Customize Palettes

Creating and modifying Palettes
Modify a Palette and its Items

Palettes inside of Jeszra organize the available items and windows in a logical fashion.

After Installing Jeszra, the palettes present the packages used by Jeszra itself and also the »the section called “Allerlei” « palette, which serves as the orphanage for stand alone windows.

The palettes inside Jeszra are completely customizable. The palettes section should reflect the developing environment. The default configuration provides only a simplified configuration; making Jeszra immediate usable. This configuration is not suitable for daily work and should be adapted to the individual requirements.

The preferences provide three pages dedicated to palettes. The first page Figure 11.4, “Palettes” deals with palettes as a whole. To the left are all present palettes. The visible palettes are selected, unselected palettes are hidden. All palettes inside Figure 11.4, “Palettes” are selected and thus visible.

Figure 11.4. Palettes


The below and right section in Figure 11.4, “Palettes” again displays all the palettes, but here they serve as sources or targets. That is »Import« reads a xyz.gpal palette from disc, whereas »Export« generates such a Jeszra *.gpal file, containing the palettes listed and selected on the right.

The »-« and »+« commands from the container Gistbox, provide the ability to create new palettes from scratch or to delete the selected palettes. The warning below »-«, states that a deleted palette is really deleted, there is no undo for this operation, yet!

A palette, created with »+«, will immediately appear inside the Jeszra main window and the palettes on the left. Naturally there are no items –yet– inside of this palette. Populating a palette is the purpose of the second page »Customize Palette«, shown in the section called “Modify a Palette and its Items”.

A palette is a collection of items, representing future windows and other things. When seen from the palette an item can be identified by a name (ID). More isn’t needed for the palette. The palette however also has properties, thus defining under which circumstances the items of that palette are useful. What prerequisites must be fulfilled and how the palette as a whole is presented on-screen.

The customization of a palette is either done directly on the palette, context menu, the view menu inside the Jeszra menu bar or the »Customize Toolbar« dialog reachable from the context menu.

»Customize Palette« provides access to requirement settings directly underneath the palette selection menubutton. This section is hidden in Figure 11.5, “Modify a Palette”!

Figure 11.5. Modify a Palette


The »Customize Palette« preference page features a palette selection in the top area; all items are listed in the lower left part; –»+« and »-« in the bottom serve to create and delete selected items. Access the settings for an selected item via »Properties« to the right. The bottom right corner »Add from File...« allows to auto create items, originating from a project previously created with Jeszra. The hidden middle section, contains settings for the palette itself.

»Customize Palettes« provides basic access to a palette. There are no functions such as item duplication, or re-managing items available inside of this dialog. This functions are only available in a life-session, when Jeszra is used to edit itself.

The »Properties« button, displays the item editor as seen in Figure 11.6, “Modify a Palette Item”. The Properties Editor allows to modify an item.