Niklas Frykholm's SimpleCard...

Once-Asked Questions -
and a couple of tips from experience

1. CREATING CARDS

2. MANAGING STACKS AND CARDS

3. MANAGING SIMPLECARD ON THE MAC

Credits

1. CREATING CARDS

1.1. WORKING WITH TEXT

Inserting text - Specifying a font - Changing text

1.2. WORKING WITH IMAGES

Format - Imported graphics: dependency? - 'Cheat animation'

1.3. WORKING WITH SOUND

Pasting in - Clickable sounds

1.4. EXAMPLES?


1. CREATING CARDS

1.1. WORKING WITH TEXT

1.1.1. Inserting text

I see in the manual how to insert pictures and sounds - but how do I get text in there?!

As a PICT file, imported either as a 'drawing' or as a 'painting': drawings use less memory than paintings, paintings ensure a certain appearance.

1.1.2. Specifying a font

I spent ages choosing fonts for my stack, but when I saw it viewed on another computer, then my carefully chosen fonts had been replaced by something quite uninspiring like Geneva or Monaco. Then I made sure both machines had the same fonts, and it was OK... I'm used to that in html, of course, but does SimpleCard also work by "referring to" fonts rather than "baking them in"?

I supposed that since text was imported as a picture, all the details of its appearance were fixed... What do I have to do to ensure that the reader sees what I thought would be nice?

The PICT format supports both drawings and paintings. When you import your text as a _drawing_ the fonts are read from the system. However, when you import it as a _painting_ the appearance is fixed.

If you want to convert a drawing to a painting, simply cut the picture from SimpleCard (or your drawing program) and paste it into Photoshop, then cut it from Photoshop and paste it back to SimpleCard. Voila, you have converted it to a painting.

1.1.3. Changing text

(David's thought)

It's also central to the choice of how you work, that you can change your text after pasting it in if you've used a text object in 'drawing mode', and not if you've 'painted' it.


1.2. WORKING WITH IMAGES

1.2.1. Format

Can I use my images in formats like TIFF, JPEG, GIF, Photoshop's and ClarisWorks' own formats, and all the others...?!

When you make a card by importing an image into SimpleCard, you use the command "Open to This" or "Open to New", selecting a PICT file from your disc. You can open JPEGs under some conditions, because the PICT format contains its own kind of JPEGs. GIFs, however, you should not be able to open - though some users say they have been lucky...

When you make a card by pasting, you copy an image, just open a PICT, TIFF, GIF or JPEG, all Macintosh programs places a "PICT" version in the clipboard. The clipboard can hold many versions of the same image, PICT, JPEG, etc.

When you make a card by first creating complete artwork in another programme (ClarisWorks or Photoshop or JPEGView or ShareDraw or whatever) you don't need to save or even think about the format - just copy it onto the clipboard, and it comes out in SimpleCard in PICT format.

1.2.2. Imported graphics - dependency?

If I import a graphic item into a ClarisWorks drawing document, and copy from there and paste into Simple Card, can a remote reader see it without being dependent on accessing the original? Is it only text I have to put into and out of a painting document to make it independent of local sources (fonts)?

Yes. The original is not needed. The only thing that needs to be on the target computer is the fonts used by the text.

1.2.3. 'Cheat animation'

(David's thoughts)

You can use mother cards to give an impression of animation - of course you have to click once for each change of position... but that's fine for, e.g. a clown popping his tongue out, or a change of mood from sad to happy...

If you have a story to tell, you can use the same background for different parts of the same scene, the foreground figures changing with each paragraph, event or change of mood.

You can offer different versions of the same story - with or without text on the screen, with or without a speaking voice, in different languages...


1.3. WORKING WITH SOUND:

1.3.1. Pasting in

None of my sound files will actually paste anything into Simple Card - and the only thing to appear on the Clipboard is "text"...

It seems you are copying from the Finder. This does not work, because the Finder only copies the names of the files. Open the files in a sound editing program and copy them there.

1.3.2. Clickable sounds

SimpleCard plays a sound when the card opens: how can I have a sound which plays when you click on something, instead?

(David's thoughts)

You can make one card with the graphics and text you want, but no sound: make another card with only the sound, and with the first card as its mother card: and make a link from the first to the second, from wherever you want the clickable hot spot to be.

Of course, you can also have an 'arrival' sound on the first card if you want: and you can have any number of hot-spots linked to different sounds, each with the first card as mother card - an example could be a farmyard scene, with each animal's sound linked on a separate card. Or an orchestra or music group... Or a busy city... Or any new words for language learners...


1.4. EXAMPLES?

Can I see an example of SimpleCard used with text, pictures, sound and links?

At my home page, file download section, there is a file named "Goodies.sit". It contains a SimpleCard stack with links - "Adventure". Also, there is the SimpleCard manual itself.

(David's thoughts)


presentations by title

SimpleCard home page - opens in a new window