XSPECT: INTRODUCTION

Analysis/Synthesis Team,
IRCAM 4 Janvier 96

10. Active Frame, Active View, Active Cursor, Active Selection

10.1 Active Frame, Active View

At a given instant, only one Frame in a window is active It is usually marked by a blue border around it.

Selected Menu items or key strokes are addressed to the active Frame. More precisely, in general is addressed to the active view of the active Frame.

To change the active Frame, you can click in it with the middle button . Clicking with other buttons also renders the Frame active, but it modifies the selection and/or cursor which can be an inconvenience.

Note that clicking with the middle button changes nothing in the Frame as long as you do not drag the mouse simultaneously which can sometimes be difficult (see Middle Button). Therefore, it is easier to use CTRL-click left button when you only want to change the active Frame.
Another way to be able to change the active Frame without changing anything in the Frame, is to select the Mouse Mode named Signal Mode by clicking on the button designated by the icon ^ at the bottom of a window (i.e. the rightmost of the three buttons designated by the icons I^, I, and ^ respectively). Then, in this mode, clicking in the Frame will render the Frame active but will not change anything in the Frame. The you can come back to the standard mode by clicking on the leftmost button, i.e. the one designated by the icon I^.

In order to change the active view in a Frame, click in the corresponding in the Identifier Box. with the left button.

10.2 Active Cursor, Active Selection

Several selections / cursors can appear simultaneously in a view. Only one at most is active.

A selection/cursor can be de-activated by use of the
item "Deactivate active mark" in the "Marks" menu. Then a selection appears as its contour only.

Note that a cursor is a type of a selection. When de-activated , it appears as a dashed line.

A selection/cursor can be re-activated. For this purpose, you have to select the mouse-mode "Selection Mode" by clicking on the middle one of the 3 buttons at the bottom of a window, i.e. the one with the 'I' icon. Then, in this mode, clicking in the middle of a selection/cursor (for a cursor you have to be exactly on the cursor, hard, hard!) changes its activation state. This is nice, for instance, to render active one after the other several segments in order to play them or whatever.
Then you can come back to the standard mouse mode, named Mixed Mode, by clicking on the leftmost button, i.e. the icon I^.