4.11 Menu functions

Hollywood Designer's menu is an elementary part of the program. Nearly all functions of the program can be controlled using the menu. Some functions are even only controllable with the menu. This chapter explains all the menu entries in the program.

a) Project menu:

‘New’

Creates a new project. If there is already an open project, it has to be closed first. The new project dialog will be opened up. See New project dialog for details.

‘Open’

Loads a Hollywood Designer project from disk. Please note that the project must be in Hollywood Designer format. You can not load Hollywood scripts.

‘Import’

This menu item allows you to import all pages from another Hollywood Designer project into the currently opened project. See Import capabilities for details.

‘Import images’

Can be used to import all images from a directory into Hollywood Designer. This will open the Import images dialog. See Import images dialog for details.

‘Save’

Saves the opened project.

‘Save As’

Saves the opened project to a different location. This will open the Save as dialog. See Save as dialog for details.

‘Close’

Closes the opened project.

‘Properties’

Opens the project properties dialog, which allows the configuration of your project.

‘Data manager’

Opens the data manager which you can use to organize all external data of your project. See Data manager for details.

‘UID manager’

Opens the UID manager which will give you an overview over all the identifiers used in your project. See UID manager for details.

‘Timeline’

Shows the timestamps of all pages in your project (if it uses a timeline). See Timeline dialog for details.

‘Permissions’

This menu item will open the dialog allowing you to manage all users of your project and their permissions. See Users dialog for details.

‘Search’

Opens a dialog that allows you to search in the current project. See Search dialog for details.

‘Save executable’

Saves the project as a stand-alone executable. When you select this item, the Save executable dialog will be opened. See Save executable dialog for details.

‘Save video’

Saves the project as an AVI video file. When you select this item, the Save video dialog will be opened. See Save video dialog for details.

‘Save script’

Saves the project as a Hollywood script. The script will be put to to your project drawer. This will also generate two files named "Linkfiles.txt" and "Linkfonts.txt" which will contain the files and fonts to be linked into the executable. This is useful if you would like to compile your script in a custom way.

‘Save image’

Saves one or more pages or the selected object as an image file. You can use this function to export your project as single slides to upload them on the internet or use them on other platforms, for example. When you select this item, the Save image dialog will be opened. See Save image dialog for details.

‘Exit’

Quits Hollywood Designer and frees all resources.

b) Edit menu:

‘Undo’

Undo the last operation.

‘Redo’

Redo the last undone operation.

‘Cut’

Cuts the active object and puts it in the clipboard.

‘Copy’

Copies the active object and puts it in the clipboard.

‘Paste’

If there is an object in the clipboard, you can insert it into your page by clicking this button.

‘Select all’

Selects all objects of the active page.

‘Select none’

Clears the current selection. After that no objects will be selected.

‘Show guides’

Select this item to show the guides.

‘Snap to guides’

If this item is selected, Hollywood Designer will enable snapping to guides, which means that objects will automatically snap to the guides whenever they are within the snapping distance that can be configured in the preferences.

‘Edit guides’

This will open the dialog that allows you to add and remove guides. See Edit guides dialog for details.

‘Show grid’

Select this item to show the grid.

‘Snap to grid’

If this item is selected, Hollywood Designer will enable snapping to grid, which means that objects will automatically snap to the grid whenever they are within the snapping distance that can be configured in the preferences.

‘Edit grid’

This will open the dialog that allows you to configure the grid's cell size and offsets. See Edit grid dialog for details.

c) Page menu:

‘New’

Adds a new page to your project. You have to choose a page type and you have to configure the properties for the new page.

‘Import’

Imports a page from a different project into the current one. See Import capabilities for details.

‘Name’

Opens the page name dialog which you can use to set the name and identifier of the currently selected page(s). See Page name dialog for details.

‘Properties’

Opens the page properties dialog which allows you to configure the page's type attributes. See Page properties dialog for details.

‘Transition FX’

This menu item can only be selected if you have checked the "Use transition effect" item. If this is the case, Hollywood Designer will open the transition effect dialog which allows you to set the desired effect for the currently selected page(s). See Transition effect dialog for details.

‘Dimensions’

Opens the page dimensions dialog which you can use to set the dimensions of the currently selected page(s). See Page dimensions dialog for details.

‘Sound’

Opens the sound options dialog which you can use to configure the sound options of the currently selected page(s). See Page sound dialog for details.

‘Delay’

Opens the delay options dialog which allows the configuration of the delay options for the currently selected page(s). See Page delay dialog for details.

‘Code’

Opens the code dialog which can be used to attach custom Hollywood code to the currently selected page(s). See Code dialog for details.

‘Keyboard’

This menu item can be used to define keyboard events for this page. The keyboard edit dialog will be opened. See Keyboard edit dialog for details.

‘Select all’

Select all pages in the project.

‘Select none’

Clear current page selection so that no page is currently selected.

‘Change page type’

Opens the change page type dialog where you can modify the type of your page. See Change page type dialog for details.

‘Duplicate page’

Duplicates the current page. Everything except the page UID and sound UIDs is cloned.

‘Move page’

Moves the current page to a new position. If you select this menu item, a dialog will be opened that prompts you to enter the new position for the current page. This can be a number between 1 (first page) and the number of pages in the project.

‘Previous page’

Select this item and Hollywood Designer will skip to the previous page. If there is no previous page, it will skip to the last page in your project.

‘Next page’

Select this item and Hollywood Designer will skip to the next page. If there is no next page, it will skip to the first page in your project.

‘Goto page’

Jumps to a page in the project.

‘Delete’

Deletes the currently selected page(s) and all its objects.

‘Use transition effect’

Check this item if the currently selected page(s) shall be displayed with a transition effect. The transition effect dialog will be opened which allows you to select an effect. See Transition effect dialog for details.

‘Automatically skip to next page’

If this is activated, Designer will automatically skip to the next page once it reaches a page's end. Note that this is only available if the presentation mode has been set to "Wait for presenter at page end" in the project properties dialog.

‘Deactivate page’

Check this item to deactivate the currently selected page(s). If a page is deactivated, you can still edit it normally. It will just not be shown if you run your project. Of course, you can always activate the page again.

d) Object menu:

‘New’

Creates a new object. You will be prompted to specify the object type and its attributes.

‘Import’

Imports an object from a different project into the current one. See Import capabilities for details.

‘Name’

Opens the object name dialog which you can use to set the name and identifier of the currently selected object(s). See Object name dialog for details.

‘Properties’

Opens the object properties dialog which allows you to configure the object's type attributes. See Object properties dialog for details.

‘Font’

Opens a font requester that allows you to change the font for the currently selected object(s). If you need advanced control over the font, use the "Properties" menu instead because that will also allow you to change things like the font engine that should be used, etc.

‘Transition FX’

This menu item can only be selected if the display mode of your object is "Effect". If this is the case, Hollywood Designer will open the transition effect dialog which allows you to set the desired effect. See Transition effect dialog for details.

‘Dimensions’

Opens the object dimensions dialog which you can use to set the dimensions of the currently selected object(s). See Object dimensions dialog for details.

‘Rotation angle’

Opens the object rotation dialog which you can use to set the rotation of the currently selected object(s). See Object rotation dialog for details.

‘Position’

Opens the object position dialog which allows you to set the position of the currently selected object(s). See Object position dialog for details.

‘Anchor point’

Opens the object anchor point dialog which allows you to set the anchor point of the currently selected object(s). See Object anchor point dialog for details.

‘Word wrapping’

Allows you to set the wordwrapping boundary of the currently selected text object(s). You have to enter the width in pixels after which words should be wrapped onto the next line. Note that you can also set the wordwrapping width by clicking on a text object twice in the layout dialog and then dragging the object's selection boxes to the desired wordwrapping width. To disable wordwrapping for a text object, use the "Reset text layout" option in the same menu.

‘Sound’

Opens the sound options dialog which you can use to configure the sound options of the currently selected object(s). This is not possible for background objects because they are always visible and there is no clear point when the sound should be played. See Object sound dialog for details.

‘Display mode’

Here you can set the display mode of the currently selected object(s). See Object display modes for details.

‘Events’

You can use this menu to turn an object into an interactive button by defining actions for the different events.

‘Delay’

Opens the delay options dialog which allows the configuration of the delay options for the currently selected object(s). This is not possible for background objects because they are always visible and there is no clear point when the delay should be executed. See Object delay dialog for details.

‘Code’

Opens the code dialog which can be used to attach custom code to the currently selected object(s). See Code dialog for details.

‘Move to front’

This item moves the currently selected object(s) to the front.

‘Move to back’

This item moves the currently selected object(s) to the back.

‘Center horizontally’

Use this menu item to center the currently selected object(s) horizontally on the page.

‘Center vertically’

Use this menu item to center the currently selected object(s) vertically on the page.

‘Anti-alias’

Toggles anti-aliasing for the currently selected object(s).

‘Reset transformation’

Resets all transformations (scaling and rotation) that have been applied to the currently selected object(s).

‘Reset filters’

Reset all filters (shadow, border, transparency...) to their default settings in the currently selected object(s).

‘Reset text layout’

Resets any custom layout applied to the currently selected text object(s) (e.g. changing the wordwrapping boundary by extending or shrinking a text object's wordwrapping bounding box).

‘Delete’

Kills the currently selected object(s) and all of its references (for example, in action events).

‘Visible’

Toggles the visibility state of the currently selected object(s).

e) Group menu:

‘Group objects’

Creates a new group containing the currently selected objects.

‘Ungroup objects’

Ungroups the currently selected object(s) from their group.

‘Add object’

Adds the currently selected object(s) to the currently selected group.

‘Remove object’

Removes the currently selected object(s) from the currently selected group.

‘Edit group’

Allows you to change the group's name and its unique identifier. See Group properties dialog for details.

f) Language menu:

‘Switch language’

Use this menu item to switch to a new language. You can add/remove languages in the project properties dialog. See Project properties dialog for details.

‘Synchronize object position’

Synchronize the position of the current object with the position of this object in all other languages. After you have selected this menu item, the object will use the same position in every language.

‘Synchronize all attributes’

Synchronize all attributes of the current object with all languages. This means that this object will be exactly the same in every language.

‘Import language’

Import a text file created by "Export language" back into Designer. See below for more information.

‘Export language’

Export the texts of all text objects in the current project to a text file which you can then translate in your favorite editor and import it back into Designer. This is useful for translating large projects with hundreds of text objects. See Localizing your project for details.

g) Run menu:

‘Run’

Displays the project with Hollywood. The project will be started at the first page.

‘Run current page’

Starts the project at the page that is currently active in the layout dialog.

h) View menu:

‘Thumbnail view’

Opens or closes the thumbnail view of all pages in the project. You can click on a thumbnail to jump to the respective page and you can also select multiple pages by shift-clicking on them.

‘Page manager’

This menu item opens or closes the page manager. See Page manager for details.

‘Object manager’

Opens or closes the object manager. See Object manager for details.

‘Object filters’

Opens or closes the object filters dialog. The object filters dialog allows you to control the transparency and tint settings of your objects and apply several other effects. See Object filters dialog for details.

‘Group manager’

Opens or closes the group manager. See Group manager for details.

‘Arrange windows’

This menu item will restore all Designer windows to their default positions.

i) Settings menu:

‘Designer’

Opens Designer's preferences dialog. See Preferences for details.

‘MUI’

This menu pops up the MUI preferences for Hollywood Designer. Here you can configure the look of the GUI and you can also set it to open on its own screen.

j) Info menu:

‘Help’

Opens this document.

‘Plugins’

Opens a dialog that shows all Hollywood plugins that Designer has loaded successfully.

‘Hollywood portal’

Opens the Hollywood portal in a browser.

‘Hollywood forums’

Opens the Hollywood forums in a browser.

‘About’

Shows the Hollywood Designer credits.

‘Version’

Shows some version information.

‘About MUI’

Shows some MUI information.