Scenes

Scenes can be photos or images from the web. You can drag & drop most graphic format files onto the Scene Window and it will display them. You can also drag & drop an image directly from a web page. The Scene window displays the image and the Scene list contains the list of all the images.

Scene Window

Select "Scene Window" (⌘B) from the "Scene" menu, or click the "scene" picture button on the SonicMood window's toolbar (if visible) to open the "Scene" window (click again to close).

Note that, just like the "Moods and Themes" lists, when a scene is visible you can "Right/Control-click" it to bring up a contextual menu of useful items.

To add a scene, just drag a picture or file (jpg, bmp, gif, tiff, png, photoshop, or pict) onto the scene area. It is displayed after a short pause, scaled to fit the scene area and with the proper aspect ratio (unless you've turned this option off in Preferences). New scene names are derived from the original names of the files you drop onto the scene area. If you dragged a picture from another window (like from a browser), it will have the name "Scenex" (where "x" is a number). You can change that name to something more memorable by bringing up the Scene "List" window (see below).

During a resizing of the Scene window, the Scene's ratio of width to height (aspect ratio) is preserved. This may result in areas of the window that are not covered by the Scene. If you'd like the Scene to fill the window, you have two choices:
  1. You could turn off "Preserve Aspect Ratio" and the scene will stretch to fill the window.
  2. You could turn on "Auto Size Window" and the window will stretch to fit the scene.
Both of these options are available from the Scene window's contextual menu (right/control-click) or the Preferences window, Scenes page.

When you add a scene, that scene is copied (as a jpeg file) to the SonicMood folder inside your Preferences folder. You may move the originals or delete them and SonicMood will still be able to display the scene.


Scene List

Selecting "Scene List" (⌥B) from the "Scene" menu, or clicking on the "List" button will cause the "Scene List" window to descend over the Scene window (it’s a sheet window). This window contains the list of scenes, each with a checkbox.


To the right of each checkbox is the timer interval (in mm:ss format) for each Scene (see the Timers topic for more information). You can resize the window by dragging the bottom right edge, unless "Auto Size List" (see below) is on. You can close the window by clicking on the "Close" button.

Change the Scene displayed by double-clicking on a new Scene name in the Scene list. An arrow pointer indicates the Scene currently displayed.

The Scene list window can automatically size itself to fit the number of Scene names in the list. You can turn this "Auto Size" feature on or off (it's off by default). Either bring up the Preferences window (⌘,) and click the "Auto size the Scene list" checkbox on the "Scenes" page, or Right/Control-click in the list and select "Auto Size List".

You can edit/change the Scene names in the list. If "Click-Pause-Click on a list cell to edit" is checked (Preferences window, General page), simply click the Scene name twice (with a short pause between clicks). The Scene name should become editable (if not, repeat). Now you can edit the name or type a new one. Press "return" when done or click on another name in the list. You can also select "Edit List Item" (⌘E) from the Edit menu, or Right/Control-click in the Scene list and select "Edit List Item" from the contextual menu.

Click on the Scene list header to sort the Scenes by name. Click once to sort ascending. Click again to sort descending.

If you'd like, drag the Scene names around to reorder them in the list; it's ok to drag several scenes at once. You can re-arrange the Scene names any way you'd like. The check marks stay with their Scenes. Note that if one or more lines are moved via a drag, the column header no longer indicates that sorting is in effect.

Delete a Scene by displaying it and selecting "Delete" from the "Edit" menu, Right/Control-clicking on the Scene and selecting "Delete" from the contextual menu, or pressing the delete key on your keyboard. You can delete multiple Scenes by highlighting them on the Scene list before doing the above.

If you've deleted any of the original Scenes and want them back, select "Reset Scenes" from the "Scene" menu. The original Scenes will be restored, but they will replace the first few (up to five) Scenes you've added. You'll be prompted to insure this is what you intended.