Hi Scott,
> > If anyone has been able to bring up an object's properties dialog from the
> > message box, I would appreciate a hint.
>
> The properties dialogs get the values of "the selectedObject", so to
> get a property dialog to work on a specific object, you have to select
> it first:
> select button "some button"
> modeless "Button Properties"
This will be a definite productivity booster for me. I didn't realize
I could do this.
>
> > specific question
> > =================
> > How do we change the color of the outline of a graphic, for instance, an
> > object rectangle or circle, from the message box. I tried to change the
> >
> > set the outlinecolor
> > set the bordercolor
> > set the linecolor
> >
> > but none of these worked for me.
>
> Graphic colors map to the standard names. If you use the "Color
> Chooser" dialog, you don't have to do the mapping in your head. If
> you want to change them in a script, here's the mapping:
> line (object border) -> foregroundColor
> fill -> backgroundColor
> marker -> hiliteColor
> marker fill -> borderColor
> top -> topColor
> bottom -> bottomColor
> shadow -> shadowColor
> focus -> focusColor
>
Thanks for this, too. I found that, when working with an image, the
colors have different assignments, like the first color used is the
foregroundcolor, the second color the backgroundcolor, the third the
hilightcolor, etc. I couldn't figure out if this was determined
simply by the order colors were added or if the amount of that color
in the image had any impact. I guess this doesn't matter a lot, but
sometimes it is of use to change image colors from a handler, and knowing
what the rules are can help.
> > If anyone knows what the property names are for the graphic objects, that
> > is, object rectangles and circles, I would appreciate some help, here,
> > too.
>
> Try taking apart the "Graphic Properties" dialog (e.g. type 'topLevel
> "Graphic Properties"' into the Message Box, and use the pointer tool
> to check the scripts of the card and of the groups). The only trick
> is that most of the style-specific properties are set in the scripts
> of the groups that hide and show depending on the state of the "style"
> radio group.
>
> If you've got a SuperCard book handy, this may also be of some use as
> MetaCard uses SuperCard terminology whenever possible. Of course,
> these properties will be documented in the MetaTalk Reference as 1.3
> gets farther along...
I have been using only HyperCard books. I'll look for a SuperCard one.
Thanks for taking the time to provide this extra help.
Sincerely,
Clark P