Pull-Down Menus

General Information

All commands in the GRiNS Editors are available via the menu bar. (The only exceptions to this rule are commands that have meaning only in the context of a single dialog.)

Many common commands are also available in a contextual popup menu on the object, invoked with the right mouse button, but these contextual menus are only a subset of the full command set available in the menu bar.

Many commands also have keyboard shortcuts which can be seen in the pull-down menu, or toolbar buttons (See “Toolbars” on page 3), but again these are a subset of the complete command set.

Commands are active only if they make sense given the current selection, state of the document, etc.

Pull-Down Menu Sets

File Menu

The structure for the File menu is shown at right.

New...

Create a new document from a template. (The template selection dialog is shown as a result of this command.) A filename will be requested upon creating the new document.

Open...

Open an existing presentation. The presentation can be a GRiNS project file (.grins or .xgrins) or a standard SMIL file (.smi or .smil).

Open URL...

Opens an existing presentation by giving a URL, allowing you to read in presentations from a web server. However, since you cannot save the presentation back to the web, so you will be prompted to use Save as....

Open recent

A submenu of the most recent presentations edited, for quick access.

Close

Closes the current presentation and all its views.

Save

Save the current presentation.

Save as...

Save the current presentation to a new .grins file or .xgrins binary-coded presentation file. Use Publish to produce a .smil file.

Revert to saved

Discards all the changes made to the document since the last save.

Publish

A submenu providing exports of a GRiNS presentation. (See

Document Properties

This shows the document properties dialog (See “Info Tab” on page 43). Top-level document properties can be set such as Author and Copyright information, as well as FTP addresses for uploading to the server that will host the data.

Preferences...

Document specific preferences that allow the author to set options such as synchronous playback or template creation. (GRiNS/Pro Only.)

Exit

Exit the GRiNS Editor session.

Publish Sub-Menu

The structure of the File->Publish menu is shown at right. Note that as part of presentation publishing, media objects are copied into a single distribution directory and a file name prompt is given.

Publish for RealOne ...

Takes the current project and creates a .smil file that is compatible with the RealOne player. (Media objects may be converted as part of the publish; see “Media Conversion” on page 48.)

Publish for RealOne and upload ...

Same as Publish for RealOne, except that the resulting presentation is uploaded to a server based on the properties defined for the project. See “GRiNS Preferences” on page 40.

The following commands are active when using the GRiNS/Pro Editor only. (Note that not all commands are supported in all versions.)

Publish for HTML+TIME

Converts the syntax of the project to the XHTML+SMIL profile, as adapted by Microsoft for HTML+TIME. (Not all SMIL constructs are supported by IE-6; GRiNS/Pro Only.)

Publish for RealPlayer 8

Converts the presentation to a SMIL 1.0 format, as supported by RealPlayer 8. (Special editions of GRiNS/Pro Only.)

Publish for GRiNS SMIL 2 Player ...

Creates a presentation in full SMIL 2.0 (Language Profile) compliance format. Will work with any fully compliant SMIL 2.0 player, such as the GRiNS/SMIL-2.0 Player. (GRiNS/Pro Only.)

Publish for GRiNS /PocketPC

Creates a presentation that is compatible with the GRiNS scalable PocketPC Player. (GRiNS/Pro Only; special versions support device enahancements.)

Prune and Publish for 3GPP/PSS4

Creates a presentation that is compatible with the 3GPP Mobile SMIL profile (version PSS4). Will remove any options and conditional content not compatible with that profile. (GRiNS/Pro Only; special versions support device enhancements.)

Prune and Publish for SMIL 2.0

Similar to Publish for GRiNS SMIL 2.0 Player, except that it will remove any options and conditional content not compatible with that profile. (GRiNS/Pro Only.)

Publish as GRiNS Template

Allows the current project to be saved in a template format, with all template settings enabled. See also “Per-Object Template Setting” on page 54. (GRiNS/Pro Only.)

Edit Menu

The structure of the Edit menu is shown at right:

Undo

Undo the last edit operation. Edit operations are operations that modify the presentation (or the clipboard); non-editing operations, such as selecting a different node are not undoable. The undo stack is accessible until saving the document.

Redo

Redo the operation most recently undone.

Cut

Remove the currently selected object and place it on the clipboard. References to and from the item on the clipboard (begin events, hyperlinks, etc.) will continue to point to that object.

Copy

Create a copy of the selection and put this copy on the clipboard.

Copy properties

Shows a dialog that lists all properties on the currently selected item. Highlight the desired properties and they are copied to the clipboard. This is very useful for quickly duplicating special properties to many places (such as duration or region placement).

Paste

Put the contents of the clipboard back in the document, using paste after semantics.

Paste special

Similar to paste but with an object placement submenu that allows paste before, paste within and/or paste after semantics.

Paste Properties

Used to paste the Copied Properties onto the currently selected object.

Delete

Remove the currently selected object from the document.

Delete, but keep content

Deletes the container currently selected, but leaves the media objects that were contained within the container in the parent container.

Properties...

Show the properties dialog for the current selection. In the properties dialog you can set such things as duration (for media items) or background color (for regions). See “Property Dialogs” on page 37 for more information.

Edit content

Open an external media editor for the media item in the current selection. This only works if the item resides on the local disk, and if a media editor is known for the specific media type.

The following commands are active during editing in the source view. (GRiNS/Pro only.)

Find...

Search for text.

Find next

Find the next occurrence of the search string.

Replace...

Search for text and replace it.

Insert Menu

Insert commands are used for inserting new containers and objects and regions into a presentation.

The insert media commands have three varieties that dictate where the new object will be inserted. These positions are before, after and within. The latter is only available if the selection is a container such as a sequential or parallel node.

The structure of the Insert menu is shown at right:

Media

Insert an empty media item. Use drag and drop or the property dialog to select the media file.

Immediate text

A media item that will hold an amount of text. This is a convenience item for small text items such as captions.

Brush

A media item that puts a solid color in a region.

The insert container commands have an additional sub-command parent which creates the new container node as the parent of the current selection. When selected, a dialog is shown highlighting properties of the current selection that will propagate (move) to the new parent node. The remaining properties are left on the child node. This can be used to ensure that certain events and attributes continue to function as desired.

Parallel

A container item that plays all its children (the items contained within itself) relative to the same time base and (by default) finishes playing when all its children are finished.

Sequential

An item that plays its children in sequence, with each successor scheduled relative to its predecessor. The seq ends when the last child is done or when the container itself has a set duration.

Switch

A group that selects one of its children, based on system test attributes such as the bitrate of the internet connection.

Exclusive

A group that plays at maximum one of its children at any given time. Exclusives can be used to control presentation flow by event-based user interaction.

Priority Class

A sub-group of the Exclusive node. Each priority class defines a priority container with contents that can interrupt a low-priority exclusive member. The interruption can be temporary or permanent, based on priority class attributes.

Region

Insert a new region within the current selection.

Toplayout

Create a new main window in which regions can be created. (GRiNS/Pro only.)

Preview Menu

These commands pertain to the integrated GRiNS/SMIL-2 preview player. Some are also available from the right-click contextual menus and from the Preview Control Panel.

The structure of the Preview menu is shown at right:

Preview

Start playing the presentation from the beginning.

Pause

Pause the presentation.

Stop

Stop playing the presentation.

The Preview menu also allows you to selective preview part of a document. This can be a single node, such as a media node, or a group of nodes.

Preview single object

Play the current selection only. This is only meaningful for nodes (either single media or a sub-group) that resolves to an explicit duration.

Preview from object

Play the presentation starting at the current selection.

Custom tests

Select and preview the document using the custom tests that are specified in the document. (GRiNS/Pro only; only available when using the GRiNS family of players or other players with full SMIL 2.0 Language support.)

Linking Menu

These commands are specific to the interaction of objects and timing of the document. They are available only in the structured timeline. (See the notes at the end of this section for important information on linking functionality.)

The structure of the Linking menu is shown at right:

Create link to context window...

Creates a link to an HTML page that is to be displayed in the RealOne context window. The content is displayed without user interaction.

Create link to browser window...

Creates a link to an HTML page that is to be displayed in the RealOne browser window. The content is displayed without user interaction.

Create full link source and edit

Use the currently selected media item as the source of an external hyperlink.

Use as event source

Use the currently selected item as the source of a begin or end event. By default this creates an event triggered by the viewer clicking the media item. This can later be changed in the property dialog when the event is completed.

Create begin event

Create a begin event on the currently selected item. The item will only start to play when the event is triggered. This function is only active when an event source has been created previously. Details of the event, such as the activation method, such as delay can be modified through the node properties (See “Begin/End Tabs” on page 43).

Create end event

Similar to Create begin event but an end event is created on the currently selected item. The item will stop playing when the event is triggered.

The following pull-down menu entries are available on in the GRiNS/Pro Editor:

Create simple link source

Creates a the source for a hyperlink that can be used to reference an internal or external document or object.

Finish simple link source

Creates the destination to the source of a simple link.

Important Notes:

Tools Menu

The structure of the Tools menu is shown at right:

Check bandwidth usage

Checks that the bandwidth usage by the media elements in the document is consistent with the system bitrate as set in the player control panel (See “Previewer Control Panel” on page 3). A short report is shown giving presentation startup delay (preroll time) and the number of times the presentation will pause and rebuffer (stall). Individual media items will get a bandwidth icon that shows whether the item caused any bandwidth problems (See “Show Bandwidth” on page 20).

RealPix to SMIL 2.0

Convert a RealPix media item to the corresponding sequence of images and transitions using SMIL 2 and RealOne syntax. This command is used when converting legacy RealPlayer documents to SMIL 2. (Currently supported as Beta functionality.)

Enable animation

Active only in the Layout view if the current selection is a media item. Allows animation of the items position, size, background color, etc. See “Animation” on page 23 regarding using the animateNode facility.

Mark on Timeline

Allows a marker to be placed on the timeline during playback. A typical use-case is to place markers on the timeline during playback of an audio object; images or text captions can be synchronized to the audio by aligning them with the markers. (Note: works best when previewing a single node. May not function correctly if timeline discontinuities exist. See also: “Time, Structure and Bandwidth” on page 20. Note that Marks are temporary objects that will be reset on close and open.)

Clear marks

Remove all markers from the timeline.

The following pull-down menu entries are available only in the GRiNS/Pro Editor:

Align

Aligns two selected objects together according to the option selected.

Distribute

Distribute two objects with equal horizontal or vertical space. The outermost two elements stay where they are, the other elements are positioned so that all elements are equally spaced. This command works best if all items are the same size and non-overlapping.

SMIL 2.0 to RealPix

The reverse of RealPix to SMIL 2.0 where a sequence of images can be converted to a single base64 encoded RealPix object. (GRiNS/Pro only; currently supported as Beta functionality.)

Select node from source

Active only in the source view. This focus in the StructuredTimeline is set to the object containing the text cursor in the source view. (GRiNS/Pro only.)

View Menu

The structure of the View menu is shown at right:

Toolbars

Shows or hides the various toolbars and the player control panel. See “Toolbars” on page 3 for an explanation of the individual toolbars.

Expand/ Collapse

Expand or collapse a container item, showing and hiding its contents. Useful for complex presentation to un-clutter the structure view.

Expand all

Expand the selected container item and all collapsed child container items.

Collapse all

Collapse the selected container item and all container items contained within it.

Zoom

In the timeline-enabled structure view, this enlarges or diminishes the timeline. In the layout view it magnifies the preview canvas. (A roll-over menu provides a zoom factor selector.)

Show Timeline/ Bandwidth

Toggle the display of time in the structure view. Showing the timing of your media objects in a display that is governed by length of time rather than purely by structure. It is particularly useful for adjusting media durations and delays. Not showing time can display more items on the screen at the same time, and is the preferred mode of viewing when editing the high-level structure of a presentation. Show time also turns on the begin/duration drag handles for objects in the structure view (See “Show Time” on page 20).

Show Animation Path

Available only in the Layout view, shows a dotted line that represents the path in which a media object is animated. The path follows the top-left point of the animated media object.

Window Menu

The structure of the Window menu is shown at right:

Close

Closes the topmost view or dialog window.

Cascade

Place windows independently on the screen.

Tile horizontally

Stack all open views horizontally. Note that this also tiles the previewer window, if open.

Tile vertically

Stack all windows vertically.

The use of tiled window configurations is not recommended because of its interaction with the Previewer. It is supported for legacy reasons only.

The following options select a GRiNS editing view:

Previewer view

Shows the previewer window.

Structured Timeline

Shows the structured timeline, the main editing view of GRiNS (See “Structured Timeline” on page 17).

Layout view

Show the layout view, where region layout, placement of media and animation editing occurs (See “Layout” on page 21).

Source view

Show the source view, where the raw smil source is viewable in XML format (See “Source View” on page 27). Source editing is available only in the GRiNS/Pro product.

The following views are for special-purpose editing windows.

Assets

Show the assets view, where an index of used/unused media items and code snippets are kept for re-use in the document (See “Source View” on page 27).

Hyperlinks

Shows the hyperlink editor, which allows navigation and creation of advanced hyperlinks (See “Hyperlink View” on page 31).

CustomTests

Allows the definition and manipulation of SMIL’s Custom Test Attributes. (GRiNS/Pro only; only supported by the GRiNS family of players.)

Transitions

Shows the transition view, which allows creation and modification of media transitions (See “Transitions View” on page 25).

Error messages

Opens a subwindow that is available only when the document currently opened contains errors in the SMIL code. (See “Source File Error Messages” on page 35.) (GRiNS/Pro only.)

Help

The structure of the Help menu is shown at right:

Contents

Opens a web-browser which connects to the GRiNS online documentation set. This directs to the main index for the documentation regarding the particular product in use.

Context Help

Opens a web-browser which connects to the GRiNS online documentation set. This directs to the informative help regarding the view which is currently in the foreground such as the structure view, layout view, etc. (Available in GRiNS/Pro only.)

GRiNS on the web

Opens a web-browser which connects to the homepage of the Oratrix web site.

Quick Start Guide

Accesses the Quick Start Guide that is installed to the local machine. Viewing requires Adobe Acrobat.

Tutorial

Accesses the Tutorial document that is installed to the local machine. Viewing requires Adobe Acrobat.

Template Guide

Accesses the Template Design Guide that is installed to the local machine. Viewing requires Adobe Acrobat.

GRiNS Reference manual

Accesses the GRiNS Reference manual that is installed to the local machine. Viewing requires Adobe Acrobat. (You are currently reading this manual!)

Check for GRiNS update...

Opens a web-browser which connects to the Oratrix web site to check for a newer version or upgrade to the particular product in use.

Register GRiNS...

Opens a web-browser which connects to the Oratrix web site to register the product. This is only appropriate for license-holders who have purchased their copy from an official reseller of GRiNS products, such as Real Networks. Those who have purchased from Oratrix will not need to register.

About GRiNS

Displays information on the version and build of the GRiNS product