Displaying/Hiding patcher-level attributes

• Click in any blank space in an unlocked patcher window and click on the Format button in the top patcher window toolbar to display the Format palette.

• If not already selected, click on the diamond on the left side of the toolbar to show the patch-level format toolbar. The diamond will turn yellow when selected.

Like the Format palette toolbar for Max objects, the patcher-level toolbar contains a drop-down menu for styles (on the left) and the same set of tools for font selection and formatting.

The patcher-level format palette toolbar contains eleven color buttons and two text buttons. Like the normal buttons used to set color attributes, they display the normal color icon menu. But these buttons set colors for objects at the patcher level because they set style colors which are shared by all Max user interface objects. These styles and text attributes apply to the entire contents of the patcher window rather than to an individual Max object.

• Object Accent Color (accentcolor) is algorithmically a brighter color than the element color and is used to indicate the "off" state in certain objects (e.g. the "off" state for the toggle object).

• Object Background Color (bgcolor) is the dark background color. In most cases, this refers directly to the object's background attribute name.

• Object Background Gradient (bgfillcolor) is the variant of bgcolor that uses a gradient, as seen in the panel object and the message box.

• Comment Background Color (clearcolor) is the background color of the comment object.

• Object Color (color) is an indication of “value”. For example, in the dial object, the color fills in the part of the circle that is associated with the value of the object. For toggle it is the “on” state.

• The Unlocked Patcher Background Color (editing_bgcolor) sets the look of the patcher window background when unlocked.

• Object Element Color (elementcolor) defines the shape or backdrop over which the value is displayed. For example, in the dial object, it is the entire circle on which the value is shown. In general, the element color is algorithmically slightly brighter than the bgcolor.

• The Locked Patcher Background Color (locked_bgcolor) sets the look of the patcher window background when locked.

• Patchline color (patchlinecolor) is the color used to define all patch cords.

• Object Selection Color (selectioncolor) indicates selection. For an example, see the itable and waveform~ objects.

• Background Stripe Color (stripecolor) sets the color to be used by striped backgrounds, such as the background of the chooser object.

• Comment Text Color (textcolor) sets the text color to be used by the comment object.

• Object Text Color (textcolor_inverse) sets the text color to be used in object boxes.

The use of patcher-level colors in the Format palette allows you to quickly and easily modify the look of many Max user interface objects in a consistent way. If you save these changes to a default patcher template, they will become the look of your Max patching environment. You can also save different sets of changes made at the patcher level to create different patching environments for different circumstances of use (e.g. "night" and "day" patching sets).