Context menu

The right-click menu and how it adapts to what you are doing.

The radial context menu over a selected triangle

The context menu is a radial menu: its commands sit on a ring around the point where you open it, so every one of them is the same short distance away. Open it with a right-click, or a press and hold on a touch screen, on the board background.

Some editing tools use these gestures differently. In Player mode, the menu is a limited version, the one viewers get in the Player: see Exploring.

Using the menu

Picking a command

Hold the right button, or right-click once to leave the menu open, then pick a command in either of two ways. On a touch screen, keep your finger down after the long press and move it the same way:

  • Cross it: move beyond the ring in the direction of the command.
  • Release over it: move the pointer onto the button and release.

Either way, the button turns the accent color to show it will run when you release. In a submenu, the command that opened it moves to the center: release over it to run it.

Finding your way around the ring

  • Undo and Redo: in the main ring, Undo is on the left and Redo on the right.
  • Submenus are the buttons with an accent-colored outline and a small triangle. They open a further ring of related options as soon as you reach them, without waiting for a release.
  • Closing: click where no command is highlighted. After moving, releasing with no command highlighted also closes it.

What it contains

The context menu in Animation mode, with its twelve slots numbered clockwise from Undo

The twelve slots are numbered clockwise, starting from Undo on the left. The most used ones sit at the cardinal points: Undo on the left, Redo on the right, the current action at the top, and the tools at the bottom.

  1. Undo: on the left. While you edit a rich text, it undoes your last text edit.
  2. Actions panel: shows or hides it.
  3. Mode: switches between Creation, Animation and Player mode.
  4. Current action: at the top. This slot changes with what you're doing.
    • Nothing selected:
      • Command: Zoom to selection.
      • Sub-ring: Paste, Reset zoom, and Zoom area.
    • Shapes selected:
      • Command: Delete selection.
      • Sub-ring: selection and view commands, plus Copy and Cut when animation blocks are selected.
    • Editing a shape:
      • Command: Exit edit mode.
    • With certain tools, to accept or cancel what you're doing:
      • Command: Accept.
      • Sub-ring: Cancel.
  5. Ghost shape under pointer: ghosts the topmost shape under the point where you opened the menu. See Ghosting shapes.
  6. Attributes panel: shows or hides it.
  7. Redo: on the right.
  8. Hide UI: hides the editor's panels. Exit Zen Mode brings them back.
  9. Timeline panel: shows or hides it, in Animation mode or when the board has animation blocks.
  10. Rectangular selection: at the bottom. Opens a sub-ring of the editor's tools.
  11. UI settings: Snap, with a sub-ring for Axis, Minimap, Grid and Shape pivots.
  12. Side panel: shows or hides it.