WBPattern Editor

The WBPattern editor lets you change the background display of the screen and the Workbench and its windows. The WBPattern editor window is illustrated in Figure 5-12.

Figure 5-12. WBPattern Preferences Editor Window

The Placement cycle gadget lets you select the following for displaying a background:

Workbench	The Workbench window, regardless of whether Backdrop is selected.
Windows	Disk or drawer windows, but not the Shell or tools windows.
Screen	The Workbench screen when Backdrop is not selected.

The Type cycle gadget lets you select:

Pattern	Allows you to create a pattern or use a preset pattern to apply to the Workbench, Windows, or Screen display.
Picture	Lets you select a picture to apply to the Workbench, Windows, or Screen display.

Applying Background Patterns

You can select an already existing pattern or create your own to fill any open areas for the window. The default is no pattern.

To choose a preset pattern:

1. Make a selection in the Placement cycle gadget: Workbench, Windows, or Screen.
2. Select Pattern from the Type cycle gadget.
3. Select one of the patterns in the Presets gadget to show a sample in the display box above it.
4. You can optionally select the Test gadget to apply the pattern to the screen without exiting the editor.

To create a pattern:

1. Make a selection in the Placement cycle gadget: Workbench, Windows, or Screen.
2. Select Pattern from the Type cycle gadget.
3. If there is a pattern in the magnified view box, select the Clear gadget to fill the magnified view box with the currently selected color as a background.
4. Select a color for drawing from the color selection gadget. Or select a pattern from the Presets gadget and use the mouse to edit it.
5. Point within the magnified view box to where you wish to draw and click the selection button.

   On pixel of the selected color appears where you position the mouse pointer. Holding down the selection button and moving the mouse fills in several pixels at once. Select and draw in other color as necessary.

   As the pattern is created in the magnified view, it also appears in the actual-size box so you can see how the pattern looks tiled onto a larger area. If you make a mistake while drawing, use the Undo gadget to erase the last action performed by the mouse.

6. When the pattern is completed, select the Test gadget to see how it appears on the screen.

Applying Pictures

You can apply a picture or graphic file to the background of the Workbench, Windows, or Screen. Pictures can be created in a paint package or you can load digitized picture files into the editor. Pictures are mapped to the colors of the screen.

To select an existing picture file:

1. Select Picture from the Type cycle gadget.
2. Click on the Select Picture gadget.
3. In the file requester, enter the file name of the picture you wish to use.
4. Optionally select the Test gadget to apply the picture to the screen without exiting the editor.

WBPattern Edit Menu

The WBPattern Edit menu has items that let you use other drawing programs to create and edit patterns and to use existing images from other sources. For example, you can use the drawing capabilities of the IconEdit tool, described in Chapter 10, to create a design and then load it into WBPattern.

Cut	Copies the contents of the magnified view to the Clipboard and clears the view to the background color.
Copy	Copies to the Clipboard without clearing the view.
Paste	Copies an IFF image from the Clipboard to the magnified view, replacing whatever is currently there. (Images larger than the 16 x 16 pixel view are cut off on the bottom and right sides.)
Erase	Clears the magnified view to the background color.
Undo	Operates the same as the Undo gadget, exchanging the contents of the Undo and magnified views.
Load Image	Opens a file requester for entering the name of an image file to use as a background pattern.
Reset to Defaults	Resets WBPattern to default settings (no patterns).
Last Saved	Returns the last saved settings.
Restore	Restores the settings in effect when the editor was opened.

When you Save or Use, all selected patterns or pictures are saved and/or applied where designated. Selecting Cancel also cancels any patterns or pictures applied with Test gadget.

Workbench Editor

The Workbench preference editor, illustrated in Figure X-X, is part of OS3.5/3.9 and controls some basic parameters for the Workbench.

Figure X-X. Workbench Preferences Editor Window

Hidden Devies

The list on the left of the window shows all physical devices on your computer (i.e. hard drive partitions, CD-ROM drives, etc.). If the checkmark to the left of a device name is active, that device will not be displayed on the Workbench screen but will remain available from the CLI, through file requesters, etc. This option is useful for e.g. hiding drives that only contain temporary data and need not be accessed from the workbench.

Icons

The Workbench Icons have the following options:

No color icons	Activating this option causes NewIcons and the new OS3.5/3.9 icons to be ignored and the 4-color icons of OS3.1 and earlier versions to be used.
No NewIcons	Activating this option causes all NewIcon data an icon file might contain to be ignored, using the normal" icon image instead.
Set MagicWB Colors	This option is only available with OS3.9. Activating this option causes the right colors be given to MagicWB icons.
Quality	This popup-menu controls the color allocation for icon images. The higher the quality level you select, the better the icons will look on the monitor. Please bear in mind that at the same time less colors are available for other applications to use.
Border size	This popup-menu provides global control over the border size used for icons and whether icons should have a border at all. Please bear in mind that it is possible to create icons that are displayed borderless, even if the global borders are enabled.
No NewIcons	This popup-menu allows those users with graphic cards to put the images in Other Memory (Fast Memory).

Appearance

Both of these options are only available with OS3.9:

Stack size

This gadget controls the default stack size to use for programs that were started from workbench although they do not possess an icon.

Keyboard Selection Delay

This gadget allows you to specify the time (in seconds) Workbench will wait before clearing the keyboard buffer for keyboard-based icon selection. I.e. after the specified time has expired, any keyboard input will be interpreted as the beginning of a new icon name instead of the continuation of the current one.