you want to capture a boxed image, assign every color as a drawing color by setting the background color to a color not found in the image.

Resize Clipboard
The Resize tool is for changing the size of the clipboard picture. The tool reloads the original clipboard picture so you need to use the clipboard's Recolor, Adjust RGB or Flip tools if you want to retain any changes you have made on the original image.

NOTE Pressing the ESC key or resizing into a very small image will restore the clipboard to its original size. Adjust RGB Palette Use the tool to assign new colors to the clipboard picture through the Adjust RGB utility. Help on the Adjust RGB utility is in the General Topics area under Color and Color Tools.

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20. CELS MENU
The Cels menu are additional editing tools that are available only in the Shape Editor. As animation shapes normally have more than one cel, the tools are handy means of adding, deleting or resizing cels, and copying or swapping cels' contents. It even has an animator so that you can test your animations before using them in the Book Editor for your storybooks.

Following are the descriptions of the animation tools.

Swap Cels
This swaps the picture in one cel with the one from another cel.

Click inside the first and second cels to select the cels.

Add Cell This adds an animation cel to the drawing area. Up to 12 animation cels are available. All the cels must fit in the screen so you may have to make the cels smaller in order to fit additional ones.

Delete Cel This deletes an animation cel from the drawing area. Deleting a cel can not be undone. Click on the cel you want to remove.

Size Cels This changes the size of the animations cels. In the Size Cels dialog, click on the arrow icons to adjust the cel's sizes.

Changing the cels' sizes can not be undone so make sure you won't lose picture data when making the cels smaller.

Copy Cell This copies the contents of one cel into another cel.

Cel Animator This opens the Cel Animator to run an animation test of the current cels so you can check if you are drawing the picture correctly.

In the Cel Animator you can change the distance and speed of the cels' motion. You can also flip the cels horizontally if they are facing the wrong way.

Animation Cycle If you are editing more than one animation cel for use in an animation that repeats, you can assign here the cel number of the one that will restart the animation cycle. The 1stst cel used as the default cel number if no selection is made. For example, if in a set of 6 picture cels, a bird is standing still in the 1stst and 2ndnd cels and flying in the other 4 cels, to animate with a bird continuously flying, the 3rdrd cel needs to be selected to restart the animation cycle.

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21. TOOL BOX OVERVIEW
All drawing resources of the Scenery or Shape Editors, with the exception of those that are available in the Clipboard and Cel menus, are displayed in the Tool Box at the bottom of this screen. Drawing is accomplished through the use of the current foreground and background drawing colors, current drawing tool, current brush style, current pattern and current 3D perspective modes.

Getting Help
To get help on specific items in the Tool Box, click on the ? Help icon with the right button. This will change the cursor to the ? cursor. Next point and click the cursor on a drawing tool icon or item box such as the patterns to load its help file.

Drawing Colors
The color box at the right side of the tool box displays Storymaker+ VGA palette of 30 main colors, with 8 color tones for each main color for a total of 240 VGA colors. The current main foreground color is selected by clicking on a color with the left mouse button, the current main background color with the right mouse button. To the right of the main colors are color tone boxes displaying the 8 color tones of both the current background and foreground main colors. The current drawing color tone are marked by red lines and are selected by clicking on the color tone boxes. Some tools used only the current color tone while others can use all 8 color tones at once.

The current foreground and background color tones are also displayed in the color box to the top right of the color tones boxes. You can reverse the color assignment by clicking on this box. To the left of the color box is the Select VGA Color icon for directly selecting colors from the entire 240 color palette.

NOTE A convenient way to select colors, especially in the Zoom Editor, is by pointing the cursor on a pixel in the drawing area, then pressing the SPACE BAR or F10 key. The color of the pixel will then be the current foreground color if the SPACE BAR is pressed, or the current background color if F10 is pressed. The keyboard keys 1 to 8 and F1 to F8 are also interpreted as color tone numbers when you are using the drawing tools other than the Text Entry. The keys 1 to 8 changes the foreground current color tone, F1 to F8 the background current color tone. For example, while drawing a filled oval you can press the special keys to try out the different color tone combinations.

Brush Styles
To the right of the Select VGA Color icon is the set of 15 brush styles that determines the thickness and shape of an applicable drawing brush such as the Crayon or Brush tool. The current brush style is enclosed by a red rectangle. Click on another brush to select a new style.

NOTE Only the last 5 brush styles are available when Spray Paint is the current drawing tool.

3D Perspective Drawing
To the right of the brush styles are the 3D Perspective modes for special drawing effects. The 3D Perspective special drawing effects is used with the 12 ready-made patterns - located directly below the 3D icons - and the radiant pattern for drawing in 3-dimensional perspective. Special effects is achieved by drawing with different colors tones at once.

Depending on the setting of the color mode, 3D drawing may affect the foreground color only, the background color only or both colors. Select the color mode by clicking on the color mode icon box. To the right of the color mode box are the 7 icons for the different light perspective mode used with the 3D special effects. The icon enclosed by a red rectangle is the current lighting mode. Click on another icon to change the mode.

NOTES
1. As the first box is equivalent to no-perspective mode, selecting it is the same as turning off the 3D special effects.

2. Not all drawing tools use the 3D perspective effects.

Patterns Below the 3D icons are the 14 pattern selections:

12 ready-made ones, the clipboard picture which you can use to create unique patterns, and the radiant pattern. The current pattern is enclosed by a red rectangle.

Drawing Tools
The drawing tools are the 2 rows of icons in blue boxes. The current drawing tool is highlighted and is the one used in drawing on the screen.

The tools in the upper row are: Crayon, Brightener, Darkener, Brush, Line, Rectangle, Oval, Text, Zoom.

The tools in the bottom row are: Spray, Recolor, Smudge, Rainbow, Flood-Fill, Filled Rectangle, Filled Oval, Adjust RGB, Cels Animator (available in the Shape Editor only).

Scroll And Flip Tools
The Scroll and Flip tools in the purple boxes are for scrolling or flipping the contents of the drawing frame or cel.

Clear Picture and Undo Tools
The boxes to the right of the Flip tools are the Clear Picture tool to clear the drawing frame or cel, and the Undo tool to undo the last drawing activity. oops! here comes the bear. bye...

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22. SCENERY PICTURE
This is the drawing area.

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23. SELECT COLOR
Click on a color with the left button to select the foreground color.

Click on a color with the right button to select the background color.

The current drawing colors are displayed in the color tones boxes.

NOTE The background color is used in different ways in the graphics editor. It is used as the background color for the 12 ready-made patterns, the radiant pattern and the 3D special effects. It is the transparent color when copying a picture to the clipboard. In the Zoom Editor, it is the color used when drawing with the right mouse button.

See the Color and Color Tools help under General Topics for more information about colors.

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24. BRUSH STYLES
Click on a brush style box to select the current brush style.

The brush style is used by the Crayon, Brightener, Darkener, Brush, Line, Rectangle, Filled Rectangle, Filled Oval, Spray Paint, Smudge, Recolor, Rainbow and Flood Fill tools.

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25. PATTERNS
Patterns are used as a paint brush or as a fill brush by most of the drawing tools. In addition to the 12 ready-made patterns, the clipboard picture is also available for use as a pattern. Also available is the radiant pattern tool which creates a dithered pattern by gradually shifting from the foreground color to the background color or the other way around.

To select a new pattern, click on one of the ready -made patterns, the clipboard picture or the radiant pattern. The ready-made patterns and the radiant pattern make use of the current 3D Perspective for special drawing effects.

To draw with a solid color, turn off the 3D effects and choose the first pattern or set the foreground and background colors to the same color.

Patterns are used by the Brush, Rainbow, Line, Rectangle, Filled Rectangle, Filled Oval and Flood Fill tools. NOTE To use the clipboard as a pattern, load a picture to the clipboard if it is empty or draw your own pattern then use the Clipboard's Copy to capture it.

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26. CRAYON
The Crayon tool is the simplest way to draw on the screen. It works only with the foreground color and current brush style. It does not use the patterns or any of the special drawing effects.

To draw with the Crayon:

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a foreground color.

Click on a brush style.

Begin drawing by clicking the left button to draw with the foreground, the right button with the background color. Release button when done.

NOTE
The Crayon and Zoom Editor are the only tools that use the left button to draw with the foreground color, and the right button with the background color.

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27. DRAW LINE TOOL
The Line tool uses the brush style and patterns.

It does not use the 3D drawing effects.

To draw a line:

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a foreground and background color.

Click on a pattern.

Click on a brush style.

Click on the line's starting point. Release button at its end point.

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28. DRAW RECTANGLE
The Rectangle tool uses the brush style and patterns. It does not use the 3D drawing effects.

To draw a rectangle:

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a foreground and background color.

Click on a pattern.

Click on a brush style.

Click on a box's corner point. Release button at its opposite corner.

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29. DRAW OVAL
The Oval tool is a single-color tool and does not use the brush style, patterns or 3D drawing effects.

To draw an oval:

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a foreground color.

Begin drawing by clicking on a starting point.

Release button when done.

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30. DRAW FILLED RECTANGLE
The Filled_Rectangle tool uses the brush styles, patterns and 3D drawing effects.

To draw a filled rectangle:

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a foreground and background color.

Click on a pattern.

Click on a brush style.

Click on the 3D Color mode.

Click on a 3D Perspective mode.

Click on a box's corner point. Release button at its opposite corner.

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31. DRAW FILLED OVAL
The Filled_Oval tool uses the brush styles, patterns and 3D drawing effects.

To draw a filled oval:

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a foreground and background color.

Click on a pattern.

Click on a brush style.

Click on a 3D Color mode.

Click on a 3D Perspective mode.

Begin drawing by clicking on a starting point.

Release button when done.

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32. PATTERN FLOOD-FILL
The Flood-Fill tool is used to fill an area on the screen with the current pattern. It uses the 3D drawing effects.

To flood-fill with a pattern:

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a pattern.

Click on a 3D Color mode.

Click on a 3D Perspective mode.

Click on the starting point.

NOTE To recolor with a single color an area on screen that contains 2 or more color tones of a main color, use the Flood-Fill tool this way:

1. Set the 3D Color mode to background color only.

2. Turn on the 3D drawing effect by clicking on any of the 3D draw modes except the first one.

3. Click on the first pattern.

3. Click on a foreground color for the new color.

4. Click inside the area with the Flood-Fill tool.

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33. RAINBOW TOOL
The Rainbow tool works like the Brush tool except the drawing colors are changed automatically while drawing, creating a rainbow effect. It uses the brush styles, patterns and 3D drawing effects.

To draw with rainbow colors:

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a brush style.

Click on a pattern other than the clipboard pattern.

Click on the 3D Color mode.

Click on a 3D Perspective mode.

Begin drawing by clicking on a starting point.

Release button when done.

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34. RECOLOR TOOL
The Recolor tool changes a color in the drawing area by drawing over the color with another one. The Recolor tool can employ either a single color or all 8 color tones of the current drawing colors. To work with only one color, turn off the 3D effects by clicking on the first box. To work with all 8 color tones, turn on the 3D effects by clicking on any of the other 6 boxes.

To recolor the drawing area:

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a background color to select the color you want to change.

Click on a foreground color to select the new color.

Click on a brush style.

Click on a 3D Perspective mode.

Begin recoloring by clicking on a starting point.

Release button when done.

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35. SPRAY PAINT
The Spray Paint is a single-color tool and does not use the patterns or 3D drawing effects.

To draw with the Spray Paint:

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a foreground color.

Click on any one of the last 5 brush styles. Click on a starting point. Release button when done.

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36. DRAW TEXT
To enter text:
Click on the icon to highlight box the use the keyboard to enter text on the drawing area.

Press Enter to go down one line or click on a new starting point. Use the Backspace key to erase characters. Click on a foreground color to change color.

To exit, click on another drawing tool or press Esc.

Notes
1. The current font is used when entering text.

To change fonts, click on the File menu, then the Load Font.

2. While entering text, the computer will beep when the text buffer is full.

3. When the Screen Keyboard is on, all drawing tools and functions ,except for repositioning the text cursor, are hidden. Remember to click on the Special Keyboard's Esc key to exit entering text.

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37. ZOOM EDITOR
The Zoom Editor magnifies part of the picture so you can draw in more detail.

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on the top left corner of the area you want to work on.

-------------------------------------------------- 38. ZOOM EDITOR The Zoom Editor tools works on the area of the picture displayed in the Zoom Editor's workspace. Except for the Crayon tool, its color functions and drawing tools work the same way as the corresponding tools in the main editor.

To use the Crayon tool, click the left button to draw with the foreground color, or the right button to draw with the background color.

You can scroll through the main picture by clicking on the arrow icons.

The Undo restore only the last Zoom activity. If you want to undo all changes made in the Zoom Editor including those in the scrolled area, use the Undo tool of the main editor.

Click on a Pixel Size box to change the pixel's zoom resolution.

Change colors the same way you do in the main editor, including the use of special keyboard keys discussed below.

To exit, click on the OK icon.

NOTE A convenient way to select colors is by pointing the cursor on a pixel in the drawing area, then pressing the SPACE BAR or F10 key. The color of the pixel will then be the current foreground color if the SPACE BAR is pressed, or the current background color if F10 is pressed.

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39. CLEAR PICTURE
Click here to clear the drawing cel.

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40. OOPS OR UNDO
Click here to undo your last drawing action. As some drawing actions can not be undone, experiment with the Undo to get a good idea of what can be undone.

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41. SCROLL UP
To scroll up the picture:

Click on the icon, then release to scroll up one line or hold to scroll up continuously.

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42. SCROLL DOWN
To scroll down the picture:

Click on the icon, then release to scroll down one line or hold to scroll down continuously.

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43. SCROLL RIGHT
To scroll the picture to the right:

Click on the icon, then release to scroll right one line or hold to scroll right continuously.

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44. SCROLL LEFT
To scroll the picture to the left:

Click on the icon, then release to scroll left one line or hold to scroll left continuously.

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45. FLIP VERTICAL
Click on the icon to turn the picture upside down.

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46. FLIP HORIZONTAL
Click on the icon to flip the picture horizontally.

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47. PICTURE CELS
This is an animation cel. The editor can contain anywhere from 1 to 12 cels.

When there are more than 1 cel, the one with the red borders is called the drawing cel. Most drawing activities including Clipboard functions are done only in the drawing cel.

Click on another cel to change the drawing cel.

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48. BRIGHTENER TOOL
The Brightener tool changes the colors in the picture to lower color tones. It has no effect on the brightest tone of a color.

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a brush style.

Start drawing by clicking on a starting point and release button when done.

NOTE Colors are brightened only to the next lower tone while the mouse button is held down. Repeat the process for brighter tones.

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49. DARKENER TOOL
The Darkener tool changes the colors in the picture to higher color tones. It has no effect on the darkest color tone.

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a brush style.

Start drawing by clicking on a starting point and release button when done.

NOTE Colors are darkened only to the next color tone while the mouse button is held down. Repeat the process for darker tones.

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50. SMUDGE TOOL
The Smudge tool smooths out the colors in the picture to create a blurry effect. To use the tool: Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a brush style.

Start drawing by clicking on a starting point and release button when done.

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51. 3D PERSPECTIVE MODES
The 3D Perspective Modes are used in drawing the 12 ready-made patterns and the radiant pattern with 3-dimensional effects. The special effects is achieved by drawing with 2 or more color tones at once to create a 3D likeness.

Click on one of the 7 boxes to select the light perspective direction. As the first box is equivalent to no-perspective mode, selecting it is the same as turning off the 3D effects.

The 3D special effects is used by the Brush, Rainbow, Filled Rectangle, Filled Oval and the Flood Fill tools.

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52. 3D PERSPECTIVE COLOR
The 3D Color mode settings are used in drawing patterns with 3-dimensional effects. It sets perspective drawing on the foreground color by painting red the inner box, or the background color by painting the larger box only, or both colors by painting both color boxes.

Click inside the box to toggle to one of the 3 modes.

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53. CURRENT COLOR TONES
This displays the current drawing color tones. The inside color box is the foreground color while the outside color rectangle is the background color.

Click on the box to reverse the color assignments.

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54. CURRENT COLOR SHADES
Click here to change the current drawing color tone. The color tone marked with red lines are the current drawing colors. Click on a color on the larger box on the right to change the current foreground color tone, click on a color on the smaller box to change the current background color tone.

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55. COLOR PALETTE
Click here to select the current drawing colors from the entire palette of 240 colors. Click on a color box with the left button to select a new foreground color, or with the right button to select a new background color.

A handy way to select a color here is by grabbing the color from the drawing area: point the mouse cursor at a pixel with the color you want to grab, then click either the left button or right button.

A color number is assigned to each color for easy reference.

See also the Color and Color Tools help under

General Topics

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56. ADJUST RGB PALETTE
The Adjust RGB tool assigns new colors to the picture area by changing the red/green/blue primary color values through the Adjust RGB utility.

Help on the Adjust RGB utility is in the General Topics area under Color and Color Tools.

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57. BRUSH TOOL
The Brush tool works the same way as the Crayon except that it uses the patterns and the 3D drawing effects.

To draw with the Brush:

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on a foreground color.

Click on a brush style.

Click on a pattern.

Click on the 3D Color mode to select the color mode.

Click on a 3D Perspective mode.

Begin drawing by clicking on a starting point.

Release button when done.

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58. CELS ANIMATOR
Please refer to the help on the Cels Menu for help information on the Cels Animator.

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59. BOOK EDITOR
The Book Editor is Storymaker+'s module for writing storybooks by using the picture, melody and text files created in the other editor modules of the program.

A story is put together in the Book Editor one page at a time. Storybooks can have anywhere from 1 to 99 screen pages with up to 100 shapes per page. A page of a story is divided into a picture animation area and a caption area. The scenery and shape pictures or objects are placed in the picture area while the words of the story are entered in the caption. Sceneries and objects can also be modified when displayed or animated by using special editing tools such as the Recolor Picture and Flip Picture tools.

You can make your story alive by adding animation scripts to its pictures and words. Music, speech or digital sound effects provide the sound in an animation script. Motion is added to the animation script by moving an object around the screen or by changing its colors continuously. There is also an import picture feature so that the object providing the animation does not have to be the same object that owns the animation script. The various special animation and attribute tools offer a challenge for creative and logical thinking for the designer of a storybook.

The sample storybook "Kids, Kids, Kids" that comes with the program demonstrates some examples of how to use the editing tools. You can also use the storybook to get familiar with the Book Editor by loading it in the editor and examining the animation scripts of the various characters and objects in the story. Editing changes are not saved to the file so feel free to experiment with the editor's tools.

WORKSPACE
The Book Editor's workspace is divided into the File Menu, Page Menu, Scripts Menu and the Tool Box containing the common editing tools. Refer to the help file of each section for information on how to use the Book Editor.

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60. FILE MENU
The File menu contains the main functions of the Book Editor: load and save storybook, start a new book, change picture libraries, a special function that will export the screen contents into a PCX file, load the main help and exit from the editor.

Following are the descriptions of each main function.

Load Story
Clears the current storybook and loads a storybook from the disk.

Save Story
Saves the current page of the storybook to the disk.

If the storybook you are working on has more than 1 page, the Book Editor will save automatically changes made in the current page only if you are moving to another page of the book. As it does not do any file saving while you are in the same page, use the Save Story function from time to time to save the current page in order to avoid loss of data in case of unexpected interruptions.

You can also turn off and on the automatic save feature through the Book Setup of the tool box. The off feature is handy if you do not want to accidentally save any temporary changes in a page. It is however in effect only during the current editing session.

If you just started a new book, you will be asked to enter its filename. Make sure also to give the book a title before saving it since untitled books are listed as Untitled when selecting files for loading.

Clear Book
Clears the current storybook to start a new one. Be sure to save changes before clearing your story. Picture Library

Select a new picture library to use in loading pictures to the storybook. A storybook can contain pictures from up to 40 different libraries, including libraries referenced in import pictures and script libraries .

NOTE When the library list is full, Storymaker+ will attempt to release unused libraries by checking each page of the storybook for all referenced libraries.

Export Screen Page
This saves the current page as a PCX file. Useful if you want to capture the page for editing or printing with another graphics editor.

Exported pages are saved in the PCX directory of Storymaker+.

Setup
This opens the Setup utility.

Quit
This closes the Book Editor. Be sure to save first any changes you have made in your storybook.

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61. PAGE MENU
The Page Menu handles the storybook page functions like going to other pages of the book; clearing or deleting the current page of the story; adding, inserting or deleting pages; copying or swapping page contents.

Following are the descriptions of each function.

Next Page
Leave the current page to go to the next page of your story. If the automatic save feature is on, this will also save all changes made in the current page.

Previous Page
Leave the current page to go to the previous page of the book. Note that this may also automatically save all changes made in the current page.

Jump Page
Lets you select the page to go to. Note that this may also automatically save all changes made in the current page.

Add Page
Adds an empty page to your book. Note that this may also automatically save all changes made in the current page.

NOTE You can not add a page unless you are at the very last page. Use the Insert Page function to do this.

Insert Page
Inserts an empty page to your book. Note that this may also automatically save all changes made in the current page.

The new page will be inserted before the current page.

Clear Page
Clears the current page of all pictures and caption. Make sure this is what you want to do as all the contents of the current page will be lost.

Copy Page
Copies into the current page all the contents of another page of the storybook. Make sure this is what you want to do as all the contents of the current page will be lost once replaced by the contents of the copied page.

Delete Page
Clears and deletes the current page. Make sure this is what you want to do as all the contents of the current page will be lost.

Move Page
Moves the current page into another part of the storybook. The current page will be placed before the page number that you specify.

Swap Pages
Swap the contents of the current page with the contents of another page of the storybook.

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62. SCRIPT MENU
The Script Utility of the Book Editor provides easy-to-use tools for adding animations in a storybook by making use of animation scripts from script library files. An animation script in a script library contains all the animation and sound effects of an object as saved in the Script Editor. Refer to the Script Editor on how to save animation scripts.

There are two ways to use an animation script from a script library.

The first method is to place the script'object - with its animation script - on the screen. A script loaded this way becomes just like another object that is loaded from a picture library. The only difference is that its animation script is already done, and as it is now a regular object, you can do normal editing of its script content in the Script Editor.

The second method is to attach a script to an object on the screen. This method is similar in a way to an imported picture being used to do the animation for an object on the screen. The big difference though is that up to 10 animation scripts - the equivalent of 10 imported pictures - can be attached to an object. The Script Utility also provides several ways on how to play animation scripts attached to an object. Following are the descriptions of the Script Menu's functions.

Load Script
This is the first method of using scripts. Select a script from the library then place the object on the screen. The object when first loaded assumes the same starting position as when it was saved as a script. Once the object is placed on the screen, treat it the same as any other object on the screen, which is exactly what it is now.

Attach Scripts
This is the second method of using scripts. You need to select the object on the screen which will carry the scripts. This will open the Group Script Editor unless the object has a regular animation script. If this is the case and if you intend to replace it, then you need to delete first the animation in the Script Editor before you can attach scripts.

Refer to the Group Script Editor's Help function for instructions on how to use its tools.

Select Library
This selects the default script library for loading scripts.

Create Library
This is for creating new script libraries. Make sure to supply at the time you are adding a library a filename that best describes what type of scripts it will contain, as it may cause problems if you try to rename the file later.

IMPORTANT
Do not rename - or delete - a library already in use for attaching scripts. Just like a picture library filename, the script library's filename is used as a reference in attached scripts and scripts libraries' not found when reading the storybook file will cause missing script errors.

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63. SCRIPT GROUP EDITOR
The Script Group Editor is another utility of the Book Editor that offers challenges in the creative use of Storymaker+ animation tools.

An object's animation script edited through the Script Group Editor is similar to the animation script of an object edited through the regular Script Editor using an imported picture. The Script Group Editor however can use up to 10 imported pictures by making use of the animation scripts saved in script library files. It also has the capability to temporarily modify the option settings in the original animation script.

*** EDITOR FUNCTIONS ***

Following are the descriptions of the Script Group functions.

ADD
Click on this box to add a new script to the list.

Up to 10 scripts can be added.

MODE
Click on this box to change the editing mode of the script list on the screen to option settings or select descriptions.

MOVE
Click on this box to change the order of the scripts as they appear in the list. The order is used for displaying the select descriptions during animations or in playing the scripts in sequential order.

DEL
Click on this box to delete a script from the list.

LIBRARY
Click on this box to select the current script library for loading animation scripts. You may load animation scripts from more than 1 library files.

SELECT
Click here to select the method to use in the playing of group scripts animations. The 4 methods are:

1) by random selection of one script.

2) by playing in order one script each time the main object is clicked on.

3) by waiting for the user to select a script ( multiple-choice).

4) by having the user enter the exact name or description of a script in the list (fill-in-the-blanks).

In method 3 or 4, you need to enter a short message telling the user what to do. In method 3 where you want the user to select a script, you need to enter each description of the scripts in the list for the user to select from. In method 4 where you want the user to type in a description, you need to enter a description for each script in the list which will be used to match against the user's entry.

EXIT
Click here when you are done.

*** SCRIPT OPTIONS ***

The option settings of an object in a script library file can be changed temporarily in a group script animation.

Following are the options available in the order that the option icons are displayed. Most of the options are also described in the regular Script Editor and work the same way. Note also that some options have priority over other options - for example, setting the New Cel option has no effect if the Drop Object is already set. To set or reset options, click on the icon boxes - a highlighted icon sets the option.

Hide Picture
Set the 1stst option if you want the main object - the object carrying the script picture - to be hidden while the script object is being animated.

Drop Object
Set the 2ndnd option if you want to remove the main object from the screen after the animation.

Animation Boundary
Set the 3rdrd option if you want the animation to take place on the entire screen including the caption box area.

Linked Animation Option
Set the 4thth option if you want to link the animation of an object with the animation of the object immediately following it. Linking of an animation script causes the second object's animation script to play as soon as the first object's animation is completed. You can use the option to link some or all of the script pictures by setting the option on. The Hide Script option also goes well with the Link Script option. Please note that linking has no effect if the following object has no animation script. Linking to another object in the same group is also disabled if the linking object has a Stay option.

New Location Option
Set the 5thth option if you want an object to start its animation in a location other than its default starting position. Position the object in its new starting position. Note This option is different from its Script Editor's counterpart.

New Cel
Set the 6thth option if you want to replace the main object's original cel with another cel after playing the animation script. Select the new cel in the Cel Selector.

Background Number
Set the 7thth option to assign a new background number. An animating object's background number is used to determine whether it will move behind or in front of other objects on the screen while playing its animation script.

Stay Option
Set the 8thth option if you want the script object to remain on the screen after playing its animation. It will not retain its animation script however so clicking on it later will have no effect.

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64. TOOL BOX OVERVIEW
All of the Book Editors editing tools, with the exception of those that are available in the Page and Script menus, are displayed in the Tool Box at the bottom of this screen.

Getting Help On Individual Tools
To get help on specific items in the Tool Box, click on the ? Help icon with the right button. This will change the cursor to the ? cursor. Next point and click the ? cursor on a drawing tool icon or item box such as the flip picture to load its help file.

Tool Names
The tools in the order they are displayed in the first row of the tool box are: Load Picture, Delete Picture, Recolor Picture, Flip Picture, Move Picture, Edit Script, Background Number, Edit Script, and Object Locator. The tools in the second row are: Load Scenery, Edit Caption, Edit Text Script, Animation Sequence, Display Effects, Book Setup, Play Scripts and Help.

Object Editing Tools
The five tools in lighter gray boxes on the first row - Recolor Picture, Flip Picture, Move Picture, Background Number, and Edit Scripts - are object editing tools since they are used to change the attributes of an object on the screen. For ease of editing, the tools also function in a special way in that you need to highlight first a tool's icon box before you can use it to edit an object. Once the box is highlighted, you can then select an object on the screen to edit by clicking on the object. For example, to relocate an object on the screen, highlight first the Move Picture icon, then click on the object you want to move.

A tool that is highlighted remains an active tool, so you do not need to click on it before selecting another object to edit. Only one of the 5 special tools can be active at a time.

The remaining tools are opened as you click on their icon boxes.

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65. PICTURE AREA
This is the area where pictures of the storybook are displayed.

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66. STATUS BOX
The status box normally displays the book's title, the current page number and total pages of the storybook. Click on the status box area to display temporarily the filename of the storybook.

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67. READER'S KEYBOARD COMMANDS
F1      Help
PgDn      Go to next page
PgUp      Go to previous page
Alt P      Go to another page
Alt R      Restart the page
Alt C      Read the caption
End      Close the book
Esc      Stop any animation

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68. LOAD PICTURE
Click on the Load Picture icon to load a picture from the current picture library: Drag the picture with the mouse to position it on the screen.

Click the left button to place the picture or to cancel, click the right button or press the ESC key.

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69. FLIP PICTURE
To flip the background or a picture horizontally:

Click on the Flip Picture icon to highlight box. Click on the picture you want to flip horizontally.

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70. RECOLOR PICTURE
Click on the Recolor Picture to open the Recolor Picture utility.

Help on the Recolor Picture utility is in the General Topics area under Color and Color Tools.

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71. MOVE PICTURE
To move a picture to a new location:

Click on the Move Picture icon.

Click on the picture and drag the mouse to place the picture in its new location.

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72. DELETE PICTURE
To delete a picture:

Click on the Delete Picture icon.

Click on the picture.

NOTE Make sure to click on the right picture as deleting also clears its animation script.

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73. SCRIPT EDITOR
Click here to open the Script Editor where you can add the animation and sound effects for objects on the screen or even the scenery background.

To add or edit an animation script:

Click on the icon to highlight box.

Click on the background picture or an object on the screen. The Script Editor has its own help file for its editing tools.

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74. BACKGROUND PICTURE
Click on the Background Picture icon to load a new scenery picture from the picture library. Replacing the scenery picture also clears any old animation script.

NOTES
1. The scenery picture can be recolored, flipped horizontally, and animated by changing its color continuously.

2. A scenery picture is normally used as a backdrop for objects in a storybooks and animating it by moving it around the screen is not allowed as a standard editing function. However, if you do have a need to animate it this way, create first a dummy animation script for the scenery picture, then save its animation script in a script file library. Loading the script file later in effect converts the scenery picture into a standard object picture that you can now animate around the screen.

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75. CAPTION EDITOR
Click here to enter or edit the story's caption.

NOTE When editing a caption that has animation scripts, make sure the contents of the Text Script Editor's list still matches those in the caption box.

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76. ANIMATE WORD
Click here to open the Text Script Editor and create an animation script for a word or phrase in the caption.

While in the Text Script Editor

1. Click on the ADD box to add a word or phrase.

Next, enter the word you want to add. Create the animation script in the Script Editor.

2. Click on the EDIT box to edit the animation script of any highlighted word from the list. Edit the animation script in the Script Editor.

3. Click on the CLEAR box to delete any highlighted word. Deleting the word also clears its animation so make sure this is what you want to do.

4. Click on the EXIT box when done.

NOTE A word or phrase included in the list must lie completely in the same line in the caption box · the Book Reader will not find scripts for words split into two lines.

Examine also the list for words no longer in the caption box. Delete words that are no longer used because their scripts unnecessarily take up file space.

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77. ANIMATION SEQUENCE
The Book Reader reads the animation scripts of the objects in the same order the objects were placed by the Book Editor.

Click on the icon to change the order of animation of two objects:

Click on the 1stst object. This is the picture whose order you want to change.

Click next on the 2ndnd object.

The 1stst object now comes before the 2ndnd object so that if both objects have animation scripts, the 1stst object's script will play first.

To do a quick check on the order of animation in a page of the story, select Elevator in the Display Effects, then preview the page to see which objects get displayed first.

-------------------------------------------------- 78. DISPLAY EFFECTS
Click on the icon to select how the Book Reader will display the page when reading the storybook. Normal Display everything at once.

Blow Up Shapes      Expand shapes.
Blow Up Page      Expand page.
Color Blind      Blend colors.
Color Me      Gradually display the page.
Curtain      Top to bottom.
Elevator      Descending shapes.
Paint Shapes      Spray paint the shapes.
Paint Page      Spray paint the page.
Random      Pick randomly the effects.

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79. BOOK SETUP
Click on the Book Setup to enter optional information that applies to the entire book.

Automatic Save Click here to turn off or on the automatic save feature.

When the feature is on, changes made in the current page of the storybook will be saved automatically when you move to another page of the story. See the help on the Page menu to find out which page functions use the auto save.

When the feature is off, you will be asked first if you want to save any editing changes before moving to another page of the story. Note that the changes will be discarded if you answer no.

NOTE The off setting is available only during the current editing session of the Book Editor. Closing the editor always turns the feature back to on.

Book Title Enter in the Input Dialog the title of the storybook. Use a title that best describes your story. An untitled storybook is listed as Untitled when selecting book files.

Intro Pages A storybook can be broken down into 2 parts: a preface or introductory part and the part containing the main story. In the preface part you can place information like writing credits, or if you are widely distributing the book, ordering information. Of course, you can also make the preface part as entertaining as you like it to be.

The two parts are created as one book in the Book Editor. The preface part however must be at the end of the book. The run-time module will automatically separate the pages that you specify as intro pages. This will show up in the Owl Reader page of the run-time module as an INTRO button that users can click on.

Printer Files If you are going to widely distribute your storybooks, you may want to add supporting text files like ordering information that users can either output to the screen or standard printer device.

Storymaker+'s run-time module includes this capability in the INFO button of the book cover.

Please note that the supporting files are not compiled with the EXE book file but are separate files that you must include in your storybook distribution package.

Enter in the Input Dialog box the complete name of the files. If you are entering more than 1 file, be sure to separate the file names with blank spaces. Make sure to test viewing or printing the files to check for problems.

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80. OBJECT LOCATOR
Click here to turn on or off the option to draw the box enclosing an object that the cursor is pointing at on the animation screen. This can be very handy in finding the right object in overlapping objects.

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81. BACKGROUND NUMBER
Click on the icon to assign an object's background number.

An object's background number determines whether it is displayed behind or in front of other screen objects that are either stationary or moving.

If the object has an animation script its background number is also used to determine whether it will move behind or in front of other objects on the screen while playing its animation script.

Enter a value from 0 to 200. Think of the background number this way: the higher the number is, the "farther" the object is. So if two objects have different background numbers, the one with the higher number will be drawn behind the other object. If two objects have the same display value, the one appearing first in the objects' order of animation sequence will be drawn behind, unless it is playing its animation script in which case it is always drawn in front of all objects carrying the same number.

Assign numbers that will allow you to make easy adjustments later as you add more objects in the page.

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82. SCRIPT EDITOR
The Script Editor is where you can animate an object by adding sound effects and by moving it around the screen or by changing its colors. The various animation tools should give anyone the challenge to use the tools creatively in order to achieve different animation effects.

The dialog box is divided into 3 main sections for ease of use.

The upper section displays the Sound Effects options.

The middle section which is the largest section contains the tools to animate an object itself and can be divided into 5 subsections:

Import Picture
Before Animation Options
Animation Method
End of Animation Options
Animation Counters

The bottom section (excluding the Animation Counters) are the Miscellaneous Functions such as saving of animation scripts.
SPECIAL NOTE
The Loops counter in the Counter section can be set in a special way that may be overlooked and so will be noted now. If you want an object to continue its animation until the sound effects stops (for example, a melody) set the counter all the way to the right for the maximum repeat count.

Following are the descriptions of the functions and options.

*** SOUND EFFECTS OPTIONS ***
If you want to add sound effects to your animation select one from the 5 available sound effects described below.

Melody
Click on the Piano icon to select a melody file. Click on the Meter icon located at the top right of the Piano icon to change the tempo or octave of the melody. Click on the Instrument icon below the Meter icon if you want to select another musical instrument for the melody.

You can create your own melodies in the Melody Maker module of Storymaker+. Try to be inventive in your creations by composing not just tuneful sounds but also sound effects to go with the animations.

Digital Sound
Click on the Barking Dog icon to select a VOC sound file as sound effects. A few sample files is distributed with Storymaker+.

You can also record your own files with a Sound Blaster card and a microphone. Copy the files into the Storymaker+ directory SOUNDS. Check though the size of the sound files that you are adding to your storybooks as even short-duration sounds use up a lot of storage space and can make your EXE storybooks excessively large.

VOC files are normally saved with the Sound Blaster file format including the VOC header. Storymaker+ uses 8000 hertz as the sampling rate for files not containing a VOC header.

Say Message
Click on the Speaker icon if you want the computer to say a short message as sound effects. Enter the message in the Input Dialog box.

Read File
Click on the Reader icon if you want the computer to read a text file as sound effects. The text is also displayed at the caption box while being read. Use the Text Editor to create the text files. If you want to use files larger than the Text Editor will allow, use a regular text editor to enter the text then copy the file into Storymaker+ TEXT directory.

If you want to select a different font for the text, click on the Font icon at the right side of the Reader icon. During animation, press the up and down arrow keys to scroll through the file. For faster scrolling, turn off the sound by pressing the F10 key. Press F10 again to turn on the sound.

A special use of the Read File was added so that you can choose to display the text on the animation screen instead in the caption box. The computer however will not read the text, making this option actually without sound effects. The text displayed should also fit on the animation screen - excess text will not be displayed. The feature was added as a means of displaying text on the screen as text data and not as picture data which can make your storybook file large especially if you intend to use a lot of text, as in the Intro part of your book.

To select the option, click on the SCREEN icon at the right side of the Reader icon.

FM Music
Click on the Radio icon to select a CMF music file as sound effects. The Sound Blaster CMF driver SBFMDRV.COM needs to be in memory to play CMF music files.

If you have CMF files you want to add to Storymaker+, copy the files into its directory FMMUSIC.

*** IMPORT PICTURE ***
Although the animation script is attached to an object on the screen, it does not have to be the object that will be animated. The animation can be played by another object through the Import Picture option.

To use the import option, click on the Floppy Disk icon to select a picture from the library. A resized image of the imported picture will be displayed inside the miniature box. To flip the imported picture horizontally, click on the Flipped Bird icon. To change the picture's colors, click on the Recolored Bird icon which will open the Recolor Picture utility - refer to the Graphics Editor module on how to use the utility. The picture with its new colors will be displayed in the miniature box next time the Script Editor is opened.

Following are options available to the imported picture in the order that the icons are displayed. To set or reset options, click on the icon boxes - a highlighted icon sets the option.

Hide Picture
Set the 1stst option if you want the object on the screen carrying the imported picture to be hidden while the imported object is being animated.

Stay Import Option
Set the 2ndnd option if you want the imported picture to remain on the screen after its animation is played. It will not retain its animation script however so clicking on it will have no effect.

Background Number
Click on the 3rdrd option icon to assign the imported picture's background number. An animating object's background number is used to determine whether it will move behind or in front of other objects on the screen while playing its animation script.

BEFORE ANIMATION OPTIONS
Following are the descriptions of the Before Animations Options in the order that the icons are displayed. To set or reset options, click on the icon boxes - a highlighted icon sets the option.

Animation Boundary Option
Set the 1stst option if you want the animation to take place on the entire screen including the caption box area.

Animation Window Option
Set the 2ndnd option if you want the animation object to be visible only inside a rectangular area. For example, to animate a walking person seen through a room's window, specify a box enclosing the window as the area of animation so that the person will not be drawn outside the window's frame. To size the window area, click on a starting point and drag the box cursor to the bottom-right corner.

Backdrop Motion Option
Set the 3rdrd option if you want a moving object to be part of the background picture. If the option is on, any sound effects and end of animation options attached to the object's animation script will be ignored. NOTE The option can not be set if the object has no animation.

NOTE Although there is no set limit to the number of objects in backdrop motion, the following things should be considered when adding the option to an object:

1. All objects in backdrop motion remain in computer memory and so take up run-time memory space the entire time the book's page is being read. Too many objects may cause the program to terminate unexpectedly due to insufficient memory especially if another object without the option has its own memory-intensive animation to run, for example its own run-time image size and the size of any sound file especially a VOC file. To see how much run-time memory an object is taking up when using the option, check its run-time size through the Preview Graphics utility.

2. The more objects there are in a book page using the option, the slower the backdrop animations will be especially in slower computers. This is minor though and will not cause abnormal termination of the program.

Hide Script Option
Set the 4thth option if you do not want an object to play its animation script when clicked on. The animation script will play only if it is linked to the object before it (refer to the Linked Animation option) or if the book is being read with the computer's help.

*** ANIMATION METHODS ***
An object may be animated either by continuously moving it around the screen or by continuously changing its colors.

Picture Animator This animates an object by moving it around the screen.

If the animation is for a Text Script word or phrase, select an object from the screen or import a picture from the library.

At the Animator dialog:

Click on the arrow icons to move the object automatically, or on the Stay icon to keep the object in the same place.

Click on the speed meter to adjust the animation speed.

Click on the Cel icon to select another picture cel.

Click on the Move icon to move the object yourself.

Click on the Flip icon to move and turn the object around.

The counter shows the number of steps remaining.

Color Animators
The Color Animators animates an object by changing its colors continuously. If the animation is for a Text Script word, you need to select an object on the screen or import one from the current picture library. There are two ways to animate an object's colors. One is by directly assigning new colors to the object through the Recolor Picture utility. The other is by changing its color values in the RGB range (red, green and blue basic colors) through the Adjust RGB utility.

Since both utilities are shared by the Scenery Editor, Shape Editor and Book Editor, instructions on how to animate an object's colors are placed under the General Topics help files: select its Colors and Color Tools area, then read the section COLOR ANIMATIONS.

*** END ANIMATION OPTIONS ***
Following are the descriptions of the End Animation Options in the order that the icons are displayed. To set or reset options, click on the icon boxes - a highlighted icon sets the option.

Linked Animation Option
Set the 1stst option if you want to link the animation of an object with the animation of the object immediately following it. Linking of an animation script causes the second object's animation script to play as soon as the first object's animation is completed. You can use the option to link several objects by setting it on all of them except the last one. The Hide Script option also goes well with the Link Script option. Please note that linking has no effect if the following object has no animation script.

Drop Object Set the 2ndnd option if you want to remove the object from the screen after playing its animation script. Drop Script Option

Set the 3rdrd option if you want an object to drop its animation script after playing it. The object remains on the screen, but clicking on it will have no effect.

New Location Option
Set the 4thth option if you want an object to remain in its final position after playing its animation script. Clicking on the object later will still run its animation script starting at its new location unless the object has a Drop Script option.

New Cel
Click on the 5thth option if you want to replace the original picture cel with another cel after playing the animation script. Select the new cel in the Cel Selector dialog.

*** ANIMATION COUNTERS ***
The Animation Counters are for setting animation transition pause and animation loop counts. The count is shown as green blocks inside the meter box.

Transition Pause The Transition Pause counter in an animation sets how long an object's cel remains on the screen before the next cel is shown.

Click on the left box of the meter for less pause time. Click on the right box for more pause time.

Animation Loops
The Animation Loops counter sets how many times an animation cycle will play. For example, an object with only 3 animation cels may move around the screen for some time through repeated display of the 3 cels.

Click on the left box of the meter for less repeats. Click on the right box for more repeats.

NOTE If your animation script has sound effects and you want an object to continue moving around the screen until the sound stops - for example, a melody - click on the right box until the meter counter is set all the way to the right for the maximum repeat count.

*** MISCELLANEOUS FUNCTIONS ***
Save Animation Script This saves the object's animation script to the current script library. The saved script can be loaded later from the Script Menu.

Refer to the Script Menu's help for information on how to load saved scripts as regular animation scripts or on how to attach scripts to an object.

Clear Script
Click on the trash can icon to clear the sound or animation scripts of an object. Make sure that this is what you want to do as any erased script can not be recovered.

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83. TEXT EDITOR
Editing Keys
Move the cursor
Ins      Insert or type over
Home      Go to the start of line
End      Go to the end of line
Enter      Move the text from the cursor to the next line
Del      Delete character under the cursor
Backspace Delete character before the cursor

Click on the Caption Box icon to select a border style that will go with your captions. You can select from one of the several ready-made borders or boxes that come with the program or you can create your own. To create your own, draw the borders in the Scenery Editor and then choose the From Scenery Library to use it here. Do not draw borders larger than what is loadable here as the excess picture data will take up space only and make your files unnecessarily larger.

Click on the Font icon to change font. Font sizes vary and the larger the font size, the less text you can enter in the caption.

Click on the Reader icon to test how the caption will be read by the text-to-speech player. It is useful to do this as you may have to add in the phoneme dictionary words that the computer is mispronouncing.

Sometimes mispronounced words may also be caused by misspellings.

Reading will start from the line where the cursor is. Press the Esc ke