## Guide to the Comic Life User Interface

When you first launch Comic Life two windows are initially displayed: the Comic document window where you'll create your comic and the Browser where you'll find your photos and page templates for quick layout.

### Windows

###

#### Comic document window

The Comic document window is divided into two sections - the page organizer and the page editor. The page organizer shows a list of the pages you've created (initially empty) and allows you to quickly jump to a particular page and reorganize pages by dragging page icons up and down the list.

The page editor is where you layout and edit the selected page in the page organizer. The page editor is fully zoomable allowing you to get in close for fine editing or zoom out to be able to visualize the entire page.

The page editor displays ticks to illustrate the size and location of the margins (if any) and can display the snap grid if desired (see the View menu).

#### Browser window

The Browser window is normally divided into three tabs: iPhoto Albums, Finder Files and Page Templates (unless you have no iPhoto Albums - in which case that tab will not be displayed).

iPhoto Albums
  Provides a popup menu where you can choose between your iPhoto albums
Finder Files
  A convenient file browser that will display the images inside image files instead of their icons.
Page Templates
  Contains various page templates and template collections that let you quickly layout a page of cells ready to be illustrated.

#### Inspector window

Changes its contents to reflect the attributes of the current selected element in the page editor - if any. You can also select the sub-style for a particular element.

#### Stylesheet window

Lets you set comic-wide attributes such as cell outline color, shadowing etc. You can also create sub-styles for finer control.

### Menus

This section describes the menu items that are special to Comic Life. Standard menu items are not described.

#### Comic Life Menu

Register...
  Brings up the Registration dialog.

#### File Menu

Quick Comic...
  Brings up the Quick Comic dialog which lets you specify an iPhoto album and a page format among other settings and will then automatically layout a comic for you with those settings.
Export To HTML...
  Create HTML pages to display your comic.
Export To QuickTime...
  Create a QuickTime movie of your comic.
Choose Stylesheet...
  Load a different stylesheet into the comic.
Save Stylesheet As...
  Save the current stylesheet into a file.

#### Edit Menu

Place
  Add cells, captions, bubbles etc to your comic.

#### Page Menu

New Blank Page
  Adds a new blank after the current selected page and selects it.
New Page with Cell Matrix...
  Creates a page with cells laid out in a tabular manner.
New Page with Template...
  Presents a standard file browser within which you can choose a page template for creating a new page.
Delete Page
  Deletes the current selected page
Save As Template...
  Presents a standard save sheet located at your local template library. Templates saved in this location are automatically added to the Browsers Page Template display for your convenience.
Tag Cells
  Lets you indicate the order in which cells should be assigned images when used with the Quick Comic feature.

#### Format Menu

Comic
  Adjust the page size, margins and background color of the comic.

#### Arrange Menu

Bring Forward
  Bring an element one level forward in its container
Bring Front
  Bring an element to the front of its container
Send Backward
  Send an element back one level in its container
Send Back
  Send an element to the back of its container
Align
  Align an element to various parts of its container
Lock
  Locks an element preventing you from moving or resizing it
Unlock
  Unlocks an element allowing you to move or resize it
Snap To Grid
  Enables or disables grid snapping
Set Grid Spacing...
  Displays a sheet on which you can adjust the grid spacing and the snap tolerance

#### View Menu

Next Page
  Display the page after the current page
Previous Page
  Display the page prior to the current page
Zoom
  Zoom in, out, fit in window or to actual size
Show Alignment Guides
  Shows guidelines when elements are aligned
Show Grid
  Shows the grid
Show Cell Tags
  Shows the tag number associated with each cell
Show Browser
  Shows or hides the browser window
Show Stylesheet
  Shows or hides the stylesheet window
Show Inspector
  Shows or hides the inspector window

#### Window Menu

Standard.

#### Help Menu

Standard.