Right-click everything! There are context menus with additional tools in alot of the windows!
All the static windows (this includes the main window, tool window, tool options, room window and all it's child windows, mobiles window and objects window) will remember their size, position and visibility, so you can customize your layout of the windows.
Closing any of the static windows will not actually close it, it will just hide. Selecting it again from the appropriate menu will make it visible again.
Configuration
When the map window is selected, you can change your active tool with keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts are controlled by the configuration file, but here are the default ones:
b BlankRoom
e ConnectRooms
c ConnectedRoom
s SelectionTool
d EraseRoom
r EraseExit
All the colors are configurable.
The general settings that can be turned on/off are:
RefreshListOnEdit - If true, when editing an object/mobile, the list window will update itself every time the mobile is edited.
DetailedView - Controls the "zoom" of the map view. If true, it will be zoomed in.
AntiAliasing - If true, the draw methods will use anti-aliasing.
FocusRoomWindowOnSelect - If true, the user focus will move to the room window when the selection in the map window changes.
SelectWhenCreated - When creating rooms with the create room tools, if this is set to true, the map will select the room after it's created.
SelectWhenCreatingExits - When connecting rooms with the exit tools, if this is set to true, the rooms will be selected when the tool is applied to them.
OpenDescriptionWithMobile - If true, a mobile's description window is opened when the mobile's edit window is opened.
OpenNpcFlagsWithMobile - See above.
OpenAffectFlagsWithMobile
OpenShieldFlagsWithMobile
OpenZoneCommandsWithMobile
The selection tool will select the pointed room on click and select a group of rooms inside a rectangle when you drag it with the left mouse button pressed. If the shift key is pressed, it will not clear the selection so you can select several rooms.
The mobile and object tools (picture of a person, and an umburella) will on a left mouse click insert a new zone command (or several) into the pointed room. The command will have the attributes specified in the options window. The mobiles/objects to be inserted are defined by the little checkboxes in front of their names in the list windows.
Editing rooms
There are two ways of editing rooms. The first way is to edit them individually. When a single room is selected in the map window, the room window will move to display that room's data. Then you can edit the room window and it's child windows to edit the room.
The second way is to edit several rooms at the same time. When more than one room is selected in the map window, the room window will have the text "Modify selected rooms". When this happens, every value that is not blank is set to all the selected rooms. Like for example, typing "Inside" to the sector field of the room window will change the sector of all the selected rooms into "Inside". However, just to make sure no harm is done to your area accidently by this feature, you need to confirm the editing by going into the map windows Operate menu and selecting "Modify rooms". When editing rooms in this way, everything else is replaced (except, of course, the fields you leave blank) by the new data, except the extra description and zone command lists. Instead of replacing the ones in the old rooms, modify rooms will combine the old and the new.
The map window's Operate menu contains other commands for editing a group of rooms as well, and they should be fairly easy to figure out.
Objects and mobiles
The objects and mobiles windows contain all the objects and mobiles of the area. There you can manage them with the tools available in the window's menu, and in the context menu you get by right-clicking in the list.
There are three ways of inserting mobiles and objects into rooms. First, there are the insert tools found in the tools window. Secondly, you can drag and drop mobiles and objects from their window onto the desired room on the map. Third, you can select to insert them in the selected rooms through the Operate menu.
The first and third options are dependant on which mobiles/objects you've selected for insertion. The checkboxes in front of the id and name of the object/mobile are an indication of this.
So to insert a mobile with the mobile insert tool, first check it's checkbox, and then select the mobile insert tool and click on the desired room on the map. You can insert several different mobiles at the same time by checking more than one checkbox. This can be done by holding down the shift key while clicking the checkboxes.
Creating a new mobile, or editing an old one can be done through the mobile list window menus. The mobile will open in it's own window, and some child windows. The special child window here is the Zone commands window. This is a list of zone commands that are common with all instances of the mobile. So for example, if you made an orc and there'd be six of them in your area, and all the orcs had a longsword and a helmet. After creating the objects themselves, you could add them to the mobile's own Zone commands, in which case they will be present where the mobile is. This sort of Zone commands are called static zone commands, because they're shared by all instances of that mobile. Editing these zone commands will make the changes for every instance of that mobile. Oh, and this whole paragraph is the same for objects.
Once you've inserted a mobile, you might want to make one instance of it special. Like those six orcs we had. Let's suppose one of them needs to have a key with him. We can't add the key to the mobile's own zone command list, because then all of them would have it. For this, you need to first insert the mobile into the wanted room. Then, open the room's zone command window, and you will see your orc there. Right-click on the orc and select Edit command. In this window, in addition to being able to edit the command itself, you can add more zone commands under it that are specific to just this command.
Now if you look at the orc in the room's zone command window again, you can see that it has a plus sign in front of the name. Clicking this will expand the orc's tree, and you should see three lines under it. Two of them are red, the longsword and the helmet, while the key is black. The red text indicates that it is a static zone command, while the black text indicates it's a command specific to this instance of the object.
Let's go back to the mobile list window. When right-clicking a mobile, a menu pops up. This menu has, among other things, an option called Edit all instances. This command will display a window that calculates how many times the selected mobile has been instanced in the area, and presents you with the possibility of editing all of them globally. A blank field will leave the respective value unchanged.
Those last three paragraphs also hold true for objects.
Exits
Creating exits can be done in four ways. The easiest way is to let the program create them for you, by using the connected room tool. This tool creates a blank room and connects it with all the adjacent rooms.
The second way is to use the connect rooms tool.
The third way is to create custom exits manually in the room window's exits child window.
The fourth and last way is to select a group of rooms and click connect rooms in the Operate menu. This will do to all the selected rooms what the connected room tool does, it connects the rooms to their adjacent rooms.
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General
Right-click everything! There are context menus with additional tools in alot of the windows!
All the static windows (this includes the main window, tool window, tool options, room window and all it's child windows, mobiles window and objects window) will remember their size, position and visibility, so you can customize your layout of the windows.
Closing any of the static windows will not actually close it, it will just hide. Selecting it again from the appropriate menu will make it visible again.
Configuration
When the map window is selected, you can change your active tool with keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts are controlled by the configuration file, but here are the default ones:
b BlankRoom
e ConnectRooms
c ConnectedRoom
s SelectionTool
d EraseRoom
r EraseExit
All the colors are configurable.
The general settings that can be turned on/off are:
RefreshListOnEdit - If true, when editing an object/mobile, the list window will update itself every time the mobile is edited.
DetailedView - Controls the "zoom" of the map view. If true, it will be zoomed in.
AntiAliasing - If true, the draw methods will use anti-aliasing.
FocusRoomWindowOnSelect - If true, the user focus will move to the room window when the selection in the map window changes.
SelectWhenCreated - When creating rooms with the create room tools, if this is set to true, the map will select the room after it's created.
SelectWhenCreatingExits - When connecting rooms with the exit tools, if this is set to true, the rooms will be selected when the tool is applied to them.
OpenDescriptionWithMobile - If true, a mobile's description window is opened when the mobile's edit window is opened.
OpenNpcFlagsWithMobile - See above.
OpenAffectFlagsWithMobile
OpenShieldFlagsWithMobile
OpenZoneCommandsWithMobile
OpenWearFlagsWithObject
OpenAffectFlagsWithObject
OpenExtraFlagsWithObject
OpenAffectsWithObject
OpenExtraDescriptionsWithObject
OpenZoneCommandsWIthZoneCommand
Tools
The selection tool will select the pointed room on click and select a group of rooms inside a rectangle when you drag it with the left mouse button pressed. If the shift key is pressed, it will not clear the selection so you can select several rooms.
The mobile and object tools (picture of a person, and an umburella) will on a left mouse click insert a new zone command (or several) into the pointed room. The command will have the attributes specified in the options window. The mobiles/objects to be inserted are defined by the little checkboxes in front of their names in the list windows.
Editing rooms
There are two ways of editing rooms. The first way is to edit them individually. When a single room is selected in the map window, the room window will move to display that room's data. Then you can edit the room window and it's child windows to edit the room.
The second way is to edit several rooms at the same time. When more than one room is selected in the map window, the room window will have the text "Modify selected rooms". When this happens, every value that is not blank is set to all the selected rooms. Like for example, typing "Inside" to the sector field of the room window will change the sector of all the selected rooms into "Inside". However, just to make sure no harm is done to your area accidently by this feature, you need to confirm the editing by going into the map windows Operate menu and selecting "Modify rooms". When editing rooms in this way, everything else is replaced (except, of course, the fields you leave blank) by the new data, except the extra description and zone command lists. Instead of replacing the ones in the old rooms, modify rooms will combine the old and the new.
The map window's Operate menu contains other commands for editing a group of rooms as well, and they should be fairly easy to figure out.
Objects and mobiles
The objects and mobiles windows contain all the objects and mobiles of the area. There you can manage them with the tools available in the window's menu, and in the context menu you get by right-clicking in the list.
There are three ways of inserting mobiles and objects into rooms. First, there are the insert tools found in the tools window. Secondly, you can drag and drop mobiles and objects from their window onto the desired room on the map. Third, you can select to insert them in the selected rooms through the Operate menu.
The first and third options are dependant on which mobiles/objects you've selected for insertion. The checkboxes in front of the id and name of the object/mobile are an indication of this.
So to insert a mobile with the mobile insert tool, first check it's checkbox, and then select the mobile insert tool and click on the desired room on the map. You can insert several different mobiles at the same time by checking more than one checkbox. This can be done by holding down the shift key while clicking the checkboxes.
Creating a new mobile, or editing an old one can be done through the mobile list window menus. The mobile will open in it's own window, and some child windows. The special child window here is the Zone commands window. This is a list of zone commands that are common with all instances of the mobile. So for example, if you made an orc and there'd be six of them in your area, and all the orcs had a longsword and a helmet. After creating the objects themselves, you could add them to the mobile's own Zone commands, in which case they will be present where the mobile is. This sort of Zone commands are called static zone commands, because they're shared by all instances of that mobile. Editing these zone commands will make the changes for every instance of that mobile. Oh, and this whole paragraph is the same for objects.
Once you've inserted a mobile, you might want to make one instance of it special. Like those six orcs we had. Let's suppose one of them needs to have a key with him. We can't add the key to the mobile's own zone command list, because then all of them would have it. For this, you need to first insert the mobile into the wanted room. Then, open the room's zone command window, and you will see your orc there. Right-click on the orc and select Edit command. In this window, in addition to being able to edit the command itself, you can add more zone commands under it that are specific to just this command.
Now if you look at the orc in the room's zone command window again, you can see that it has a plus sign in front of the name. Clicking this will expand the orc's tree, and you should see three lines under it. Two of them are red, the longsword and the helmet, while the key is black. The red text indicates that it is a static zone command, while the black text indicates it's a command specific to this instance of the object.
Let's go back to the mobile list window. When right-clicking a mobile, a menu pops up. This menu has, among other things, an option called Edit all instances. This command will display a window that calculates how many times the selected mobile has been instanced in the area, and presents you with the possibility of editing all of them globally. A blank field will leave the respective value unchanged.
Those last three paragraphs also hold true for objects.
Exits
Creating exits can be done in four ways. The easiest way is to let the program create them for you, by using the connected room tool. This tool creates a blank room and connects it with all the adjacent rooms.
The second way is to use the connect rooms tool.
The third way is to create custom exits manually in the room window's exits child window.
The fourth and last way is to select a group of rooms and click connect rooms in the Operate menu. This will do to all the selected rooms what the connected room tool does, it connects the rooms to their adjacent rooms.