> >> Am I correct in my assumption that a floating pallet stack window cannot >>> have an invisible background such that a larger stack beneath >>>shows through? >>> This is where I originally went wrong and became confused. >> >> No, you can't (easily) make one window show through another. On the Mac, at >> least, there is a way to do this that doesn't have anything to do with >> Revolution. It involves using a special window type, and that's about all I >> know about it. There used to be a thing called Odo (the shape-shifting >> character on Star Trek: Deep Space 9) that would do this, and >>QuickTime 5 has >> it built in. I don't know how they're doing it. > >There is no such thing as a true "transparent" window. You can create the >illusion of a window being transparent or translucent by taking a screenshot >of the window's current position, displaying the screenshot as the >background of the window and then drawing your interface elements on top of >the screenshot. The tough thing about this technique is that if the user >moves the window, you need to hide it before allowing the user to access it >since the screenshot must be updated to reflect the window's new position on >the desktop.
I'm not sure how it does it but Audion (mp3 player from Panic www.panic.com) has live draggable translucent windows that display beautifully. Terry... >BTW, Odo is for creating custom shaped windows (read: non-rectangular) and >to date is pretty much the only way to get custom windows in MC Mac (unless >someone has written something new). > >Regards, > >Scott Rossi >Creative Director > >Tactile Media, Multimedia & Design >Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Web: www.tactilemedia.com -- ___________________________________________________________________________ Dr Terry Judd Lecturer in Instructional Design / Multimedia Developer Biomedical Multimedia Unit Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences The University of Melbourne Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: 03 9344 0187 Fax: 03 9344 4998 ___________________________________________________________________________
