HyperSnap-DX 5—like all modern applications—can be mouse-driven for many operations. It's got a powerful toolbar which the user can fully customize.

The toolbar replicates most menu functions, but the buttons provide quick "one-stop shopping," letting you get into the basic features of the program without having to dig open the menus and navigate through them. To see what a button does, hold the mouse over it for a moment and brief help will appear, explaining that button's functions. You can alter the appearance of the toolbar buttons by right-clicking any button when the Customize tabs are open, too.

The painting tool palette contains tools you can use to draw on your image or otherwise manually modify it. Some of the tools have a drop-down arrow that lets you select from varying properties for that tool. Click on these tools within the actual program interface to examine the possible properties offered for these tools. Just as with the main toolbar, hold the mouse over any button to see the familiar "tool tip," which will explain what that button does.

The magnifying tool on the palette below the main toolbar lets you zoom in and out of the image for a better look at details (or to see an image larger than the program's current workspace size). It has several zoom levels in addition to Auto, which will cause the image to be reduced to fit the current application workspace as best as is possible. (This may cause some distortion in the image, but this happens only within the Auto view, and the file's contents remain as they are in the 100% view.)

It's a drag.

The toolbar, painting palette, and menu can all be dragged away from their docked positions and placed where you want them to go, on any side of the program, or floating freely, if that's your choice. You can customize the toolbar, or menu so each contains only the buttons you want, and ordered in the way you prefer.

Lots 'o buttons?

If you have a lot of buttons showing on the toolbar, and then check the Options tab item Large icons, you may find your buttons are larger than the available screen space can show. Either remove some buttons using the customization tool, or go back to the smaller size buttons. Alternately, if the single-row takes up too much space, you can pull the button bar "off" of HyperSnap-DX 5's user interface by grabbing the raised area at the left edge of the bar and dragging it "away" from the menu (either up, down, or away to either side totally off the HyperSnap-DX 5 window).

Then it will become a free-floating palette which you can size like a window, allowing you to double-up the rows. You can place it anywhere you like on your screen, it will still function as before even if it doesn't "touch" the HyperSnap-DX 5 window. To replace it, simply drag it back into the previous place. The "side" bar will move out of the way as may be required. (Both the top bar and the side bar support this positioning method, by the way.)