Geometry Explorer Help
Using the View Menu:
(Back To Help Home)
The items in the view menu deal with the appearance of objects on
the
screen and also with other windows and visual items that one can access
from the main Explorer window. The items in this menu are grouped in
five
categories: Helper Windows, Hide/Show of geometric objects, Trace,
Animation, and Miscellaneous
Options.
Helper Windows:
- Notebook: Clicking on this menu item will pop up a
window
into which
one can put textual information that might not fit into a text box
within
the geometry canvas of the main window. For example, several
pages
of background information could accompany a lesson on the Pythagorean
Theorem.
Note: This is a text-only window. Graphics can not be inserted along
with
the text. If you want to have a richer document accompany your geometry
construction, create a web page and link it into your geometry canvas
using
a web link as described below.
- Calculator: Clicking on this menu item will pop up a
calculator
for creating complex expressions involving geometric measurements (as
well
as doing basic arithmetic). Click here
for more information.
- Font: Clicking on this menu item will pop up a dialog
box
that allows
one to select a custom font for all selected objects (their
labels). (A richer label tool can be accessed by selecting an
object in the canvas and then clicking the Text Button in the Create
Panel. )
Hide/Show:
- Hide Object: Once you have selected an object or a group
of
objects,
you can make it/them go away by choosing the "Hide" command from the
menu.
Hide does just as it says...it hides the object(s) from the canvas so
that
you can no longer see it. It is still there and is continuously
effected
by the changes made on the canvas, but is not visible unless you choose
"Show Hidden".
- Hide All: Use this option to hide all objects of a
particular type.
Choosing this menu item will result in a submenu appearing with the
type
of objects to hide. After choosing a type from this submenu all
objects
of that type will be hidden.
- Show All Hidden Objects: If you have hidden objects that
you
would
now like visible once again, choosing this item will put the objects
that
have been hidden back on the canvas. If they are dependent upon objects
on the screen that have been moved since they were hidden, they may be
altered, but their geometric properties remain the same.
- Show Hidden Object: Use this option to pop up a
dialog
box
listing all hidden objects. Then, one can pick an object to show from
the
list.
- Hide All Labels: Use this option to hide all labels on
the
canvas.
- Show All Labels: Use this option to show the labels for
all
objects
on the canvas.
Trace:
There are three choices in this group: Trace On, Trace Off,
and Clear
All Traces. The Trace On function will be clickable only when a
"traceable"
object(s) has been selected. Traceable objects include all of the
curvilinear
objects (lines, segments, rays, arcs, circles) and points. If we
select
an object that is currently being traced the Trace Off feature will be
enabled and we can then turn the trace of that object off. (Note: Use
the
info tool to find out if an object is being traced or not) To clear all
current traces we use the Clear All Traces option.
Animate:
The animate group includes five options. Look (here)
for more information.
Miscellaneous Options:
- Image: Use this option to import an image into the
canvas. Choosing the menu item will cause a file dialog box to
pop up. Locate
the
image file desired and then hit the Okay button. Note that currently
only
GIF and JPEG image file formats are supported for importing into the
Canvas.
- SetWebLink: Use this option to create a web link on the
canvas.
Choosing this menu item will cause a dialog box to pop up. In
this
dialog box type the link text that will appear on the screen and also
the
actual address of the link. Once this is done, a text box will
appear
on the screen with the link text. The link can be activated using the
Info
tool in the Tool Panel. See here for
an example.
- Rescale Geometry in Canvas: Use this option to
scale
down
(or up) the geometric constructions inside the Canvas. This is
sometimes
necessary when a particular construction grows too large to fit within
the current Canvas or if a construction is too small to see
details.
Upon clicking on this menu item the dialog box shown below will
pop-up.
In this dialog box we set the scaling factor for the Canvas. A
scaling
factor less than 1 will make all constructions appear larger, since we
are shrinking the coordinate bounds on the Canvas but keeping the
screen
Canvas window constant in size. A scale factor of 0.5 will have
the
effect of zooming in on the constructions in the Canvas by a factor of
2. (Note that one can also rescale the Canvas by using the Comma and
Period keys on the keyboard.)
