Power Functions There are a number of options in Designer’s Studio which have not been examined thus far. This is certainly not because they are dispensable or secondary in usefulness or operation; they are simply special tools which warrant mentioning in a separate Power Functions section of their own. To get the most out of your Designer’s Studio experience, make sure that you read the following sections thoroughly. Command-K Users of ResEdit will immediately recognize this command. While editing color schemes, use this shortcut to create a new resource of any type that Kaleidoscope color schemes support (except for dialog and sound resources). This is especially important for using Designer’s Studio to create and edit K2-format color schemes which use resources not found in the standard color scheme format. Magnifying Glass Accessible from the Windows menu, or by typing command-g, the magnifying glass is a special window which allows you to, as its name suggests, view any area of your monitor at an enlarged size. Equipped with a zoomer, the magnifying glass allows you to define the magnification power so that small resources or finely detailed areas become large enough to manipulate with accuracy. The magnifying glass also has a color feedback monitor which provides instant reporting of color value, in either standard or big RGB values. These and other color reporting options are available from the Windows menu.   Note: the magnifying glass can be very useful when used in combination with the eye dropper. This tool team will allow you to accurately sample colors from any part of your desktop and incorporate them into your color schemes or icons. Sliders The sliders are an extremely powerful set of 3 color-change tools. There is a hue slider (changes the color of resources), a saturation slider (changes the intensity of the colors in a resource) and a brightness slider (lightens or darkens a resource’s colors). Each of the sliders acts upon the front most window that is active in Designer’s Studio. So, if you wish to change the color characteristics in one resource, or even in just a selected part of one resource, make sure the Resource Editor is the front most window. If you would like to change the color characteristics in all the resources in a file, make sure the Preview Window is the active window. Click apply to add the changes to your file. Click cancel to discard any changes made with the sliders.   Note: greyscale resources cannot be altered with the hue or saturation sliders since grey, by definition, has no hue or saturation. The brightness slider can still be used. Custom Palettes In the standard color palette (command-p), the top-left button provides you with 6 standard sets of color swatches, from 1 bit to 8 bit, plus the signature 8 bit Designer’s Studio palette.   However, if you have a set, or sets, of colors that you frequently work with, Designer’s Studio has a built in option to save those collections of color chips to a custom palette so that you can retrieve it with a single click. The custom palettes window (command-t) lets you add and edit your own palettes as well as remove and rename them.   To create a custom palette, click on add palette and then click once on the name "Custom" which will appear in the custom palette file window. A set of 16 color chips will appear. You can change the colors of these chips by command-shift-clicking on them and choosing a color from the color picker. You can also simply click once on a chip, which will activate the eye dropper, and choose a custom color from anywhere on the screen. Custom palettes are saved automatically and are immediately available from the top-left button on the color palette. Balloon Help Designer’s Studio is equipped with full Balloon Help, the standard Mac OS system for providing feedback on all visible aspects of running applications. To obtain instant tips on using various features of Designer’s Studio, choose Show Balloons from the Help menu. Pointing the cursor at different elements will now result in explanatory tips being displayed on your screen.   Grids All types of Resource Editor have a shared function that is often overlooked. By default, they all display their graphic objects with small white lines dividing the pixels for easy identification and editing. However, should you wish to create or edit a graphic resource in a true WYSIWYG environment, choosing Hide Grid from the Windows menu will allow you to operate in a seamless environment, as shown in the picture below.   Undos And Redos Designer’s Studio is now equipped with 40 levels of undo and redo. This means that any actions that you perform upon a resource, whether you cut, paste, draw, fill, or erase, are stored in memory so that you can sequentially undo and redo those actions if mistakes are made. Note: this does not apply to actions performed upon very large resources such as those that must be edited using the Big Editor. In those cases, undo and redo are limited to 1 level. File Tools Palette Both the undo and redo commands area available from the File Tools palette, accessible from the Windows menu or by typing command-y. This is a small tool bar which contains shortcut buttons for various functions relating to file state. From left to right, these functions are:   1. New File... 2. Open File... 3. Save or Save As... 4. Cut 5. Copy 6. Paste 7. Undo 8. Redo Preview Printing Choosing Print... from the File menu allows you to print a copy of the current contents of the Preview Window. ----- Designer's Studio 1.5 © 1997 - 1998 Akamai Design Tom Connolly and Dorian Weisel