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The "Menu Manager bitmap"
"Menu Manager bitmap" in Depth

See Also
"Menu Manager" behavior
"4: Window/Menu Element" behavior
"Menu Verb" behavior

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"Menu Manager bitmap"

"Menu Manager bitmap"

• What it is
• Position of "Menu Manager bitmap" in the Score
• What to attach to the "Menu Manager bitmap"
• Position of "Menu Manager bitmap" on the Stage

What it is

The "Menu Manager bitmap" member is a 1x1 pixel black bitmap. It is not a behavior. It is used in conjunction with the "Menu Manager" behavior to create Menu Managers.

Every menu has a Manager. A Menu Manager consists of

1. an instance of the "Menu Manager bitmap" in the Score
2. and a copy of the "Menu Manager" behavior attached to it.

Position of "Menu Manager bitmap" in the Score

It does not matter where you put it in the Score or how many frames it takes up. The important thing is that each menu must have a Menu Manager, and the Manager must be the topmost sprite in the Score amongst other sprites that are part of the menu (called Menu Elements).

What to Attach to the "Menu Manager bitmap"

Attach the "Menu Manager" behavior to the "Menu Manager bitmap". The "Menu Manager" behavior has an 'isOKToAttach' handler in it that makes attaching the "Menu Manager" behavior to anything other than the "Menu Manager bitmap" impossible. They work together.

Position of "Menu Manager bitmap" on the Stage

Don't worry about where it is on the Stage. Regardless of where you place the "Menu Manager bitmap" on the stage, it moves itself off the stage when the movie starts, if it is a non-root menu. When you create a root menu, the "Menu Manager" behavior that is attached to it positions the "Menu Manager bitmap" as outlined below. In either case, don't worry about it. It is too small to find and click on. If you want to use the Property Inspector on it, click on it in the Score, not the Stage.

The Role of "Menu Manager bitmap" in Depth

If you observe how menus work at the top of your browser or in email programs, Photoshop, word processors, etc, you find that when a menu is open, you can close it by clicking on something other than the menu system, if you don't want to select something from the menu. There are generally other ways, additionally, to close menus if you don't want to select something from the menu (like the Esc key in Windows).

WFS lets you close menus by the first method, clicking on something other than the menu system, if you don't want to select something from the menu. How does it do this?

It stretches the "Menu Manager bitmap" of the root menu so that it covers the full screen when there are submenus open, but is invisible nonetheless. When you click something other than the menu system, you are clicking on the "Menu Manager bitmap", if the menu has submenus that are open. And this closes the menu system either completely or down to the root menu, depending on how you have the root menu configured.

The "Menu Manager bitmap" of non-root menus are never visible.

When you drag and drop a copy of the "Menu Manager" behavior on the "Menu Manager bitmap", you are prompted to configure the Manager, as shown below.

Note the question "If this is a root menu, close it when user selects from menu?". If you check this, then when the user selects something from the submenus or clicks away from open submenus, the menu system will be closed entirely. If you don't check this box, then when the user selects something from a submenu or clicks away from open submenus, the menu system will be closed except for the root menu. And the "Menu Manager bitmap", which has covered the screen invisibly, will be made invisible so it doesn't get in the way of clicking on other things.