Submenus and the Map View


Submenus are wonderful not only for separating large sections of menu items into palatable chunks, but also for splitting these elements thematically. With the exception of the actual menu items, all of the submenu’s properties are inherited from its parent. However, every submenu has its own set of menu properties, which can be individually manipulated apart from the other menu screens. In other words, each submenu can look drastically different from the main menu, complete with a different background image, different sounds and cursors, different text formatting, and of course different menu items.

Unlike all the other menu items on your menu screens, the submenu items can be navigated on the main screen while still in Edit mode. Simply Ctrl-click on the submenu name to go to that submenu. To navigate backward, Ctrl-click on one of the navigation buttons (provided you haven’t disabled them): Back to go up one level to the parent menu and Home to return to the main menu. However, this is not the only way to navigate between your various menus. One easy method is to use the Map view.

image from book

You can access the Map view in one of the following two ways.

  • From the View menu, choose Map View.

    or

  • Click the Toggle Map View button.

image from book

Keep in mind that either of these options can be toggled; simply repeat the step to exit Map view when finished.

Map view is laid out to give you a broad overview of your submenu hierarchy. Your main menu and all your submenus are visible, and the relationships between menus are easy to spot. The Map view looks like this:

image from book

Viewing Your Menus in Map View

If your needs are simple, the default view of your submenu map may be all you need, but as the number of files increases, so does your need to have a little extra real estate in order to fit everything on one screen. You have three options for sizing the menu boxes to your liking: Zoom in (Ctrl-Plus), Zoom out (Ctrl-Minus), and Zoom to Fit (Ctrl-F9), which gives you the largest possible size while still fitting everything on one screen. In addition to the keyboard shortcuts, these commands can all be accessed on the View menu. The Zoom percentage will show in the right-hand corner of the status bar.

When you first enter Map view, you’ll notice a black border around the menu from which you accessed this view. A single click on a menu box will shift the selection, whereas a double-click will open that menu in the standard view.

In addition, you can use Map view to instantly access any of the tabs of the current menu’s Main Menu Properties dialog.

image from book

Getting to a tab from your Map view is done in one of the following two ways:

  1. In Map view, click the menu whose properties you want to adjust.

  2. In the Edit menu, choose one of the menu’s properties tabs: General Properties, Cursor Properties, List Properties, Menu Contents, or Button Properties (the latter is disabled if the main menu is selected).

or

  1. In Map view, right-click the menu whose properties you want to adjust.

  2. Choose one of the menu’s properties tabs from the context menu that appears.

image from book

Adding and Removing Submenus

If you’ve read this far, you probably already know that submenu-type menu items can be added or removed on the Content tab of the Main Menu Properties dialog. What you may not know is that the Map view, in addition to offering a great view of your menu structure, also lets you add and remove submenus at will.

image from book

There are two ways to add or remove submenus:

  1. In Map view, click the menu from which you want your new submenu to branch (for adding) or the menu you want to delete (for removal).

  2. In the Edit menu, choose Insert submenu or Delete this submenu as appropriate. These menu options are grayed out when not in Map view.

or

  1. In Map view, right-click the menu from which you want your new submenu to branch (for adding) or the menu you want to delete (for removal).

  2. Choose Insert submenu or Delete this submenu,as appropriate, from the context menu that appears.

image from book

Note that the Delete this submenu option is disabled when the main menu is selected, as it’s impossible to delete this menu. Whenever adding a new submenu, it appears with a line drawn from its parent so that you can easily see the relationship between menus. Unfortunately, there’s no way to drag these menu boxes around to shift the hierarchy of submenus. However, there is a way to redistribute the actual content of your menus, and you’ll learn how in the following section.

Moving Content between Menus

Especially if you started your Camtasia MenuMaker project using the wizard, you may have created your project with all your menu items on your main menu. When entering the main screen for the first time, it’s possible you discovered that your menu was a bit too crowded for all these items, and that the creation of some submenus was in order. Does that mean all the time you spent picking out your files in the wizard was wasted, and that you need to start over from scratch with your submenus? Luckily, no. There’s a special tool, available only from the Map view, that lets you shift your menu item content from one menu to another. It’s called the Project Content dialog, and it looks something like this:

image from book

Menu items can be moved both within and between menus in the Project Content dialog.

image from book

Here’s a quick guide for moving your menu items around with the Project Content dialog:

  1. In Map view, choose Project Content… from the Edit menu. The Project Content dialog appears.

  2. Select the item you want to move by clicking on it. You can select multiple items by Ctrl-clicking on them.

  3. Click and hold over your selection, then drag the item(s) to the new location. Each submenu listing will highlight as you mouse over it. When the desired submenu is highlighted, release the mouse button to place your item(s).

    or

    Click the Up (image from book) or Down (image from book) buttons located at the top of the dialog to move your selected item(s) line by line, and menu by menu, until the item(s) is in the desired location.

  4. Click OK to exit the dialog.

image from book

With the exception of submenu-type menu items (whose location is obviously set by the submenu hierarchy), all menu items can be moved in this way. In addition to moving content between your menus, this dialog also is a great alternate way to change the order of your menu items within a particular menu. Another cool aspect of this dialog is that the menu thumbnails in your Map view update automatically as you’re moving things around, so provided you’re zoomed in close enough to read your menu text, you can get a real-time view of how your changes are affecting what the user is going to see.




Camtasia Studio 4. The Definitive Guide
Camtasia Studio 4: The Definitive Guide (Wordware Applications Library)
ISBN: 1598220373
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 146
Authors: Daniel Park

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