Introduction to the features of "text2graphic pro"
Version 1.5     06/09/1999
© three-2-one interaktive Medien GmbH

Note: You can get a short help on many interface elements, if you activate balloon help in the "Help" menu.


Startup:

After text2graphic was launched, it opens the document file "Standard" if it is present in the application folder.
Simply overwrite the "Standard" document to set up your favorite style formats that should be used in most cases.

If there is no such file, the dialog "choose template" appears - the chosen template is used for all five formats.

Same procedure works if you want to make a new document using "NewÉ" in the "File" menu.
Use "Open", "Save" and "Save asÉ" as usual.


The document window:

There are 3 main regions in this window: The preview at the top, the list of text lines that should be rendered
and the input field at the bottom. Between the preview and the list is a divider that can be dragged to adjust
sizes of the two areas.


Preview: Displays a text using the current active format. Switch formats in the "Properties" window (see below).
You may drag the graphic directly to other graphic applications or to the desktop.
You can change the background color on which the graphic is displayed in "Preferences" dialog (in the menu
choose "Edit"-"PreferencesÉ")

Functions in the menu "Preview":
Zoom in with Cmd+"+" to examine details - zoom out again with Cmd+"-". Press Cmd+"1" to display the graphic
at original size (100%).
"Export imageÉ" lets you save the displayed preview in one of several graphic formats.
"Copy to clipboard" yes, you may already guessed it: copies the preview to the clipboard for pasting it in another
graphic application.

A red square in the upper left corner indicates that the displayed graphic is not up-to-date and has to be updated to
reflect the current selected text and format. It makes sense to "block" the redraw of the preview with the option
"Autoupdate Preview" (at the bottom of the window) set to off to do a lot of text work or change many format
values at once, because you don't have to wait for an update everytime you change something.


Textlist: Every line will be rendered as one graphic file. Lines are numbered to provide you a reference (e.g.
if you just want to render a few lines you may say "render from line 3 to 6" in the render dialog).

To the right there is the "formats grid": switch formats on or off by clicking on them. "All" is just a short-cut
for activating all formats at once. If a text line is rendered, it will be rendered in all formats that are
switched "on" (bullet is visible). By holding the option key while clicking it is possible to switch this
format on or off for every text line Ð the whole column at once.

To re-order or delete lines use "Cut", "Copy", "Paste" and "Clear" from the "Edit" menu (well, better use the
keyboard shortcuts). Another method to delete a line is to press the "delete" button.

Import existing text with the command "Import TextÉ" in the "File" menu. After you have chosen a file the
import dialog appears which lets you perform the following actions on the text:
- First you may add the text to the list or replace the list
- For text with numbers in front (e.g. video timecode) it is possible to delete characters at the beginning of every line
- "convert tabs to special line wraps" does the following: In text2graphic, a backslash ("\") is used to separate lines
in a multiline text. If you prepared a text with "tabs" as delimiter between "lines", they can automatically be
converted to "\".
It is also possible to drop the text file onto the list to import it.
"Export textÉ" in the "File" menu lets you save just the text to harddisk.

If you have got many text lines, the "FindÉ" function ("Edit" menu) may help you to find the first occurence of
a phrase. Use "Find again" to go to the next line containing the search phrase.

Print the whole list with the "PrintÉ" function ("File" menu).


Input field: Is used to add text to the list or to try a text with a specific format.
In front of this field there is a triangle that switches the field from single- to multi-line editing. Use single-line
editing for single words, headlines etc. and multi-line for copy-text. (For computer nerds: in multi-line
all carriage returns are automatically converted to our special delimiter "\", in single-line mode hit enter
for adding the text to the list)
Click the "add" button to append the text to the bottom of the list.
The "preview" button just shows you the typed text in the current selected format - it is not saved or
appended to the list!
If you doubleclick an item in the list, its text appears in the input field - edit it and click "change" to put into
the list, again.


The properties window:

There are the two tabs "style" for changing colors, font, shadows etc. Ð and "composition" for positioning of
the text on the background etc.
Five more tabs, "1" thru "5" let you switch between the formats. Use format 1 e.g. for the unpressed states of
buttons you want to create, format 2 for the rollover states, format 3 for the highlites and "4" for the  dimmed
states.

"Style": Most of the fields are known from various graphic applications. Play around with the values and don't
forget the following possibilities: normally, shadow opacity at "100" means totally opaque, but if you blur a
shadow a lot, it may be interesting that it is possible to set opacity value higher than "100" (e.g. 400) to
create a huge glow effect. Second, try extreme values for the shadow blurs - just one direction blurred to create
interesting dynamic effects.

"Composition": Adjust the size of your graphics in the area "Target size" - you may use fix values as entered or
let text2graphic adjust the size to the extend of the text including effects.
"Background" can be just plain color or a picture file that is repeated to the extends of the graphic. Just click
on the square to change the color or choose a different background graphic.
"Adjust target size" fills in the size of the loaded background graphic to the "Target Size" fields - this is useful
if you want to create buttons and load the button background as graphic file.
"Positioning": Places the text block horizontally and vertically. Use the "Margin" fields to crop the graphic
(negative values) or to increase space at an edge.
"Format Name": Give your formats names which can be used for naming the rendered graphic files.
"Mask": masks the text to the background - this color may be switched to transparent in other applications

Style format handling: "Copy style format" and "Paste style format" ("Edit" menu) can be used to move
all attributes from one format to another.
Store the current template along with a name and an abstract with "Store templateÉ" ("Templates" menu)
Apply a template on the current format with "Apply templateÉ".
Delete obsolete templates with "Delete templatesÉ" (current formats remain untouched)

Notice: Templates are used to store favorite style formats for "everyday" use. (Technically they are stored in the
"templates" file - make sure to backup this one if it contains important information)



The render dialog:

Evoke it in the "File" menu or by simply pressing Cmd+"R". Here you set naming and file format parameters
and start the rendering process.

Like in standard print dialogs you are able to render "all lines" or just a few ("from"-"to").
File formats that are available are: PICT (24bit), JPEG and Quicktime export. Quicktime export does have the
disadvantage that naming and file format have to be stated for every single file.

Naming: Possible naming modes are "base name/numbers" or "text as rendered". The latter uses the beginning
of the rendered text for the first part of the filename.
Switch on "format names" to use the names you gave the formats as addition to the base name (e.g. you named a
format "dimmed" - files would be named "Mytext_dimmed.pict"). If the name of a format is empty or the
"format names" option is switched off, the format numbers will be used for filenames (e.g. "Mytext_1.pict).
Use "add format specs only if necessary" if you want text lines that use only one format be named without the
format information.

Destination: Choose the destination folder where all files should be saved. Check "overwrite without asking" if
you are sure that files at this location may be overwritten automatically.