Contents

INTRODUCTION Welcome to the SuperCard FAQ BASICS What is SuperCard? What is SuperEdit? What is the Project Editor? What is Roadster? How do I Learn SuperCard? What is Marionet? What is FlameThrower? Who is Solutions Etcetera? Product History GENERAL Where can I get my SuperCard questions answered? Where can I find examples of SuperCard projects? Is there a Macintosh Player for SuperCard? How do I run my projects on Windows? Is a PowerPC-native version available? Are there any good third-party books on SuperCard? Where can I find XCMDs/XFCNs for SuperCard? What are the differences between Director and SuperCard? What are the features highlights in version 3.0? Why didn't I receive an upgrade notice? What is the SuperCard distribution policy? What is the maximum number of objects I can have in a project? What are user properties and why are they cool? HYPERCARD COMPATIBILITY How do I convert my HyperCard stacks to SuperCard? How close are SuperTalk and HyperTalk? How do I implement sharedText background fields in SC? What is the learning curve for a HyperCard user? What are the HyperCard features that are not supported by SuperCard? Is SuperCard faster than HyperCard? Will my XCMDs/XFCNs in HyperCard work properly in SuperCard? What problems are there, if any, importing HC stacks? How does the message hierarchy differ from HyperCard? What are some other differences between HyperCard and SuperCard? In a nutshell, what are the advantages of SuperCard over HyperCard? PROJECT How can my project tell if SuperCard is running in the background? What is the limit of a project size? Can I open multiple projects simultaneously? What is affected when a project is locked? WINDOWS How do I center my windows on screen? How do I hide the drag bar of a palette window? What is the benefit of using the new Dialog Management Engine? How do I create a "backdrop" window? How do I make one window stay on top of other windows all the time? Will SuperCard resize the window when running on a smaller monitor? COLOR How do I add color to text? What is the difference between penFore, penBack, fillFore and fillBack? How can I avoid the flash that appears when I open a card with a new CLUT? How do I import a graphic with more than 8 bit? Can I do color visual effects? BUTTONS, FIELDS & GRAPHICS Can I get more than 32K of text into a field? How do I get a masked PICT to stay masked when I import it? Why do some of my images look distorted when I import them to pictureData? Which graphics file format is better for importing scanned images? What is the best way to bring in a PhotoShop image? Why does a color field turn to opaque white when the scroll bar is active? Can I bring color icons into SuperCard? How can I create a polygon from a script? ANIMATIONS How do I play a QuickTime movie? Can I play sound while a QuickTime movie is running? How do I play a QT movie play with the controller showing? Why won't my QuickTime movies play? MENUS How do you create hierarchical popup menus? How do you create a Font menu? How do you create an Apple menu? PRINTING How can I print a report in SuperCard? Why do the Page Setup dialogs appear when I print? How to I print out the contents of a text field? How do I change the font attributes for a text chunk? STANDALONES Can I remove resources from standalones to make them smaller? How do I prevent the end-user from editing scripts? What are the things that need to be taken care of when making a standalone? How do I make sure that my standalone will use the same fonts as it is created? SELECTED SCRIPTING INFO How do I create a default expression for "switch" statements? What is a pathname? When do I need a pathname? How can I create a "Save As" item for my project? RESOURCES Where can I get info on ResEdit? How do I get SuperCard to recognize stuff in my project's resource fork? How do I record my own sounds? Is it OK to install fonts in projects? I'm going to try installing the fonts anyway, do I use ResEdit? Where are my resources after converting a HyperCard stack to SuperCard? Why does SuperCard store resources in both the data and resource forks? EXTERNALS Where can I find an XCMD/XFCN to do such-and-such? How can I program my own externals? DATABASE FRONT-ENDS Could you tell me how to use a database management system with SuperCard? BUGS AND PROBLEMS Help! I lost my password. Can I use the older Runtime Editor with SuperCard 3.0? APPENDIX LISTING OF SUPERCARD-RELATED VENDORS, PRODUCTS, INFO, ETC.