Re: Making your own icons for buttons

lowee (starnet!apple!cpsc.ucalgary.ca!lowee)
Wed, 30 Jun 1993 14:00:14 -0700 (MDT)

> Help!
>
> I am having a bit of trouble using our my own images for button icons. What
> I would like to do is to use an image, say in pbm format, and turn that
> into an image into an icon that a button can use. I got as far as this:
>
> 1. create a button
> 2. click on the icon button
> 3. go to the "my icons" card in the icon stack
> 4. double click on one of the icons to edit it; an icon edit window
> appears
> 5. type into the message box:
> import "pbm" from file "/home/damascus/d45/mcintyre/metacard/sa.pbm"
>
> The image then appears in the icon edit window.

[further problems]

> Thanks,
>
> Susan McIntyre
> MPR Teltech Ltd,
> Burnaby, BC CANADA
>
> mcintyre@mprgate.mpr.ca

The procedure I have found to be successful is the following:

0. ignore the icon stack, and don't bother editing "my icons"
1. Create a substack to hold the icon images you want to use
2. Import the image you want into this substack, taking note of the
image id (yyyy).
3. Create your button xx.
4. Type in message box, "set icon of button xx to yyyy" (image id)

Note that MetaCard has some obscure rules for image id's. I think they
reserve everything under 1000 for their own icons and images. Also I've
had some core dumbs if I try to remove an image that some button uses as an
icon. I think this is an area which needs some clarification. Perhaps the
"icons..." dialog needs to be improved to easily allow for custom icons.
(Something I have had some difficulty with)

-Earle

University of Calgary
Computer Science

lowee@cpsc.ucalgary.ca