General User Interface

Toolbars

The GRiNS user interface provides a set of control panels and toolbars that contain short-cut icons for common operations. Toolbars can be anchored to the GRiNS main window or floating. Toolbar visibility is controlled through the View->toolbars pull-down menu. See also “Toolbars” on page 13.

Previewer Control Panel

The previewer control panel controls the GRiNS internal preview of a document. It always has buttons for the Play, Pause, and Stop commands. You may also select control over synchronous playback: if selected, the value of the SMIL syncMaster attribute is used to control synchronization during playback in the Previewer.

If Bandwidth Use Monitoring has been selected from the View menu, the Previewer will evaluate all Bitrate switch settings with the displayed value.

If one or more nodes have the System Test Language attribute set, the Previewer will evaluate all switch settings with the displayed value.

Note: GRiNS/RealOne allows systemLanguage and systemBitrate to be set. GRiNS/Pro allows all SMIL test attributes to be set/evaluated, including systemCaptions.

File and General

This toolbar contains single-click buttons to the File menu items:

New

Create a new presentation.
See “New...” on page 7.

Open

Open an existing presentation.
See “Open...” on page 7.

Save

Save the presentation.
See “Save” on page 7.

Restore

Revert to the last saved version.
See “Revert to saved” on page 8.

Close

Close the current document.

Close window

Close the current view or dialog.

Zoom in/out

Zoom the timeline or the layout view. See also “Show Timeline/ Bandwidth” on page 13.

Help

Short-cut help icon. (For future use.)

Containers

This toolbar contains items that can be dragged to the structured timeline to create a container (group) node or media object. The same result also can be achieved through menu-bar commands or using the right-click contextual menus. All of the icons below are also available in the Insert pull-down menu.

The container icons are active only when in the structured timeline. For more details about the behaviors of these objects “Containers (Groups)” on page 17.

Par

Create a Parallel container;
all children share a common time base, starting at the beginning of the parallel.

Seq

Create a Sequential container;
each component is scheduled after its predecessor.

Switch

Create a Switch container;
at most one of the children will be activated, based on Language or Bitrate settings on the items.

Excl

Create an Exclusive container;
at most one child will be active, based on event behavior or scheduled start times.

Priority Class

Create a Priority container;
define a priority grouping for contained nodes. (May be used inside an Excl only.)

Media Item

Create an empty Media object;
the media node’s properties will determine when and how it is rendered.

Brush

Create a Brush object;
fills an area with the color based on the node’s properties.

The following icons are only active when in the Layout view:

Top Layout

Create a new Top-Layout. “Top-layout” on page 21. (Note: GRiNS/Pro Only.)

Region

Create a new region that is a child of the parent region/layout. “Region” on page 21

Timing and Linking

This toolbar allows synchronization and timing events to be added to containers and media objects in any view where presentation objects (media, nodes) can be selected. They are single-click buttons that apply to the currently selected object. Only those icons that are relevant to the current editing context are active. For instance, a begin event or hyper link destination cannot be created unless the source has been created and selected first.

Internal Link Source

Use the selection as the source of a hyperlink to an internal node. (GRiNS/Pro Only; not supported by HTML+TIME.)

Internal Link Destination

Use as the destination of a hyperlink to an internal node. (GRiNS/Pro Only; not supported by HTML+TIME.)

External Link

Use the selection as the source of a hyperlink to an external node. See “Create full link source and edit” on page 11.

Context Link

Use the selection as the source of a trigger to place content in the RealOne Context window. “Create link to context window...” on page 11. (Only supported by RealOne player.)

Browser Link

Use the selection as the source of a trigger to place content in the RealOne Browser window. “Create link to browser window...” on page 11. (Only supported by RealOne player.)

Event source

Use the selection as the source of an event. “Use as event source” on page 11.

Create begin event

Create a begin event on the selection using the previously selected event source. “Create begin event” on page 11.

Create end event

Create an end event on the selection. “Create end event” on page 12.

Align / Distribute

(GRiNS/Pro Only)

These single-click buttons are active when two or more objects are selected in the layout view (“Layout Overview” on page 21) for purpose of physical arrangement.

The align/distribute toolbar is active only for the Layout view and is only available in the GRiNS/Pro product.

Left edges

Align left edges of 2 or more items.

V-Centers

Align vertical centers of 2 or more items.

Right edges

Align right edges of 2 or more items.

Top edges

Align top edges of 2 or more items.

H-Centers

Align horizontal centers of 2 or more items.

Bottom edges

Align bottom edges of 2 or more items.

Distribute horizontal

Divide available horizontal space between 3 or more items.

Distribute vertical

Divide available horizontal space between 3 or more items.