Toolbar Customization

Transcription

1 Toolbar Customization Tech. note Introduction This technical note deals with toolbar and menu customization. Customizing toolbars and menus allows you to place your favorite tools where they would be easy for you to reach. This could improve the ease of use of your system and make your work more efficient. There are different commands and tools which you use more often than others and customization tools allow you to have easier access to these commands. It also allows you to place commands and tools in an order that is clear to you so that you can find them easily. Content How do I control which toolbars are visible and which ones aren t?... 2 How do I move buttons between toolbars?... 3 How do I control the order of buttons within a toolbar?... 4 How do I copy a command from the menu to a toolbar?... 5 What do I do if I ve lost a command?... 6 Can I have different commands on the same toolbar in different environments?... 7 Can I create my own toolbars?... 7 How can I make my work more efficient?... 8 Related Topics Tech. note keyboard Customization Page 1 of 8 Created on 2 February 2006

2 How do I control which toolbars are visible and which ones aren t? Pressing the right-mouse-button anywhere on the menu or toolbar area will open a list of the available toolbars and the ones that are visible are marked with a check mark list will turn it on if it is currently turned off, and vice versa.. Selecting a toolbar from this Another way of controlling the visibility of toolbars is to open the toolbar customization tool. You do that by selecting the Customize command from at the end of the list described above. You can also open the tool from the menu: View / Customize / Toolbars. Page 2 of 8 Created on 2 February 2006

3 The toolbar customization tool shows a list of the available toolbars and the ones that are visible have a check mark next to them. You can turn toolbars on and off by pressing the box next to them. How do I move buttons between toolbars? While the toolbar customization tool is open, you can move buttons around simply by dragging them. For example if you want to move the Sketcher tool from the Sketcher toolbar to the Curves toolbar: 1. Open the toolbar customization tool. 2. Select the Sketcher icon (don't let go of the mouse button) 3. Drag it to the Curves toolbar 4. And let go of the mouse. Note that the icon has moved to the position that the indication line was on before you released the mouse button. If you want to copy a button rather than move it hold down the CTRL button while dragging the button. Page 3 of 8 Created on 2 February 2006

4 How do I control the order of buttons within a toolbar? Changing the order is done by dragging buttons in the same manner described above within a toolbar. If you want to add or remove a separator in a tool bar: 1. While the toolbar customization tool is open, right-click the button that will be the first one after the separator (from left to right). 2. Select the Begin a Group option from the menu. A separator will be created to the left of the selected button. In order to remove an existing separator do the same thing on the button next to the separator (from its right hand side). The separator will disappear. Page 4 of 8 Created on 2 February 2006

5 How do I copy a command from the menu to a toolbar? Moving commands around is just as easy as moving buttons. For example if you want to copy the Preference tool into the standard toolbar: 1. While the toolbar customization tool is open, open the Tools menu, press and hold down the CTRL key and select the Preferences command. 2. Without letting go of the mouse button drag it to the standard toolbar. 3. Hold down the CTRL key throughout the operation so that the command is copied rather than moved. 4. Let go of the mouse button and the command will be copied to the toolbar. Note that if you don't hold down the CTRL key the command will be removed from the menu. The Preferences command has an icon attached to it (you can see it next to it on the menu) and therefore it is created as a button with an icon when it is dragged to the toolbar. Commands which don't have icons attached to them will have a button with their name on it instead. Commands can also be moved and copied within menus, between menus or from toolbars to menus in the same way. Page 5 of 8 Created on 2 February 2006

6 What do I do if I ve lost a command? If you drag a command form the menu to a toolbar without holding down the CTRL key, the command will disappear from the menu. You can also lose buttons from toolbars if you drag them by mistake to an empty space where there is no toolbar. In order to restore the original configuration of a specific toolbar or the entire menu simply select that toolbar on the Toolbar customization tool, and press the Reset button. If it is the menu that you want to reset select the first item on the toolbars list and press Reset. Note that this operation resets the entire menu and not a specific one. Tip: instead of selecting the toolbar from the list you can simply select one of its buttons and then press the Reset button. If you just want to restore a single command on a specific menu without resetting the entire menu go to the Commands tab on the toolbar customization tool, find the command (the commands are kept in category so that each category represents a menu) and drag it to the desired menu. Page 6 of 8 Created on 2 February 2006

7 Can I have different commands on the same toolbar in different environments? Any customization you do affects only the environment you're working in. For example if you change the standard toolbar while you are working on a Part document the change will only be apparent in Part documents. The change will not take effect in Assembly, Drafting or NC documents. Can I create my own toolbars? You can add toolbars by pressing the New button on the toolbar customization tool. The system will ask you to name the new toolbar and then create a blank toolbar. You can then drag commands and buttons into that toolbar. Can I save different toolbar settings? You can save all your changes into a profile. You do that by selecting the View / Customization / Save Profile. This will save all your toolbar and menu changes. You can save different profiles for different kinds of work or for different users. You can load your profile by closing Cimatron E, opening the Cimatron E Control Panel and pressing the Profile button under the General tab. Page 7 of 8 Created on 2 February 2006

8 How can I make my work more efficient? There are two keys to improving work efficiency using toolbar customization. The first is smart and intuitive arrangement of the buttons. This is of course entirely up to you it is important that you arrange buttons in a way that makes sense to you so that you can easily remember where they are (namely - grouping them in a logical way). The other important thing is that not all commands have to be represented in the toolbars. Your toolbars are like a toolkit and they need to include the tools you want near you the most. In this sense less is more. Having too many commands is confusing and eventually gives you a cluttered screen leading to reduced efficiency. It is important that your toolbars include the commands you use most often. If there are commands that you usually use from the sub-menu (right mouse click) there is no need to show them on the toolbar. If there are different types of projects for which you use different commands it is wise to build different profiles for them so that you always have the right tool set next to you. Page 8 of 8 Created on 2 February 2006