The PODIUM Toolbox

PODIUM comes with a custom toolbox that makes it very easy to create multimedia applications. Pictured below is the basic toolbox, which contains nineteen icons. Each icon represents a tool. To use a tool, you click on its icon. Your cursor assumes the shape of the icon to indicate which tool is active. You mouse around the screen and click on the spot where you want to use the tool. Depending on which tool is active, PODIUM either spawns a dialog or draws a box around the object you click on, indicating that you can drag it around the screen to reposition or size it.

The basic toolbox lets you design and create all the elements of a multimedia screen, including the text and graphics that will appear on it, the multimedia events it will trigger, the order in which items will materialize as the user clicks the mouse, and the buttons and hotspots that will trigger events linked to objects on the screen. In addition to these basic tools, PODIUM also has a graphics toolbox and an advanced authoring toolbox.

Backdrops. The backdrop icon appears in the toolbox as a curtain partially opened on a stage, revealing a backdrop behind it. To set the backdrop, you click on the backdrop icon, and the PODIUM backdrop dialog appears. The backdrop dialog lets you choose a colored background or browse for a bitmap. In addition to specifying graphics, your backdrop can also include multimedia events like compact disc audio, MIDI sound tracks, waveform audio recordings, videodisc images, or motion video that you want the backdrop to trigger. As soon as your backdrop appears, the multimedia events associated with it begin.

Hanging Pictures. The picture hanger tool appears in the toolbox as a rural landscape hanging on a wall. It lets you position any bitmap anyplace on the screen. To hang a picture, you click on the picture hanger icon, mouse to the location on the screen where you want the picture to appear, and click once. PODIUM displays a dialog that lets you type the picture's filename or browse to the bitmap you want to hang there.

Hanging Movies. The Movie Hanger tool appears in the custom toolbox as a piece of film. To hang a movie on the screen, you click with your left button on the Movie Hanger tool, mouse to the position on the screen where you want the upper left corner of the movie to appear, and click the left mouse button. A dialog appears that lets you set different options and browse for the movie you want. Movies can be in the Microsoft Video for Windows file format (.avi), Apple’s QuickTime format (.mov), or the industry standard MPEG format (.mpg). Later on, if you ever want to change the parameters of a movie, just click on the movie with the Movie Hanger tool, and the Movie dialog will reappear. Once you have a movie on the screen, you can move it around via the Move tool.

Entering Text. To enter text, you click on the icon represented by the big "T" that stands for text. Your cursor assumes the shape of a text inserter. You mouse to the spot on the screen where you want to enter the text and click. Type your text, and you will see it flow onto the screen in the default font, size, shadow, and color. If you want to change the default settings, click on the big "T" text icon with your right mouse button; a dialog box will appear that lets you change and preview the font, size, shadow, and color settings.

Fonts. The font tool looks like a fountain pen. To change the font of any text on the screen, click on the font tool, mouse over the text you want to put in a different font, and click once to spawn a dialog box that lists all the outline fonts installed on your computer. Select the font you want, and the text will change to that font.

Shadowing. The shadow tool appears as a person in a trench coat standing under a light post at night. To change the amount of shadow of any text on the screen, click on the shadow tool, and your mouse assumes the shape of the shadow. Mouse over the text you want to shadow, click once, and PODIUM will open a dialog box that lets you choose the amount of shadow you want.

Coloring. The color tool appears as a color wheel. To change the color of any text on the screen, click on the color tool, and PODIUM will open the Color dialog. Choose the color you want and click OK to close the Color dialog. Then click once on the text you want changed to that color.

Moving Text and Graphics. The move tool has a hand for its icon. If you click on the move tool with your left mouse button, you get the freehand move tool, which lets you drag objects freely to any location on the screen. If you click on the move tool with your right mouse button, you will get the move-on-a-grid tool, which snaps objects to an invisible grid, allowing you to line things up easily when creating columns or tables of information. When you click on the hand icon, your cursor assumes the shape of a hand. Then you mouse over the text you want to move, press and hold down your left mouse button, and drag the text to its new location.

Sizing Text and Graphics. The tool with arrows pointing outward in all directions is the sizer. To size text, you click on the sizer tool, mouse over the text you want to size, hold down your left mouse button, and drag the edges of the sizing box that will appear around the text. You can easily make the text any height or width. You can also size pictures, making them any width or height you want.

Centering. The tool with two arrows pointing toward each other is the centering tool. To center text, you click on the centering tool, mouse over the text you want to center, and click once. The centering tool can also center pictures. To center a picture, click on the center tool, and then click on the picture you want to center.

Clicking. By default, all of the text appears at once when your multimedia screen appears. The clicking tool lets you associate the appearance of individual text fields with mouse clicks. To invoke the mouse clicking tool, click on the icon that pictures a mouse with a piece of cheese. Move your cursor over some text and click once. PODIUM spawns a dialog that lets you specify which mouse click will make the text appear. As the user clicks the mouse, the items associated with that mouse click will appear. You can use this tool to make any number of text fields appear on any mouse click. After you have used the clicking tool to assign text to a mouse click, you can use the color tool to set the Clicked Color that the text will have after the user clicks past it.

Hyperlink. When text is linked, it is called hypertext; hyper means that in addition to conveying the meaning of the words, the text has taken on the added dimension of serving as a trigger. To create hypertext, you click first on the hyperlink tool, which is pictured in the toolbox as two links in a chain. Now you mouse over the text you want to link and click once; a dialog box appears that lets you type your links, paste them from the clipboard, or browse for them. You can link any text field to any combination of multimedia events, PODIUM objects, or any application on your computer or network.

Hyperpictures. When pictures have links, they are called hyperpictures. To put a link on a picture, you click on the trigger maker tool, which appears in the toolbox as an upward pointing arrow on a launch pad. Your cursor assumes the shape of the launcher. Mouse to the position of the start of the trigger you want to create, hold down the left mouse button, and drag the trigger box to encompass the part of the picture you want to serve as a trigger. When you release the mouse button, a dialog box will appear that lets you type your links, paste them from the clipboard, or browse for them. This enables you to link any part of any picture to any combination of multimedia events, PODIUM objects, or application programs.

Cloning. The cloning tool is a real time saver. Suppose you take the time to create a line of text that has a special size, font, and color, and now you want another line of text with like attributes. Instead of having to create a new line of text from scratch, you can clone the existing line, and then simply change its text with the editing tool. To clone text, you click on the cloning tool, which is pictured in the toolbox as two stick figures side by side. Watch closely when you click on them to see how they smile when activated. Mouse over the text you want to clone, hold down your left mouse button, and drag the cloning box to the location where you want the cloned text to appear on the screen.

Copying and Pasting. The Clipboard tool is for copying and pasting text and graphics on PODIUM screens. To copy text, use the Text tool to click once on a text field, then drag your mouse to select the text you want to copy. Click the Clipboard tool with your left mouse button to copy the text. To paste the text, use the Text tool to position the cursor inside the text field where you want to paste the text, and click the Clipboard tool with the right button. To copy graphics, use the Block tool to draw a block around the graphic you want to copy, and click the Clipboard icon with the left mouse button. To paste graphics, right-click the Clipboard icon.

Deleting. In addition to letting you create objects, the toolbox also lets you delete them. The delete icon appears in the toolbox as a trash can. To delete an object, you click first on the delete icon, and your cursor assumes the shape of a trash can. Then you mouse over the object you want to delete and click once. A dialog box will identify the item to be deleted and ask you to confirm that you really want to delete it.

Undoing and Redoing. The undo/redo tool appears in the toolbox as a person about to scream, which is how you feel when you make a mistake. Not to worry, because PODIUM remembers the last 32 things you did to a multimedia screen. Clicking the Undo/Redo icon with your left mouse button lets you undo them, one by one, each time you click. Clicking the Undo/Redo icon with your right mouse button does a redo.

Block Editing. When you select the Block tool from PODIUM's custom toolbox, you can group text and graphics for block editing. To create a block, move your mouse to the upper left corner of the part of the screen you want to block. Hold down the left mouse button, and drag the mouse to the lower right corner of the block. A box will show the block. You can use the color, font, center, move, size, shadow, clone, and delete tools on the block. Any change you make to any item in the block will apply to all of the items in the block. Pressing the delete key will delete all of the items in the block. You can also use the text insert and text edit tools on blocks. When you click inside a block with the text insert tool, PODIUM will use the block to set the margins for the text. As you type your text, PODIUM will automatically wrap the text to make it fit within these margins.

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