Folders

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Revision as of 07:00, 29 August 2013 by Saabie (Talk | contribs) (5.0.31 update)

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Folder Pane

On the left side of the ADRIFT developer window is the folder list display pane:

Folders.jpg

The "Standard Library" folder contains 12 sub-folders which contain all of the built-in commands and functions that you can use in your game.

You can display the folders in it by double-clicking the name or clicking on the + box next to it. Clicking the - box or double-clicking again will collapse the folder list again.

FoldersShowingLib.jpg

The other 12 top-level folders are for you to store the Locations, Objects, Tasks etc. that you create for this particular game.

When you first open ADRIFT developer, the first 5 of these folders (Locations, Objects, Tasks, Characters and Events) will be open at the bottom of the window, all of them empty except the Characters folder which contains the "Player" character.

FoldersWindow.jpg

To open another folder, just double-click on its name in the folder list.

Double-click the "Properties" folder at the bottom. It will open on top of the other folder windows and can be seen to contain 3 properties.

Click on the "Characters" folder in the folder list. Note that it's window comes in front of the properties window and its caption becomes boldface to indicate that it is the currently selected folder. This is a good way to find a folder that has become hidden behind other windows.

The folder windows can be closed by clicking the red X, then re-opened by double clicking them in the folder list.

If a folder contains other folders, such as the standard library, then you can't open it by double-clicking. If it only contains other folders then there is no need to open it, but if you ever put both items and folders into the same folder then the only way to open it is to right-click on it to open the context menu.

FolderContextMenu.jpg

  • "Collapse" or "Expand" will do the same as double-clicking the folder.
  • "Open in new window" is the option to use to access items in a folder that contains both subfolders and items.
  • "Copy" can be used to duplicate an entire folder.
  • "Delete" will delete the folder and everything in it!
  • "Rename" lets you call the folder something else (only do this to folders you created, not the standard ones)
  • "New" opens a menu of items that you can create in the folder. This is mostly used to create new sub-folders inside a folder, but this does allow you to create any of the 10 Adrift item types in a folder without opening it first.

Hiding the folder list

If you want to make more room on your screen for a large map or to have lots of windows open, then you can either close the folder list or set it to slide off of the left side of the window whenever you are not using it.

At the top of the folder list are 2 buttons, one that looks like a pin and one that looks like a small close button.

The close button does indeed close the folders list, and to open it again you will need to go to the view tab on the main ribbon and click the "Folder List" button.

The pin button activates the auto-hide mode. The map and workspace area will be extended behind the folder list, and a "Folders" tab will appear on the left side of the window.

FolderAutoHide.jpg

Moving the mouse off of the folder list will cause it to slide off of the screen out of the way. Positioning the mouse over the "Folders" tab will bring it back when you want to use it.

If you expand or collapse a folder tree, you need to click on another folder, or an open folder window, to hide the folder list again.

To turn off the auto-hide and keep the folder list on the screen, just press the pin button again.

The map can also be closed or hidden in the same way as the folders.

Folder Window Context Menu

If you right click on an empty part of a folder window (or a columb heading in detail view) then you will get a context menu with options to change the way the items are displayed, to copy and paste items, or to add a new item:

FolderWindowContextMenu.jpg

View

When you click "View" on the menu you are given 3 choices that control the way the items are displayed in the window:

  • Icons - displays each item as a large icon:

FolderWindowIcons.jpg

  • List - Items are listed in multiple columns:

FolderWindowList.jpg

  • Details - Allows you to display more information about each item:

FolderWindowDetails.jpg

Adjacent to the red X that closes the window, an icon that looks like a funnel is displayed when in Details view.

If you click on this icon it will display a list of columns that can be added to the window.

FolderDetailsMenu.jpg

With all of the columns enabled, the window will look like this:

PropertyListDetails.jpg

You can now see at a glance when you created each item, when you last modified it, what type of item it is, its key and its priority. (priority is only used for tasks)

Sort By

The Sort-by menu allows you to change the order in which items will be displayed:

FolderWindowSort.jpg

  • Name - List the items in alphabetical order
  • Creation date - List the items in the order they were created
  • Modified date - Put the items you have been working on recently together
  • Type - Groups the same types of item together (see also "Group By" below)
  • Task priority - Tasks are listed in order of priority

Here is one of the standard library folders sorted by name:

FolderWindowSortName.jpg

If you right-click and select the "sort by" menu again, the selected order will be indicated by a tick and an extra option will now be available:

  • (None) - Turn off sorting for this folder window.

FolderWindowSortNameMenu.jpg

In all cases the items are initially sorted in ascending order, but you can reverse the order by selecting "Descending" from the menu.

When in Detail view you can also sort by clicking on one of the column headers, and reverse the order by clicking the same header again.

Group by

The group-by menu currently has only one option, group by type:

FolderWindowGroup.jpg

If the View is set to "Details" then the window will look like this when grouped by type:

FolderWindowGroupType.jpg

IconWarning.png Bug #18506 New items added to the folder while grouped by type, are not visible until group-by mode is turned off (version 5.0.23)


The group menu will now have an option to group by (None), and to change the order of the groups to descending:

FolderWindowGroupTypeMenu.jpg

If the View is set to "Icons" then the window will look like this when grouped by type:

FolderWindowIconsGrouped.jpg

  • Group by has no effect if the View is set to "List".

Cut and Paste

This Paste option is only available if an item has previously been cut or copied from a folder window.

Clicking Paste will create a new item in this folder which is identical to the one that was most recently cut or copied.

The cut, copy and delete options are only available if an item has been selected in the window.

  • Cut - The selected item will be shown dimmed. Pasting it into another folder window will move it to that folder.
  • Copy - A copy of the selected item may now be pasted into a folder window.
  • Delete - The selected item will be completely destroyed and cannot be recovered.

Add New

This menu allows you to create a new folder inside of this folder, or create any of the 12 types of ADRIFT item and add it to this folder window.

FolderWindowAddNew.jpg

Item Context Menu

If you right-click on one of the items instead of on a blank area of the window or a column heading, then you will see a different context menu:

ItemContextMenu.jpg

  • Edit - Open item for editing (You can also double-click the item to edit it)
  • Cut - The clicked item will be shown dimmed. Pasting it into another folder window will move it to that folder.
  • Copy - A copy of the clicked item may now be pasted into a folder window.
  • Delete - The clicked item will be completely destroyed and cannot be recovered.
  • Rename - Change the name of the clicked item without opening the full edit window.

For any of the 12 standard item folders you will also get the option to add its default item:

  • Locations folder - Add Location
  • Objects folder - Add Object
  • Tasks folder - Add Tasks
  • Characters folder - Add Character
  • Events folder - Add Event
  • Groups folder - Add group
  • Variables folder - Add Variable
  • Text overrides folder - Add Text Override
  • Hints folder - Add Hint
  • Properties folder - Add Property
  • Synonyms folder - Add Synonym
  • User Functions folder - Add User Function

Depending on what type of item you click on you will also have these options:

General Task

  • Add Specific Task - Add a new specific task that overrides the selected general task.

Object

  • Add Sub-Object - A new object is created which is "part of" the selected object.
  • Add Specific Task - This will display a list of all of the general tasks which contain an %object% reference. Selecting one will create a specific task that overrides that general task for the selected object.

Character

  • Add Sub-Object - A new object is created which is "part of" the selected character.
  • Add Specific Task - This will display a list of all of the general tasks which contain an %character% reference. Selecting one will create a specific task that overrides that general task for the selected character.

Location

  • Add object to location - A new static object is created, with its "At Location" property already set to the selected location.
  • Add Specific Task - This will display a list of all of the general tasks which contain an %location% reference. Selecting one will create a specific task that overrides that general task for the selected location.

Creating your own folders

With a very large game there may be dozens or hundreds of items in each of your folders, especially the tasks folder.

You may wish to organise the game into smaller sections (such as by area or quest) so that you can work on that section without having to continuously search through large numbers of items to find the one's you want.

This can be done by creating your own folders in which you create your locations, objects, tasks etc., instead of using the standard folders.

To add a new folder inside of an existing folder, right-click on either an empty area of a folder window or on a folder in the folder list, and select "Add New" then "Folder".

IconWarning.png If you put both items and folders inside the same folder then you cannot open it by double clicking it on the folder list. You must right-click then select "Open in new window".

To add a new top-level folder, right-click on the "Desktop" folder at the top of the folder list, and select "New" then "Folder".


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