Index



Dont bother, if you dont understand everything here and now: why an interface is needed, what the intention is or how it is used,..

Come back later here, when you need it,.. I'll refer to here. But still I find it worth to read this section once, now.


The Mainwindow

Below you can see a screenshot of the SMM++ mainwindow:

The SMM++ mainwindow devides into three parts:

  1. menubar
  2. main userinterface
  3. help and status display

The mainuserinterface (2) divides again into two parts:

  1. mapping part
  2. mudding part

the mapping part (4) devides into 3 parts:

  1. drawing area for the map
  2. the map selector
  3. the room interface or zoom (zif)

and finally the mudding part (5) also divides into 3 parts:

  1. user customizable widget area (on per session basis).
  2. here the output of the mud will be displayed
  3. and in here you type in your commands/input while mudding.

Customize The GUI

First of all you need to decide, if you want the mapping part in a separate window or integrated. It is only a matter of your taste. Please refer to the 'SMM++ Howto', if you want a separate mapping window. If you are running a low resolution display a separate mapping window might be a sensible solution for you. But you might also decide you switch between mudding and mapping as you need (see below, please).

Save Your Settings

Once you have arranged everything to your taste you can save your layout: 'Menubar' -> 'Configuration' -> 'Save Layout'. The positions and sizes of your toplevel windows will be save too.

There are two separate save files: one is used for the case you have a separate mapping window and the other is used for the default case.

Once you have saved your layout, it will be loaded at each startup or if you choose 'Menubar' -> 'Configuration' -> 'Load Layout'.


The Roominterface/Zoom (8)

Below you can see a screenhot of the SMM++ mainwindow in mapping only mode (see above too, please).

The zif devides into 5 main groups:

  1. Selector
  2. Exits
  3. Stuff
  4. Main
    1. background button (also refered as BG)
    2. text entry
    3. accept/reset button
    4. coordinate entry
  5. Squeezer

The exit and stuff buttons will be named as follows (sometimes I refer to them as index, exit/stuff index or exit/stuff position):

Exits: ex(ne) e.g. upper left button
Stuff: st(cc) e.g. center button.

Customize The Roominterface/Zoom

From the menu -> 'Configuration' -> 'Zoom Interface' you can hide or show any of the main groups. By grabbing one of the (A), (B), (C) or (D) you can adjust the space for each of the main groups. When you save your layout (see above, please) the current settings of your zif will be saved, too.

If you think you have to much space for the zif, you can select to show the squeezer and limit so the space for the rest of the zif. This is the sole purpose of the squeezer.

If you often select and deselect the main groups, access thrue the menubar may get annoying. In this case you can choose the selector to be shown. This gives you access to the groups 'Exits', 'Stuff' and 'Main'. One drawback is, that each time the number of displayed groups changes, your adjustments of the the buttons (A),(B), (C) and (D) gets lost.

Often you dont want to select a group or deselct a group; what you really want is to switch between the groups 'Exits', 'Stuff' and 'Main'. You can do this by clicking with the right mouse button (or to whatever you have adjusted it to be) on the buttons in the selector. If you only switch between the groups your adjustments of the the buttons (A),(B), (C) and (D) dont get lost! This is a reasonable solution, when using SMM++ on a low resolution screen. You may have the squeezer shown too in switching mode.


The Usercustomizable Widget Area (10)

Here you can put your own widgets (buttons, labels, entries, etc). Each session needs an own definition. Either build it interactively (see commands section) or put the commands into the main session configuration file (see configuration section) and get you user interface build up on each session startup.

First you have to define one or more invisible frames/rows (see '#addrow' command). Your widgets will be placed into them. The first defined frame will be put topmost, the next one below this one and so forth.

Now you can place your widgets into the frames/rows. The first one will be leftmost and the others will be filled successivly. You can have the following widgets:

please also refer to the commands section.


Find

You can search the text in the mudding widget for any phrases. You activate the find dialog from the menu -> 'Find' -> 'Find'. In the dialog you can enter a search phrase and search options.

The 'Find' button will start a search. The found text piece(s) will be displayed in another color. If you press the 'Clear' button the colors will be reset. 'Close' will close this window.




Last modified: Sun Dec 19 20:08:58 CET 1999