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<chapter id="interface"></chapter>
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<title>The user Interface</title>
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<para>When you start Synfig Studio, it will display a splash graphic and boot </para>
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itself up. After it finishes loading, you should see three windows. The window
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in the upper left is the toolbox. This is where you can open files, change tools,
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etc. You'll notice that most of the buttons are greyed out--because there is no
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file open yet.
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<para>The other two windows (one on the bottom, and one to the right) are </para>
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customizable dock dialogs. You can rearrange the contents of these however
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you wish by simply dragging the tab to where you want it. You can even create a
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new dock dialog by dragging a tab out of the dock dialog it was inside of.
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<para>If you ever accidentally close a dock tabs (by dragging it out of the dock </para>
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dialog, and closing the new dock dialog that gets created), no worries. Simply
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goto the toolbox and goto "File->Dialogs", and then click on the name of the
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dialog you need.
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<para>There are a lot of dock tabs. If you have no idea what a dock tab does, </para>
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simply hold your mouse over its icon and a tooltip will pop up describing the
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name of the tab.<para></para>
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Here are some of the more important ones:
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<itemizedlist></itemizedlist>
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<listitem></listitem>
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<para>Layers Dialog (<xref linkend="layers">) - This tab shows you the layer </xref></para>
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hierarchy for the currently selected canvas. It also allows you to manipulate
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these layers.
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<listitem></listitem>
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<para>Params Dialog (<xref linkend="params">)- This tab will show you the </xref></para>
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parameters of the currently selected layer, (OR, if multiple layers are
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selected, it shows you only the parameters that the selected layers have
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in common)
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<listitem></listitem>
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<para>Tool Options Dialog (<xref linkend="tooloptions">) - Shows you any </xref></para>
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options specific to the currently selected tool
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<listitem></listitem>
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<para>Navigator (<xref linkend="navigator">) - Shows you a thumbnail of what the currently selected Canvas</xref></para>
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looks like. You can also zoom in and move the focus around with this tab.
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<listitem></listitem>
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<para>History Dialog (<xref linkend="history">- Shows you the history stack for the current composition. </xref></para>
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You can also edit the actions in history.
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<para>If you click the "new composition" button in the toolbox, a new composition </para>
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will be opened and the canvas properties dialog will appear.
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<para>The canvas properties dialog is a mess, I know. I'll have it re-designed into </para>
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something much more comprehendible in the next few days. For now, ignore the
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"Image Area" and "Locks and Links" sections.
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<para>If you click OK, the canvas properties dialog will disappear and you will see </para>
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the Canvas window. This window represents the Root Canvas, not that that means much
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to you at the moment, but that's OK--I'm just trying to show you around.
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<para>In the upper left corner of the Canvas Window, you'll see a button with a </para>
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caret If you click on this button, the canvas window menu will pop up. (As an aside,
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if you right click in the canvas area and there is not a layer under the mouse
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position, this menu will also appear) So now you know where the menu is in the Canvas
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Window. Good. Everything else should be pretty self-explanatory in the Canvas Window.
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(Explanations on the menu stuff is to come in a sec)
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&toolbox.sgml;
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&layers.sgml;
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¶ms.sgml;
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&tooloptions.sgml;
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&navigator.sgml;
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&history.sgml;
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