Re: Adding New Icons

Scott Raney ((no email))
Thu, 20 Apr 1995 10:36:19 -0600 (MDT)

>
> The Metacard FAQ explained how to put an image into a button but
> instead of going through that route, I was wondering if there's a way
> to import an image into an icon and put that icon into the Icon
> Chooser. That way, if we want to create a button with that
> image we can just go to the button properties and select the icon through
> the Icon Chooser. Any suggestion is welcomed.

You can easily do this by editing one of the icons in the "my icons"
stack (double click on the button on that card of the Icon Chooser).
If you want to import an image instead of just editing one, you'll
have to get the id of the image, delete it, import the new one, and
then set the id of the new image to the id of the old one (using the
Message Box).

But note that in most cases it's more convenient to keep your images
on a spare card of your mainstack than in the "my icons" stack,
because if you use the "my icons" stack you'll have to make a copy of
it if you ever want to run your application without your Home stack.

If you want an easier interface to these imported images, you can make
up a little dialog that sets the icon property of whatever button is
selected when you click on a button displaying that icon. See the
scripts in Icon Chooser stack for details on how to build your own
icon chooser. Or you could even create a new card in the Icon Chooser
stack and put your icons there (the Icon Chooser, like all MetaCard
menus and dialog boxes, is editable).

The ease with which you can building little tools like this is one of
the greatest strengths of MetaCard. For example, rather than creating
and positioning a whole bunch of little buttons manually (as seen in
the Icon Chooser and Character Chooser stacks), write a little script
that does it all automatically. Any task that you do more than a
couple of times should probably have button that does it automatically
in the Utilities stack or in some similar stack that you build for
yourself.
Scott

> Han Nguyen
> NRaD

-- 
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* Scott Raney  303-447-3936            Remember: the better you look, *
* raney@metacard.com                   the more you'll see -- Lidia   *
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