The Menu Editor

The AMOS Professional Menu Editor allows you to adapt and design your own menus simply and rapidly, using the mouse! All the advantages and features of AMOS Professional menus are fully explained in Chapter 6.5.

The menu system is not only extremely comprehensive, it is also very powerful. Menus can be saved onto disc as a memory bank, and this bank can then be loaded into an AMOS Professional program, allowing the entire menu to be accessed with a single command.

Loading the Menu Editor accessory

Please load "Menu_Editor.AMOS" from your Accessories disc. The Main Menu appears in the lower part of the screen as soon as the Menu Editor is loaded.

All operations are performed by clicking on options with the left mouse button, unless instructed otherwise. On-screen instructions and dialogue comments will appear at every stage of operating the Menu Editor, to help and guide you.

The Main Menu

The Main Menu displays seven simple options that are used for loading, saving and initialising your menus, as follows:

[Create a new menu]
This option is used to define a new screen to be used as the menu background. The screen's default status is displayed, and this current format can be changed by clicking on the new number of colours and the screen resolution, using the left mouse button. You can then proceed to the Main Editing Window by selecting [Edit it], or choose the [Prey, menu] option instead, which will call up the previous menu.

[Edit current menu]
This calls up the Main Editor Screen, which is detailed below, and the currently selected menu is initialised.

[Save menu bank]
As soon as this option is triggered, the File Selector is called up. A memory bank can now be created for your menus, and saved to disc. This menu can be loaded into an AMOS Professional program be means of a line like this:

The new menu can then be initialised with this:

The menu can now be activated by a MENU ON command. These menu banks are permanent, and they will be saved along with the relevant program automatically. This means that once a menu has been installed, and the menu handler has been included in your program, it will look after itself.

[Load a menu]
After the File Selector appears, the selected menu file can be loaded from disc. This file must have been defined in a sequential .MENU file, using the [Save current menu] option explained next. Once the menu has been loaded successfully, the program will proceed straight to the Main Editor Screen.

[Save current menu]
The File Selector is called, and an entire menu definition can be saved in a sequential .MENU file, ready for loading. If you prefer to access the menu directly from an AMOS Professional program, use the [Save menu bank] option instead.

[Quit and grab bank]
This option will leave the Menu Editor and return you to the main AMOS Professional Editor. If the Menu Editor is being run as an accessory, the new menu bank will be installed automatically, and the newly created menu can now be accessed directly from the current program.

[Quit]
This also exits to the AMOS Professional main program, but be warned, this option completely erases the new menu definition!

The Main Edit Screen

The Edit Screen is divided into three areas.

Vertical scroll bar
At the left-hand side of the screen there is a vertical bar, equipped with a pair of up and down arrows. This is used to scroll through very large menu definitions which exceed the dimensions of the Editor Window display.

The Editor Menu
At the bottom of the screen, all of the Editor Menu options are displayed, and these are explained below.

Editor Window
The top section of the Main Edit Screen is where the menu that is currently being edited is displayed. Each item in the menu is represented as a small box with a number in it, and these boxes are organised as follows:

All items in a single level of the menu are arranged in one vertical column. The first column on the left represents the title line of the menu, and the second column shows the various items of that menu.

Each item is numbered according to its position in the menu hierarchy. For example, the second menu option of title number 1 would be represented by a box numbered 1.2. This simple system means that you are able to read the entire structure of a menu at a single glance.

If you click with the right mouse button to test the menu that is currently being edited, you can compare this display with the menu line that it actually represents!

The Editor Menu

Here is a short guided tour through all of the options on offer in the Editor Menu, which occupies the bottom section of the Main Editor Window.

This Editor Menu contains all of the commands needed to define the physical structure of a menu. All of these options are performed on the current menu item, which is selected from the Edit Window by clicking with the left mouse button. The current menu item is highlighted in reverse video.

All menu options are toggle operations, with alternative options selected by each mouse click. There are three groups of options, which are from left to right, the Item status menu, the Tree editor menu and the Draw menu.

Item status

The Item status Menu options are used to change the status of the currently selected menu item, as follows:

[Active] / [Inact]
This option toggles the status of the current menu item between being active and inactive. Only active items can be selected from the finished menu.

[Line] / [Bar] / [T.line]
This selection affects the whole branch of the menu, not just the current item, and it is used to specify the form of the branch as either a Line, a Bar or a Total Line.

[Linked] / [Separ.]
Use this option to choose whether each item in the menu is to be linked with the one above it, or separated. Refer to the MENU LINK command in Chapter 6.5, if you need reminding of this system.

[Br.sta] / [Br.mov]
This option also affects the whole branch of the menu, and is short for Branch Stationary and Branch Moveable. It specifies whether the current menu branch can be repositioned by the user, and is identical to the MENU MOVABLE and MENU STATIC commands.

[It.sta] / [It.mov]
Short for Item Stationary and Item Moveable, this option toggles between whether or not items can be individually rearranged in a menu. This is the same choice offered by the MENU ITEM STATIC and MENU ITEM MOVABLE commands.

Tree editor

The Tree editor menu occupies the central block of options in the Main Editor Screen. These options allow the menu tree to be changed to new preferences, and any additions and deletions are reflected in the main edit screen.

After the menu has been edited, it may be tested by pressing the right mouse button. If items are moveable, they can be repositioned freely, using the mouse New positions are retained until an item is deleted in the current branch, or the [Reset menu position] option is chosen. In this case, the menu will be initialised all over again.

[Add item]
This option adds a new item at the end of the current menu. As a default, the new item is assigned to the text string "EMPTY". This default status can be changed using one of many options from the Draw menu, which appears below.

[Ins item]
Use this option to insert a new menu item at the current cursor position.

[Branch]
This is used to create a menu branch at the current cursor position, and add a new item to this branch.

Delete
This simple option erases the selected item from the menu.

[Reset menu position]
When this option is selected, the coordinates of all items belonging to the current menu branch are re-set to their default positions. The message "All offsets erased!" confirms that this has been done.

Draw menu

This menu is extremely important. It provides the gateway to the powerful Item Drawing Screen, which is where individual menu items are designed. When any one of the four options is selected, the Item Drawing Screen is called, so if you are simply exploring these options, you can click on the [previous menu] option at the bottom right-hand corner of the Item Drawing Screen to get back to this Draw menu.

[Normal]
This option ensures that an item in the menu will have a normal appearance setting. [Highlighted] When this option is chosen, the shape of the displayed item will be highlighted if it is selected with the mouse.

[Inactive]
After this option is triggered, an Object can be drawn which will be displayed if a selected item has been de-activated by a MENU INACTIVE command.

[Background]
Use this option to specify the background to be drawn behind the current item.

Item Drawing Screen

I his is the heart of the AMOS Professional Menu Editor, and it is the screen where the exact appearance of each menu item is defined. All menu items are constructed from a list of 21 different graphics elements, which correspond to the embedded menu instructions detailed in Chapter 6.5 of this User Manual. Each of these elements can be edited completely separately from one another, so that menus can be modified after they have been created very quickly and very simply.

The top left-hand section of this screen is the Current Item Window, where all drawing operations are controlled.

The top right-hand section is the Work Screen, which holds a picture of the element being edited, as it will appear in the final menu. Below this Work Screen is a horizontal bar. There is a small panel on the left of this bar, which shows the current fill pattern. The rest of the bar is a font window, showing the current style and size of text being used.

The palette window occupies a horizontal bar across the whole width of this screen, and the layout of this is explained below.

The lower section of the screen contains the four menus used to control the drawing operations, headed from left to right, Draw functions, Settings, Object and Misc. Dialogue messages and comments appear in this line of menu headings, during the menu editing process.

Here is a guided tour of all the options in the four Item Drawing Screen menus, as they appear from left to right:

Draw functions

Colours for drawing an element must be selected from the horizontal Palette Window. The current ink colour is marked by the number 1, and the current paper setting is shown by the number 2. To change these settings, click on the top of half of the palette for the ink colour, and the bottom half of the palette to select a new paper colour. Note that the outline colour is set to the same choice as the current ink setting. Elements are drawn as follows:

• Select an element to be defined using the Object menu, which is explained below.
• Click on your choice of one of the drawing functions and move the mouse cursor into the Current Item Window.
• Click the left mouse button, keep it held down and drag it to create the shape of the element. When the mouse button is released, the object that has just been created will be assigned to the current brush automatically.
• Paste the current object into position by clicking on the left mouse button again.
• If the result is not satisfactory, erase the current brush setting by pressing right mouse button while the mouse pointer is over the Work Screen.
• Because each element in the menu can only be assigned to a single object from this Drawing menu, you must increment the element number before adding to your design, otherwise the existing element will be completely replaced.

Here is a list of the drawing options:

[Line]
This draws a single straight line in the current ink colour.

[Box]
A hollow rectangle is drawn by clicking on the position for one corner, and then holding and dragging to set the position of the diagonally opposite corner.

[Bar]
This draws a bar filled with the current fill pattern, displayed in the small Pattern Window. The pattern can be changed with the [-] and [+] options in the Settings menu.

[Ellipse]
Use this drawing function to create hollow ellipses or circles, in the usual way.

[Icon]
To paste an Icon onto the menu item, an image number can be selected using the [left arrow] and [right arrow] keys. The Icon bank must first be loaded using the [Load a memory bank] option from the Misc: menu.

[Bob]
This is identical in use to the [Icon] option, except that the image is taken directly from the Object bank.

[Text]
After the screen prompt, type in the required text via the keyboard, and it will be assigned to the current menu element.

[T.Len]
This is used to set the maximum length of the menu text.

[Make Inverse]
Use this option to reverse the text and paper colours in the current element, by swapping over their values.

[Make Border]
This option adds a neat border around the entire element.

Settings

The Settings menu allows the status of the various text and graphics options to be changed, as follows:

[N] [N] [N] [-] [+]
The three [N] icons are used to select the various text modes, with Bold, Italic and Underline styles being shown in the Font Window, as they appear.

Fill patterns are selected by clicking on the [-] and [+] buttons, and the current pattern is displayed in the Pattern Window at the left-hand end of the Font Window. If the Object bank is loaded, click on [-] to assign an Object image to the current fill pattern.

[Outline]
This option is used to add an outline to the current fill pattern.

[S. Font]
As soon as this option is selected, the available fonts are loaded from the program disc, and a list appears for selection. You can now choose a new typeface for the menu text, and the current selection is shown in the Font Window.

Object

This is the menu which controls the menu items, and it offers the following options:

[-]
Click on these options to select which element is to be defined on screen. A picture of the item will be displayed in the Current Item Window.

[Ins]
Use this option to insert a new graphic element at the current position. All subsequent elements will be shunted down one place, and if a 20th item exists, it will fall off the end of the list and be permanently lost!

[Del]
This option is used to delete the currently selected element.

[Push]
An element can be saved into a temporary memory area, by using this option for the current menu item. Please see the [Past] option below.

[Past]
This is used to copy an image from memory into the current element. The data must have been previously stored using the [Push] option.

Misc

[Push ltm]
Similarly to the last option, [Push Itm] saves an entire item into a temporary memory area, allowing multiple copies of suitable Objects to be made.

[Paste Itm]
This is used to replace the current item with the contents of the temporary memory area filled by the last [Push Itm] command.

[Load a memory bank]
When this option is triggered, a chooser menu is displayed, allowing a set of Objects t o be loaded from disc. After the Object bank has been installed, the new palette is copied into the background screen automatically.