Visual Thought User's Guide
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Chapter 9 Editing Objects Using the Inspector

The Inspector allows you to examine and edit selected objects easily and in great detail. You can edit an individual object, multiple objects or groups.

The Inspector

The Inspector is composed of five panels, each with a specific purpose:

Panel

Function

Attachments

Attach images, sounds and files to objects

Shape

Change the "shape" attributes of objects

Position

Change location, size and rotation of objects

Style

Change colors, line width, fill, and shadow of objects

Text

Format text in objects

Panel	Function
Attachments	Attach images, sounds and files to objects
Shape	Change the "shape" attributes of objects
Position	Change location, size and rotation of objects
Style	Change colors, line width, fill, and shadow of objects
Text	Format text in objects

The information the Inspector displays depends on which objects are selected and their state at the time.

The Number of Inspected Objects

For further information on the focused View, see "The Focused View" on page 125.

You can examine the properties of single or multiple objects in the Inspector. The Inspector always examines and edits all selected objects in the focused View.

Inspecting a Single Object

When only a single object is selected, the Inspector displays the properties of that object. Manipulating the Inspector changes the attributes of that object.

Inspecting Multiple Objects

When you select more than one object, the Inspector displays attributes that the multiple selected objects have in common.

When multiple dissimilar objects with conflicting attributes are selected, the Inspector sometimes cannot display anything. For example, the Shape panel displays differently for shapes and connections, so if you select both shapes and connections, the Shape panel will display nothing. As another example, the Attachments panel can only examine and edit one object at a time, so if you select multiple objects, it too will display nothing.

Inspecting No Objects

What happens when no objects are selected in the focused View? In this case, the Inspector examines and edits the tool defaults of each tool that can create new objects; that is, Text tool, Connection tool, and Shape tool.

For example, to edit the Shape tool defaults:

Deselect all objects by switching to the Select tool, then clicking in an empty place in a View.
Switch to the Shape tool by clicking on its icon or typing 4. The Inspector Status line should now read "Inspecting: Shape Tool Defaults."
Switch the Inspector to the Style panel, then change the line width to 5, and the dash pattern to a dotted line.
Since you are still in Shape mode, click in the View. The Shape tool will now create shapes with a dotted line width of 5.

Using the Inspector

This section contains examples of using the Inspector.

Examining and Changing the Style of Multiple Objects

Create a circle and a triangle by dragging-and-dropping the two shapes from the basic Palette into the View window.
Create a connection between the two shapes by switching to Connection mode, then clicking on the first shape, dragging to the second, and releasing.
Since the connection is now selected, change one end to have an arrowhead by turning it on from the Shape panel. (Use the Show At End? checkbox.)
Select only the circle and the rectangle (not the arrow) by changing back to Select mode, clicking on the circle, then Ctrl-clicking on the rectangle.

Notice the Style panel in the Inspector. The Shadow subpanel says that all selected objects are shadowed in gray.

Back in the View window, click outside the objects to deselect all.
Now click inside the circle only to select it.
Return to the Inspector Style panel and turn the shadowing off.
Select both the circle and the triangle again in the View window.

Notice that back in the Shadow subpanel, the Shadowed? box is grayed; this means that the objects selected do not all have the same value of this characteristic.

Changing the Shape of Multiple Objects

Create a circle, a square and a triangle.
Select the circle.

In the Inspector panel selector, click on the Shape button (Ctrl-2). Notice that the circle shape (in the Inspector) is already highlighted.
Click on the 5-point star shape in the Shape panel.

The circle shape (in the View window) is changed to a star.

Select all the shapes (Ctrl-A).
Scroll down the Shape panel and click on the arrow shape in the Inspector window

.

All the shapes are now changed to arrows.

Positioning Objects

Select all the arrows in the View window (Ctrl-A).
Click on the Position button in the Inspector panel selector (Ctrl-3).

Click-and-drag the small circle (inside the Rotation dial) around to change the angle of rotation of the shapes. You can also change the angle by clicking in the Angle field, entering the number, and then pressing Return.

All selected objects are rotated.

Notice how easily you can move back steps. Visual Thought provides 100 levels of Undo/Redo.

Undo the rotation change by pressing Ctrl-Z. Press Ctrl-Shift-Z to redo. (The Undo and Again keys also perform these functions.)

Adding Color

Select all the arrows in the View window (Ctrl-A).
Click on the Style button in the Inspector panel selector.

Click on the Set Color... button in the Fill subpanel in the lower, left-hand corner.

The Fill color chooser appears.

For further information about the color chooser, see the chapter entitled "Using the Color Chooser" on page 205.

Click in the large, multi-colored circle (the color wheel) to choose a color to fill. If the color wheel is completely white or black, click near the middle of the Light bar first; the color wheel will fill with colors.
Click OK to color the selected objects and dismiss the color chooser.
Select All (Ctrl-A) and press the Delete key to delete all objects in the View.

Changing the Stroke Width of an Object

Create a connection with an arrow at one end, and ensure it is selected.

"Stroke" is a PostScript term that means to outline an object.

In the Inspector Style panel, click on the Stroked? button to see the effect of turning stroking off.
Click the button again to turn the stroking back on.
Slide the Width slider to 2. Alternatively, enter "2" in the Width field to change the width of the stroking and press Return.

Visual Thought User's Guide
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Chapter 9

Editing Objects Using the Inspector

The Inspector

Panel

Function

Inspector Panel Selector

The Inspector Panels

Inspector Concepts