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Some get-you-started notes?
Authored by: snoozer on Dec 31, '02 05:49:02PM
Opening PB the first time can be daunting, especially to those who aren't programmers and wouldn't be using it otherwise; also especially since the labels, tabs, icons and menus aren't arranged and labeled in such a way that lends itself to be used as a personal organizer.
Good point... I'll take a stab at some initial hints. You might want to try this with three or four scratch text files until you get the feel of it. The first thing to do is create a new project. You can do this using Command-Shift-N or by selecting "New Project" from the "File" menu. Choose "Empty Project" from the list of options. (Any of the options will work fine, but will generate extra files you don't need.) PB will ask where on your disk you want your project to be. It will create a folder with the same name as your project and a couple of files inside. The file called YourProjectName.pbproj can be double-clicked to open the project again later. PB has a lot of menus, and its main project window has lots of tabs and gadgets. You can ignore the "Build", "Debug", and "CVS" menus, and most of the items under the "Project" menu (though a few of them may be useful). In the project window, the only tab you need is the "Files" tab, which is selected by default. You don't need the toolbar, so you can just hide it by clicking the oval window icon; later you can fiddle with it and maybe find something useful, but for now I'll treat it as a distraction. No harm will be done if you click on any toolbar buttons, so don't worry about that. Now you'll want to add files to your project. You can drag existing files into the "Files" tab from the Finder, or you can add them by selecting "Add Files..." from the "Project" menu. You can add a folder full of files by dragging the folder to the "Files" tab. You can create a new file by hitting Command-N. I recommend selecting "Empty File" from the list of options, though no harm will be done by selecting any other file type -- they're all text files. Pretty soon you'll have a list of files in the "Files" tab and you'll see that by clicking on a file name you get to edit the file in the main editing pane of the project window. If you jump around and later come back to a previously opened file, that file will be scrolled to the position where you last left it, and the text selection will be where it was as well. By default, files are grouped in the "Files" tab according to how you drag-and-dropped them. You can reorder files in the list using drag-and-drop. You can also select a handful of files, right-click on them, and select "Group" to create a virtual folder that is independent of the file's location on disk. If you right-click a file and select "Rename", the actual name of the file will be changed as well as its name in the project. If you move or remove a file using the Finder, its name will automatically show up in red in PB. Of course you can re-add the file from its new location. A convenient way to move a file and have PB know about it is to do a "Show Info" (Command-I, under the "Project" menu), and then where it says "Modify Referenced File", select "Move File To..." You can search within the currently opened file using the standard Command-F command. For global search, use Shift-Command-F. Hope this helps. --Andy

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Re: Some get-you-started notes?
Authored by: sn00py on Jan 01, '03 10:00:39PM

Aaaaaahhhhh.....(doing it just now)
I get it now...
I think this might work
Thanks!
Ken



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