The Button Properties Tab The Button List Along the left hand side of the Button Properties Tab is a list of all the buttons in the button project. The button at the top of the list is... displayed on top of any overlapping buttons. displayed at the top of a column of buttons. displayed at the left of a row of buttons. Selecting a button from the list will display that button's properties in the properties tab Name: Specifies the name of the button.   The button name identifies each button and is displayed in the button list   Button names are useful for Actions which are covered in the Advanced Properties. Style:     Determines how the button behaves when its clicked   There are three button styles which all users of Windows are familiar with: Push Button.   The button will pop back up when clicked. Check Box.   The button toggles between on and off states. Radio Button.   The button sticks down when clicked, and all the other Radio Buttons pop up.   You can only have one Radio Button checked at a time. Link: This is the URL that the browser will be sent to when the button is clicked.   The URL can be a relative URL, like page.html or ../images/picture.jpg or it can be an absolute URL like http://www.formulagraphics.com/main.html Frame: This is the name of the frame where the Link URL will be displayed.   A typical application would be to have a navigation applet in one frame, and content displayed in another frame. The Button State Tabs All 1 Cool Button Tool buttons have three states: Up State.   How the button looks when it is in the " up " positon. Mouse-Over.   How the button looks when the cursor is over the button. Down State.   How the button looks when it is pressed. If you hold down the Shift key when you click on a button state, 1 Cool Button Tool will copy all the settings from the current state to the new state.   This is handy for copying the settings from one state to another. Text: The text label for this button state. You can create multi-line text on buttons by inserting the line break character "\n"   For example, the text "hello\nworld" would be displayed on two lines. Note that the text can be different in all three button states.   You can quickly copy text to the other states by pressing the Link Text button. Link Text:     The link text button copies the text label from the current button state, to the other button states.   This is handy when you are changing a button label which you want to be the same in all three button states. Text Alignment:     Specifies how the text is aligned for this button state.   Text can aligned to the left, right, or center, or you can specify the position of the text exactly. When you choose Specify Text Position an extra handle will appear in the Button Editor Window.   Use this handle to drag the text to the desired position. Font: Specifies the font for this button state.   Java only supports four fonts -- Arial, Times, Courier and Dialog.   The Dialog font is the standard system font, and can look very different on different platforms. Text Style:     Specifies the style of the text label for this button state.   1 Cool Button Tool supports the standard styles -- Bold, Italic, Underline -- as well as bevelled text, both raised and recessed.   Bevelled text can look particularly effective on textured backgrounds. Text Color: Specifies the color of the text label for this button state.   Clicking on the Text Color swatch will display the Color Dialog where you can select a color or enter the RGB values of a color. Bitmap: Specifies the bitmap to be displayed on the button for this button state.   The only bitmap formats supported by Java are Compuserve GIF, and JPEG. You can either type a bitmap name into the edit box, or click on the "..." button to open the File Dialog Box. If the button has a Bevel Style of transparent, the button will have no edges or border so all you see is the bitmap.   If the bitmap is a transparent GIF, the transparency is preserved and the button can be a non-rectangular shape.   Bevel Styles are explained in Advanced Properties. Make Bitmap Transparent:     If the bitmap is a GIF file, it makes the GIF transparent. The transparency color chosen is same as the top-left pixel of the bitmap. Bitmap Alignment:     Specifies how the bitmap is aligned for this button state.   The bitmap can aligned to the left, right, or center of the button.   The bitmap can also be scaled to fit the button. Button Color: Specifies the color of the button for this button state.   Clicking on the Border Color swatch will display the Color Dialog where you can select a color or enter the RGB values of a color. The hilight and shadows will be slightly lighter and darker than this color.   Button color has no effect if the Bevel Style is transparent.   Bevel Styles are explained in Advanced Properties. Sound: Specifies the sound to be played for this button state.   The rules for when button sounds are played are:. When the cursor enters the button the Mouse-Over sound is played. When the button is pressed the Down State sound is played. When the button pops up after being down, the Up State sound is played. (Note that the up state sound is not played when the mouse cursor exits the button.) The only sound format supported by Java is Sun Microsystems AU format. However, 1 Cool Button Tool will let you choose a Microsoft WAVE File (.wav) which will be converted to an AU file of the same name.   You can either type a sound file name into the edit box, or click on the "..." button to open the File Dialog Box. Border Width: Specifies the thickness of the border for this button state.   Borders are colored rectangles drawn outside the button area Border Color: Specifies the color of the border for this button state.   Clicking on the Button Color swatch will display the Color Dialog where you can select a color or enter the RGB values of a color. More Options / Less Options This button toggles between showing and hiding the button's Advanced Properties.