Groups

[Devin Asay]

Hi Steve,

On Aug 15, 2009, at 11:45 AM, Steve Jones wrote:

> I'm a little confused by RR's handling of backgrounds. It seems that
> grouping items makes them go to the background and appear on all cards
> in a stack. But then you can't edit the scripts of the items in that
> group - just the script of that group. Is there any way to have items
> in the background and still get to their scripts?


Do I remember correctly that you're a long-time HyperCard guy? Groups  
are just about the hardest things to grasp coming from HC, but once  
you get them, you'll never look back.

The main confusion with groups seems to be that they're sort of dual  
purpose.

1 - They're used just for associating things into a single object, so  
you can give them all similar properties, move them around together,  
etc.; and

2 - They are used to create groups of controls that can exist on more  
than one card, much like a background in HyperCard. Only in Rev, you  
can have an unlimited number of background groups. To make a  
background group, just create the group, then open the property  
inspector for the group and click the "Behave like a background"  
checkbox. Now when you make new cards the group will appear on them.  
The group also gets place *after* the card in the the message  
hierarchy, whereas a non-background group is *before* the card.

As far as selecting items in a group goes, just Select Grouped icon on  
the toolbar. If it's selected, you can select objects in a group; if  
not you select the whole group.

I have a longer discussion about groups at http://revolution.byu.edu/groups/groups.php 
  .

HTH,

Devin

Devin Asay
Humanities Technology and Research Support Center
Brigham Young University