!Help for !PickAPic:


Note: if you run the RISC-OS !Help application
you will get some context-sensitive help.


Purpose -------

The main purpose of the programme is to make it
easier to browse through files of pictures on
disc and choose individual items to import into
DTP documents, etc. This is achieved by showing
"thumbnail" copies of the pictures on the screen
(rather like those in a !Paint window) and
allowing you to choose the ones you want by
dragging or clicking the pictures - which I
believe is much simpler than choosing from
sometimes rather cryptic file names.

It also allows you to produce catalogues of your
pictures in the form either of text listings or
of drawfiles containing the thumbnail sprites.
(I expect this facility to be used mainly for
obtaining printouts.)

You can also produce sprites from drawfiles at 
any size and in any mode.


Other Suggested Uses --------------

1) Bringing pictures into Impression frames (to
do this simply drag a thumbnail from the
!PickAPic window into an Impression frame).

2) Choosing additional borders for use in
Impression (drag a thumbnail of a border into
the Frame  Borders Setup .... window in
Impression)

3) Choosing moulds and paths for use in Poster.

4) Picking pre-drawn symbols for use in a
drawfile (e.g. musical symbols in a musical
score, kitchen units in a kitchen design).

5) Sprites without palettes normally appear with
false colours when imported into Impression,
Draw, etc. However, if they are imported from
!PickAPic via the Big Picture Save option the
sprites that are created have palettes and will
therefore be displayed correctly.


How to use ----------

1) Run the application to put the !PickAPic icon
on the icon bar.

2) Drag either a file or a directory icon from a
directory window or from an application's save
box: !PickAPic will then scan the file or
directory and load all the pictures (sprites,
Draw files or Poster files) contained therein.
Scanning of directories is recursive - i.e. all
sub-directories will be included.
   If the file or directory that is dragged in
is in the root directory of a disc (or of an
Archive file loaded into ArcFS), !PickAPic will
ask if you want to load all the pictures on the
disc (or in the Archive) or just that one item.
   If there are a lot of pictures in total or
they include more than just a few drawfiles it
will ask if you want to continue. (It should be 
able to cope with up to 512 pictures, subject to 
memory constraints.)

3) Pictures that are loaded are displayed as
thumbnail sprites in !PickAPic's main window.

4) Further files or directories can be loaded by
dragging either to the icon bar icon or into
!PickAPic's window. Note, however, that these
will replace the lot that were loaded
previously. (If you want to display two lots of
pictures run !PickAPic twice.)

5) Dragging one of the thumbnail sprites from
!PickAPic into an application or into a Filer
window should achieve the same result as
dragging from a filer window. Note that it is
the original file from the disc, not !PickAPic's
thumbnail copy, that is loaded or copied.

6) Clicking the Adjust (right-hand) button with
the pointer over one of the thumbnails will pop
up a window displaying a larger copy of the
picture and some information about it, including
where it comes from, what kind of file it is,
its length and, if it is a sprite, its name. (I
realise that using Adjust clicking in this way
departs from RISC-OS orthodoxy and have
therefore provided an option to switch the
facility off ... see para 9 below.)

7) Clicking the Menu (middle) button gives the
following options:
   (a) Info - information about !PickAPic
   (b) Help - this file
   (c) Save - this leads to a submenu giving two
options:
       (i) Thumbnails - leads to a Save box: if
you drag the drawfile icon to a Filer window the
thumbnails will be saved as a drawfile
containing sprites. The normal size of the
sprites is the same as on the screen (assuming
180 screen units to the inch) but there is an
option to scale the output either up or down,
the idea being to permit higher resolution
output ... (If the thumbnail size preference is
set to 180 screen units in mode 20 and if the
output scale is left at 1.0 the pictures output
will be 1 inch square and will have a resolution
of 90dpi; however, if the thumbnail size
preference is doubled to 360 and the pictures
are output at a scale of 0.5 the output will be
the same size but the resolution will be doubled
to 180dpi. Note, however, that the thumbnails
will take up 4 times as much memory and disc
space!)
           The page size is taken from the
printer driver if one is loaded, otherwise an A4
page with half-inch margins is assumed.
           If there are too many sprites to fit
onto one page, a directory will be opened (with
the name given in the Save box) containing
drawfiles called Page1, Page2, etc. If they fit
onto one page it should be possible to drag the
drawfile into an application window ... Draw and
DrawPlus accept it, but for some reason
Impression doesn't, so if you want to take the
file into Impression you have to save to a disc
(or the RAM disc) first and then drag into
Impression.
      (ii) Listing - leads to another Save box:
if you drag the Textfile icon to a Filer window
or a suitable application the picture details
will be listed and saved in a text file. CSV
(comma separated values) format is used since
this is convenient for importing into Impression
and certain other applications. Again, for some
reason Impression won't allow you to drag the
icon straight into one of its windows.
          If you import a CSV file into
Impression using the "CSV loader module" the
text will be automatically arranged in columns.
   (d) Big Picture - this pops up the same
window as 6 above.
   (e) Quit - quits!

8) Clicking the Menu button over the pop-up
window displaying a larger picture gives an
option to save the contents of that window as a
sprite, as well as an option to close the window
(in case you don't realise that the easier way
to close it is simply to move the pointer
outside it!)

9) Clicking the Menu button over the icon bar
icon leads (as well as Info, Help and Quit which
are the same as in the main window menu) to an
option to change the following preferences:
   (a) the size of the thumbnails (the smaller
they are the more you can fit on the screen and
the less memory they need, the larger they are
the better definition you get. N.B. this option
also determines the size of the thumbnails in
the drawfile created under menu option 7(c)(i)
above.)
   (b) the screen mode of the thumbnails (this
affects the memory needed as well as resolution
and colour ... if the pictures are monochrome
you might as well use, say, mode 18 rather than
mode 20 if memory is limited.) If you enter a
preference of "D" or "d" the programme will
default to using the mode that is current when
the thumbnails are created.
      Note: if you create sprites in a 256
colour mode when the current screen mode has 16
colours or less the sprites will not display
correctly.
   (c) the size of the Big Picture sprite
   (d) the screen mode -ditto-
   (e) the scaling factor used for output of
thumbnails in drawfiles (see 7(c)(i) above)
   (f) whether sprites which are smaller than
the configured thumbnail or big picture size are
scaled up to fill the space available
   (g) flatness : this determines the degree of
angularity of curves when plotted from drawfiles
- the smaller the number the better the
resolution but the longer the plotting takes. I
suggest 50 for normal use
   (h) whether or not to allow the facility of
popping up the Big Picture window when Adjust
clicking over a thumbnail (see 6 above).

10) Double-clicking with the Select (left-hand)
button over a thumbnail will have the same
effect as double-clicking on the icon in a filer
window: i.e. if !Paint or !Draw or !Poster have
been "seen" the relevant file will be loaded
into the appropriate application.

11) When the size of the main window is changed
the thumbnails will be rearranged inside it in
much the same way as the icons in a Filer window.

12) If the main window has been closed it can be
reopened by Select clicking on the icon bar
icon.

13) If a window is hidden or partially hidden a
Select click on the icon bar icon will bring it
to the front.

14) Where pathnames are too long to display
(either in the Big Picture window or underneath
the thumbnails when saved in drawfile form) then
they are truncated from the root downwards and
each missing directory is indicated by a dot.


Copyright, etc. -----------

The ideas for this programme have been borrowed
from a variety of sources, and modified and
amplified by me with the help of friends'
suggestions; the code is my own (apart from some
standard routines for heap management, window
and menu management and drawfile plotting). The
application can be freely copied (provided this
note is copied with it), but not sold or used in
any other way for financial gain without my
permission. (Norwich Computer Services have
permission to distribute it, if they want, in
the form of Shareware or Careware)

Doubtless there will be bugs to fix and other
modifications. If you want upgrades please send
me whatever contribution you think appropriate.

I would welcome any complaints, criticisms,
comments, suggestions for modification or
improvement, etc. that you may have. Please
send them to:

Hugh Eagle
48 Smithbarn, Horsham, Sussex, RH13 6DX
0403-66728
                          
                          










Note: if this text whizzed past too fast for you
to read, try loading !Edit before choosing the 
Help menu option for !PickAPic again.