FormEd - Template Editor (ver 1.26)
Acorn Computers Ltd.

Supplied by RISC Developments under licence from Acorn Computers.

 Purpose     : Editing Template Files
 Version     : 1.14 and above 

FormEd is an editor of Template files. To understand this you need to understand the program interface of the Window System, as described in the Programmer's Reference Manual. The description here assumes an understanding of template files.

FormEd is started by double-clicking on a template file after the FormEd icon has been "seen". This will cause FormEd to be loaded, and to display a viewer containing all the windows in the template file. To edit a window, double-click on its icon in the template viewer, and it will appear on screen ready for editing. Alternatively, double-click on FormEd itself and it will be loaded with no current windows. If a template file does not appear to load properly, give more memory to FormEd before it starts, by using the Task Manager window.

A template file is often constructed with reference to a specific set of sprites. A sprite file can be dragged onto the FormEd icon on the icon bar to set the available sprites. These are displayed in a window. To edit the sprites, use the Paint application.

The menu provided from the icon bar provides the following functions:
    
 Info        - program information
 New template - shows a new browser window
 Quit         - quit FormEd

The template windows displayed by FormEd mirror precisely the size, position and properties of the windows in the Template file. The following actions directly affect the stored values:

 Close the window               - removes the window from view
 Move/scroll/resize the window  - moves the default setup of the window in the template file.

Clicking Menu on a template window produces a menu tree that allows a wide variety of alterations to the menu structure, based on the various control fields of a window structure as described in the Wimp documentation. It also allows you to create icons in the window. An icon, once created, can be moved and resized using drag-Select and drag-Adjust. It can also have its properties adjusted by pointing at it and then clicking Menu, and following the "amend icon" submenu.

Your ability to drag and resize icons may be affected by a button type affixed to an icon: only those button types which generate the appropriate Wimp events can be dragged and resized directly. It's interesting to note that FormEd keeps no data structures describing each template window, relying on the Wimp to keep and manipulate each structure.

FormEd keeps a file of sprites in memory which can be used in icons in the template being edited. The default sprite file used is the file Default inside !FormEd, which is in fact a copy of the sprites found in the RISC OS ROM. To load in a separate sprite file to use with your template file, drag the sprite file onto the FormEd icon.


Software  Acorn Computers 1991, 1993
