Summary of Main User Interface Features

A quick summary of the main user interface features is below.

Moving Objects

  • You can move objects by grabbing them and then dragging and dropping them to desired position.
  • When moving objects that contain QWidgets (such as a QCalendarWidget shown below), grab them from their border area.

Resizing, Rotating, Rescaling and Shearing Objects

  • To resize an object, grab its bottom right corner.
  • To rotate an object, grab its top right corner.
  • To rescale an object, grab its bottom left corner.
  • To shear an object, grab its top left corner.

NOTE: When manipulating round objects such as ellipses, use the rightmost, topmost, bottommost and leftmost points of the objects to perform the resize, rotate, rescale and shear operations, respectively.

Composing Objects

  • You can compose more complex objects from simpler ones by "gluing" objects together. Simply drop an object on top of another and it will be attached to the other one automatically.
  • The actual drop target object is determined by the mouse location, i.e., what is currently under the tip of the cursor.

Enabling/Disabling Object Editing and Composition

  • All the object editing capabilities in Lively for Qt can be disabled on a per-object basis. Objects will attach to each other only if the objects have their "Can be attached to other objects" (in JavaScript source code: allowsAttachingToOthers) and "Other objects can be attached to me" (in JavaScript source code: allowsAttachingOfOthers) properties set appropriately.
  • These "interaction properties" can be controlled by choosing the "Properties..." item from an object's popup menu.

Using Popup Menus

  • All the objects (including the background of the system) have popup menus associated with them. To open the popup menu of an object, right-click or double-click an object.
  • The background of the system ("the world") also has its own popup menu. To open the world's popup menu, right-click or double-click the background of the system.

Instantiating New Objects, QWidgets, Sample Applications and Tools

  • The world's popup menu has submenus for instantiating the following types of objects:
    • Simple Objects such as rectangles and ellipses
    • QWidgets: Sample Qt Widgets
    • Sample Applications and Mashups
    • Developer Tools such as JavaScript code evaluator, object inspector and debugger

Copying and Removing Objects

  • Objects can be copied and removed (deleted) using the "Copy" and "Remove" operations in the object's popup menu.
  • Objects can also be copied by pressing the Shift key while clicking them with the mouse.
  • All the objects in a world can be removed by choosing the "Remove All Objects" item in the "Advanced" submenu of the world. A confirmation dialog will be displayed before any objects are deleted.

Creating New Subworlds

  • New subworlds (subfolders) can be created by choosing the "New Subworld" item in the popup menu of the world.
  • A pushbutton object with label "Enter Subworld" will be created to represent the subworld.
  • Click the subworld object to enter the subworld.
  • Click the "Back to Other World" object to return back to the "upper" world.

Transporting Objects Between Worlds Using Wormholes

  • You can move objects between worlds using the wormhole feature. Simply drag the object you want to transport on top of the pushbutton object representing the subworld.
  • If necessary, the wormhole feature can be disabled (globally for the entire system) from the "Advanced" submenu of any world.

Changing the Visual Attributes of Objects and Worlds

  • You can change the Fill Color, Border Color, Border Width and Opacity (transparency) of any object or world from the "Style" and "Background Style" popup menu items.
  • For objects that contain QWidgets (such as a QCalendarWidget shown here), you can also set the Widget Inset (the width of the border area that can be used for grabbing the widget and accessing its popup menu).
  • The fill and border color can be chosen from a color dialog.
  • Note that the look-and-feel of the color dialog is platform-specific and will vary from one platform to another.

Other User Interface Features

  • There are various other user interface features that have not been summarized in this brief document.
  • Explore the system yourself and have fun!