MetaCard Corporation

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

45. "Save as" doesn't seem to work. Why not?

 When you save a substack, it is saved *with* its mainStack into a file. If you then reopen the stack, what you will see is the mainStack, *not* the stack you were editing. The general rule: unless you are preparing to distribute your stack, don't use "save as..." to make a backup of it. Instead, use the normal OS file copying feature to make a copy of it, or use the "clone" command and save the clone into a new file.

46. Why can't start editing groups or edit button scripts?

 Strange behavior can occur if there are multiple stacks with the same name loaded. Try renaming one of the stacks and then try use 'topLevel "oldname"' to see if a copy of the stack exists.

47. Cut/copy/paste doesn't seem to work. Why not?

 Cut/copy/paste of text selections doesn't work if you have your window manager set up to use pointer focus. See the README.install file for instructions on how to change it back to explicit/click-to-type focus.

Strange behavior can occur if there are multiple stacks with the same name loaded. Try renaming one of the stacks and then try type the following into the Message Box to see if a copy of the stack exists:

topLevel "oldname"

48. Why does my text selection keep disappearing?

Most likely your window manager is set to use pointer (implicit) focus. MetaCard is an active-focus application, which means that a stack only takes the keyboard focus when a text field within the stack needs it. Window managers that operate in focus-follows-pointer (implicit) focus mode give the focus to MetaCard windows that have no use for it, removing the focus from windows that do need it.

Pointer focus is an obsolete technology inherited from the old Sun and Apollo workstations where graphical displays were used primarily as a way to open multiple terminal windows. It does not work well with true GUI applications which open dialog boxes and support keyboard traversal among controls within the dialog boxes. Therefore, using explicit (click-to-type) focus policy is strongly recommend with MetaCard. Explicit focus is the default for mwm, olwm, NeXTstep, the Macintosh, OS/2 Presentation Manager, and MS-Windows. Instructions for reconfiguring olwm and mwm to use it can be found in the file README.install.

49. Why does the selection change size every time I click?

Most likely the Caps-Lock key is down.

50. Why can't I type text or use the backspace key in fields?

 Either the Caps-Lock key is down, the Mod 3 key (sometimes bound to Scroll-Lock or Num-Lock, run the "xmodmap" command to determine how these keys are bound), or the window is not accepting the focus. This last problem occurs with broken (or obsolete) window managers such as olwm and twm running in pointer focus mode. Please use explicit focus if possible (see the file README.mc for details), or use the -pointer option to the mc command.

51. Why is editing text sometimes sluggish?

 If you have an image or EPS object that overlaps a field, part of it will be redrawn after each character is typed. Set the layer of the image (or the field, or the group it is in) such that the image is under the field.

To improve performance and reduce memory usage on both the client and server, you should also crop your images down to the minimum size necessary. To crop an image, click on a painted on area with the pointer tool, and resize it using the resize handles.

52. Why do my images look washed out or miscolored?

MetaCard uses the system colormap unless the global property "privateColors" is set to true. If you're running another application that uses lots of colors (WWW browsers are notorious color hogs) Note that if you set the privateColors property to true, it may cause all the other applications on the display to "go technicolor" when MetaCard gets the keyboard focus.

The best solution to this problem is to use the same colors for all of your images, and to select colors for all the other objects from this palette. You may also want to color quantize any images in your stacks to reduce the number of colors they use. Most image conversion packages have filters for performing these operations.

53. Why does the display flicker when I select text or move controls?

Starting with the 2.1 release, stack windows are not automatically buffered with off-screen bitmaps/pixmaps. The buffers are automatically created when objects are selected, or when the "move" or "visual effect" commands are executed.

You can force a stack to be double-buffered at all times by setting the "alwaysBuffer" property of the stack to true.

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