User Interface

MUI

MUI is a much more powerful UI system than Gadtools, and as you can see if you are viewing this page on a screen with at least 32 free colormap entries, it also looks a lot nicer. It is almost endlessly customizable.

It is recommended that you register MUI. It is not expensive, and well worth the small cost.

Back to Top

Save/Use/Cancel

The Save button will close the UI window and save the current preferences settings to ENVARC:OpaqueMove/Opaque.Prefs and ENV:OpaqueMove/Opaque.Prefs.

The Use button will close the UI window and save the current preferences settings only to ENV:OpaqueMove/Opaque.Prefs.

The Cancel button will close the UI window and re-load the last set of preferences saved to ENV:OpaqueMove/Opaque.Prefs, which will cancel any changes since the last Save or Use.

Back to Top

Move/Size Preferences

This is the movement preferences window; the size preferences window looks similar. This window allows you to set various preferences related to which windows are or are not moved opaquely.

Allow Screen

An AmigaOS wildcard pattern. The screen title of the current screen must match this pattern before any windows on the screen may be moved opaquely.

Allow Window

Similar to Allow Screen but a matter which window titles must match before the window may be moved opaquely.

Deny Screen

Similar to Allow Screen, but any windows on a screen matching this pattern will not be moved opaquely.

Deny Window

Counterpart to Allow Window.

Screen Depths

A window's containing screen depth must be checked in this list before the window may be moved opaquely. This is useful for non-graphics card screens where some bit depths may be very slow to render graphics. On modern graphics cards under the CyberGfx system, this makes little difference.

New to V2.3: the EGS/AGA gadgets control the operation on native screen modes, and the new CyberGfx 8, 16, and 24 bit selections are used to control CyberGfx screenmodes.

Max Windows

Since screens with many windows may be slow, this is a limit for how many windows the screen may contain before opaque movement is turned off.

Max WinX

Since large windows may be slow to move on some graphics devices, windows larger than this width will by moved by outline.

Max WinY

Similar to Max WinX but for height instead of width.

Refresh Simple

On most graphics devices, simple refresh windows are faster to move than smart refresh. If this button is checked, simple refresh windows may be moved opaquely.

Refresh Smart

Under standard Intuition, smart refresh windows can be very slow to move. This gadget may be toggled off to stop smart refresh windows from being moved opaquely. Note that the qlayers patch may be installed to speed up movement of smart refresh windows, in which case it might be practical to check this option.

Qualifier

The qualifier that must be pressed before opaque movement is performed. This can be "None" (mostly useful in combination with the Drag Bar control option), or you can select from various qualifier keys such as shift, control, and so on. There are two sets of Qualifier/Control combinations, so you can specify conditions such as "No Qualifier/Dragbar, or Control Key/Center.

Control

Specifies the location in which a window must be grabbed before it can be moved opaquely. This can be Anywhere (useful with qualifier keys), Drag Bar (useful either with or without qualifier keys), Center (useful with external size commodities), or Off.

Button

In OpaqueMove 2.2, users of three button mice can use either the left or middle mouse buttons to control dragging and sizing operations.

The Size preferences window is almost identical to the movement preferences window, except that the possible control locations are different:

Control

Specifies the location in which a window must be grabbed before it can be sized opaquely. This can be Gadget (useful with or without qualifiers), Edge/Corner (the window may be grabbed near any edge or corner, useful with qualifier keys), Edge (only window edges but not corners count), corner (only window corners but not edges count), Edge/Corner/Gadget, or Off.

Back to Top

General Preferences

This is the general preferences window. It controls various preferences:

Global Deny Screen

Some programs, such as Final Writer, appear not to work correctly with OpaqueMove. Any screen or window matching this pattern will not be moved either by outline or opaquely by OpaqueMove.

Global Deny Window

Similar to Global Deny Screen but for windows.

Border Width

This controls the border width for the "Center" drag location, and the edge & corner widths for the associated size locations. For example, if you are using Edge/Corner sizing, then you must grab the window closer than this many pixels to an edge or corner.

Key File

This is the location of your OpaqueMove key file. Without a registered key file, the program is fully functional, but there is a shareware requester presented at start time, and the "About" menu will list the program as unregistered.

Brush Dir

This is the directory that contains the custom IFF brushes that will be used if the Custom Cursors option is checked. The brush names under this directory are always fixed:

Brush.Move
Brush.Size_LF
Brush.Size_RT
Brush.Size_UP
Brush.Size_DN
Brush.Size_UPLF
Brush.Size_UPRT
Brush.Size_DNLF
Brush.Size_DNRT

There is one cursor for window movement, and 8 for sizing (one for each corner, and one for each edge). Brushes must be 2 plane IFF files, with a GRAB chunk to indicate the cursor hotspot. Transparent colors and so on depend on your specific graphics device.

OpaqueMove includes two sets of cursors. The Shadowed set assumes that Color 0 is transparent, color 1 is the primary cursor color, color 2 is also transparent, and color 3 is a dark shadow color (usually black). This is an appropriate scheme for most Amiga graphics card, and the colors may be set in the Sys:Prefs/Pointer program. They will not be changed by OpaqueMove. The Flat set uses only color 1.

Custom Cursors

If this is checked, OpaqueMove will use the custom cursors from BrushDir will be used for movement or sizing. All of the supplied cursors have been designed to look good in high res mode on graphics cards (set with the sys:Prefs/Pointer program), when pointer color 1 is bright, and color 3 is black.

Show Size/Pos Win

If this is checked, a small window showing the current size and location of the window being moved or sized is shown, like this:

Friendly Layers Lock

Not yet functional.

Hide Win on Start

If this is checked, then OpaqueMove will start iconified. Note that an unregistered OpaqueMove will not do this, since it always displays the registration requestor at startup. But this will work for registered versions. Whether an actual icon is generated depends on the MUI configuration set up in MUI preferences (MUI:MUI).

Back to Top

Menus

Project

Open...

This will present a requester from which a previously saved preferences file may be loaded.

Save

Identical to the Save button, this will save the current preferences settings to ENVARC: and ENV:, but will not close the window.

Save As...

This will present a requestor for saving preferences settings in an arbitrary location.

About...

This will display a small window showing the program version, registration information, and a few other items.

Register...

This will display the registration window which may be used to generate a file to be used for email or postal mail registration. See also Registration.

Hide

This will iconify the window. Whether an actual icon is displayed is controlled by the MUI preferences.

Quit

This will exit the program.

Edit

Restore

This will load the last set of settings from ENV: without closing the window.

Last Saved

This will load the last set of settings saved to ENVARC without closing the window

Settings

MUI...

This will show the MUI preferences window for OpaqueMove.

Back to Top

Quitting

• Sending a control-C signal to the process.
• Using the Commodities Exchange window to remove the commodity.
• Selecting Project/Quit from the OpaqueMove menus.

Back to Contents