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Welcome

Before we explain to you the different functions of the Chord Scale Generator, let us first take a look at the workbench. Now you probably think "I know all that already - All my programs have menus and several windows. I don't have to read that." - You're almost right about that, but unfortunately only almost. The Chord Scale Generator is built on a modern framework which provides some program elements you have probably not seen before, and thus it may be worth it to go on reading.

The Workbench

The Workbench

What you certainly know from other applications are menu bars, toolbars and the status bar. Of course, our program also has these elements.

The menu bar contains all global actions. Global actions are actions which are accessible from everywhere in the program.

The toolbar, on the other hand, only contains the most important global actions and provides easier access since you do not have to click through the whole menu structure - a simple click on the corresponding icon is enough to start these actions.

The status bar at the bottom of the application shows important status information of the program. Here you can see which instrument is currently active as well as useful warnings. What kind of warnings can appear will be mentioned in the special cases later on. However, you can keep in mind that whenever something just doesn't want to work (e.g. you can not save or a calculation does not start) just have a look at the status bar and maybe there already is a warning for your specific problem.
Besides, it is possible to choose whether you are right- or left-hander in the status bar. A simple double-click toggles the type of hand. Depending on your setting, several graphical representations will be adjusted.

Now we want to get down to the really interesting program elements. Those, you possibly have not seen yet. The Chord Scale Generator consists mainly of views, editors and perspectives.

Views are windows, which display any kind of information. There are many different views in the Chord Scale Generator, from simple tabular views to more complex graphical views. Which views exist and how they work in detail you will learn in the course of this tour.
In this chapter we first want to focus on the general structure of views. So, what is interesting concerning views? - All views have their own menu and toolbar. Of course, menu and toolbar of a view contain only actions related to the view itself or its display data. Besides, several views provide a popup menu which contains additional actions. Like you already know from windows, views can be minimized, maximized and even closed. A closed view can be reopened by clicking Window → Show View In addition, the submenu Window → Navigation provides several actions to navigate between views.

A special kind of views are fast views. If you want to hide a view for some time but still be able to access it easily you can attach this view at the bottom-left corner of the application as a fast view. Therefore, only the icon of the view is visible - a click on this icon opens the view above all other views. If the fast view is not in focus anymore (by clicking into another view) it will disappear and you will only see the icon in the bottom-left corner again.

Editors are program elements for editing data. For each object to edit (be it an instrument, chord or scale) a new editor will be created in the editor area. It is possible that several editors are opened at the same time. In order to select a certain editor you have to click on its tab. It is even possible that several editors are visible at the same time if you manually arrange the editors by moving them side by side or on top of each other.
If you have modified the data of an object you will see a little asterisk in the editor tab. After saving the object the changes apply and the application adjusts itself if necessary.
Besides, the submenu Window → Navigation provides useful actions to navigate between editors.

The probably most innovative program concept are perspectives. A perspective describes the arrangement of the windows (views and editors) in the workbench. Okay, the possibility to arrange windows freely is probably not really new. However, the new aspect here is, that it is possible to save such an arrangement (Window → Save Perspective As...) and switch between the perspectives as you like. That means you can create a seperate perspective for each purpose, in which all necessary views are properly placed and dimensioned.
The application provides three perspectives by default: Setup, Chords and Scales. Of course, you can modify these perspectives later on (Window → Save Perspective) - the given perspectives just represent a first suggestion.
In order to arrange views inside your perspective, you have to click on the head of the view and drag it while keeping the left mouse button pressed - finally you can drop the view at the desired location by revealing the mouse button. In order to alter the size of your views you can work analogously by stretching the borders of the view to the desired size. You can choose the currently active perspective in the tab at the top-right corner of the application. If a desired perspective is not opened, and thus not visible in the tab, you can open it with Window → Open Perspective
The menu Window as well as the submenu Window → Navigation contain several useful actions around the management and navigation of perspectives. For further details about other useful actions please have a look at the corresponding help contents.
You can also set preferences concerning the perspectives (see File → Preferences... → Perspectives).