Kisekae UltraKiss is a full featured development environment for creating, editing and displaying KiSS data sets. This document provides reference material for the various editing commands and functions available within the UltraKiss program.
Editing of a KiSS data set requires the ability to select various objects, move them to new locations, cut, copy, and paste objects as required, and undo changes that are not correct. UltraKiss is designed to facilitate easy visual editing of a KiSS data set.
UltraKiss is in edit mode if any object on the current page is selected. Selected objects are visually identified with a marquee box around the object. This box describes the bounding box area of the screen that is redrawn whenever the object needs to be repainted.
Objects are selected by Alt-left clicking with the mouse while over an object, or by holding the Alt key and left mouse button down and dragging the mouse to draw a selection box. Any object whose bounding box area is fully contained within the selection box will be selected. Note that the selection box will only be drawn for drag movement gestures that are to the left and down.
All visible, but possibly hidden objects within the dragged selection box will be added to the selection set. If objects are selected in this way you will pick up not only the top, visible object, but also all hidden objects that may be underneath the visible object.
Objects are unselected by Alt-right clicking with the mouse while over a selected object, or by holding the Alt key and right mouse button down and drawing a new selection box that encapsulates a set of currently selected objects. Any object whose bounding box area is fully contained within the selection box will be removed from the selection set.
Alt-right clicking will only remove top level visible objects. If you need to remove hidden objects from the selection set, use Alt-right drag to encapsulate the underlying object in a removal selection box.
When no objects remain in the selection set UltraKiss is no longer in edit mode.
A new selection set can be created by Alt-left clicking with the mouse while over a new object, or by holding the Alt key and left mouse button down and dragging the mouse to draw a new selection box. If a new selection set is created all objects from the old selection set are discarded. It is possible to select no objects, in which case UltraKiss will no longer be in edit mode.
Objects can be added to the current selection set by Ctrl-left clicking with the mouse while over an object, or by holding the Ctrl key and left mouse button down and dragging the mouse to draw a selection box. Any object whose bounding box area is fully contained within the selection box will be added to the current selection set. Note that the selection box will only be drawn for drag movement gestures that are to the left and down.
Selection operations are undoable. If you select the wrong objects or wish to cancel the selection, the Edit-Undo operation will restore the selection set to its prior state.
When in edit mode selected objects can be moved. These objects are not restricted by their existing movement lock values. Selected objects, when moved, do not fire FKiSS programmed events. These objects do not participate within the normal play mode of UltraKiss.
To reposition a selected object on the screen, place the mouse pointer over the object and left click and drag. To reposition all selected objects in the selection set, hold the Shift key down, place the mouse pointer over any object in the selection set and left click and drag. Shift-drags will move the complete selection set. Alternatively, rather than use the Shift key, you can double-click and drag. Once again, the complete selection set will move. Double clicking is not as accurate as shift-drags. The object beneath the mouse pointer can move slightly on the first click before the complete selection set begins to move.
Move operations are undoable. If you move the objects to the wrong place or wish to cancel the movement, the Edit-Undo operation will restore the objects to their prior positions.
Selected objects can be cut from the data set and removed from the active page on display. To remove objects use the Edit-Cut command. This will copy the selected objects to the internal clipboard and then remove them. The cut objects, because they are retained in the clipboard, can be immediately pasted or re-inserted into a different page set if required.
If an object group is cut its reference is removed only from the active page set on display. The object group can still reside on different page sets. To remove the object from all pages you must explicitly cut the object from each page. If an object no longer exists on any page it will be removed from the list of object groups associated with the configuration and eliminated from the data set when the configuration file is saved.
Image cels within a cut object group retain their original page set association throughout the UltraKiss session. This association can be re-established in the event the cut operation is undone and the group object is restored. The image cel page set association will be permanently updated only when the configuration file is saved.
Cut operations are undoable. If you cut objects and wish to restore their presence, the Edit-Undo operation will paste the cut objects into their prior positions.
Objects within the internal clipboard can be pasted into the data set and added to the active page on display. To paste objects use the Edit-Paste command. This will take the selected objects from the internal clipboard and add them to the current page. The pasted objects, because they are retained in the clipboard, can be immediately pasted or re-inserted into the same page or a different page set if required.
If an object group is pasted its reference is added to the active page set on display. If the object did not previously exist on the page all image cels contained within the object group simply have their page set associations updated to include the new page number. If the object previously existed on the page then a new object number will be created. This new object will appear in the configuration object list and will contain new image cel entities that are copies of the existing image cels. The new image cel entities will also appear in the configuration image list and will be written to the configuration file when the file is saved.
Group objects pasted into a page retain their object position as exists on their source page. If an object is selected and copied to the clipboard and pasted, then the duplicate object will overlay its original position. If this object is moved the original object will be seen. Pasted image cels have the same depth layer as their original copies.
New objects can also be inserted into the data set with the Edit-Image Import command. This creates a new object for the imported image cel as described above. Imported images are positioned at the upper left corner of the image screen and must be moved to their desired position.
Paste operations are undoable. If you paste objects and wish to undo their presence, the Edit-Undo operation will cut the pasted objects from their new positions.
Objects can be duplicated by first selecting the required objects, using the Edit-Copy command to copy the selection set to the internal clipboard, and then using the Edit-Paste command to insert the objects to the current page set. Duplicated objects are created as described with Object Insertion. If an object is duplicated on the current page then new object groups are created, otherwise the image cels are simply updated to reference the new page set.
If an object already exists on one page set and you wish to replicate this object on other page sets, simply copy the object to the clipboard, switch to the destination page set, and paste the object into the page.
When inserting new objects or adjusting your page sets, you may find that the drawing overlay order for your image cels is unsatisfactory. The Edit-Adjust Layering command can be used to alter the drawing priority for all image cels in the data set.
Image cels are layered according to their position within the configuration file. An image cel will be drawn on top of all image cels that follow. The Edit-Adjust Layering command lets you reposition image cels within the complete cel list to alter the drawing order. Select an image cel from the list and drag it to a new position. When all changes are applied the images on the screen are redrawn.
The Object Layering operation is undoable. If you adjust the image layers and wish to undo the changes, the Edit-Undo operation will restore the previous layering order to the data set.
You can create new, empty page sets with either the Edit-Insert Page command or the Edit-Add Page command. The Edit-Insert Page command creates a new page set with the same number as the current page on display. The current page and all subsequent pages have their page number incremented. The Edit-Add Page command appends a new page set at the end of the configuration.
New page sets are initially empty. You must populate the page with objects of your choice. If you wish to duplicate all objects from an existing page, copy the objects from the source page and paste them into the new page.
New page operations are undoable. If you create new page sets and wish to undo the creation, the Edit-Undo operation will delete the new empty page set from the configuration. All page numbers will be readjusted as required.
Page sets, and all objects contained on the page, can be deleted from the configuration. Use the Edit-Delete Page command. This will remove the current page and all objects on the page.
Page number are readjusted as required. All pages after the deleted page have their page numbers reduced. It is possible to delete all pages from the data set.
The Delete page operation is undoable. If you delete a page set and wish to undo the deletion, the Edit-Undo operation will add the deleted page set back into the configuration. All page numbers will be readjusted as required. All objects that existed on the deleted page will be restored.
During normal editing operations you will move and position objects as required. An Edit-Write Page command is used to set the initial object positions so that the objects will be positioned at their current locations whenever the page set is opened or the Edit-Reset command is used.
The Edit-Write Page command sets the default palette group for the page set to the current palette group being used.
A common error is to forget to set the initial page positions after a page has been edited. UltraKiss maintains current page positions during your session so that pages are restored correctly while playing with your data set. However, if you edit your data set and save it without updating the initial positions, a reload of the data set may give undesirable results.
Either the Edit-Write Page command or the File-Write As command should be used to capture the initial state of pages in the data set after an editing session.
The Write Page operation is undoable. If you update the object initial positions and wish to undo the update, the Edit-Undo operation will restore the original initial object positions prior to the change.
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