Assistance Pane

Setting Assistance preferences

The Assistance pane of the Max Preferences window shows the settings associated with using the Assistance features of Max that allow you to get hints about what kinds of messages or data the inlets and outlets of an object will receive or send.

Setting your Assistance preference

Choose Preferences from the Max/MSP menu (Macintosh) or the Options menu (Windows) to show the Preferences Window. Click the Patcher tab to show the Patcher preferences, and click in the Assistance Bubbles checkbox to enable or disable Assistance bubbles.
When Assistance bubbles are enabled, they will appear in the Patcher Window. When the Assistance Bubbles checkbox is unchecked, all Assistance information will be printed in the Clue Window.
The Max application keeps track of whether or not assistance has been enabled or disabled - if assistance is enabled the last time you quit the program, it will be enabled when you launch Max again.

You can choose both the background color of the Assistance bubble and the color of the text displayed in the bubble.

Changing the Assistance bubble display colors

Choose Preferences from the Max/MSP menu (Macintosh) or the Options menu (Windows) to show the Preferences Window, then click the Assistance tab to show the preferences. Click in the Values column for the Assistance Background Color and Assistance Text Color settings and use the Color palette to change the look of the layout display (Note: these colors are used for both the assistance and layout bubbles). The Max application keeps track of this setting, and it will be used whenever you launch the program.

By default, Max help files are only available when a patcher window is unlocked. You can set Max to let you access help files from a patcher window when it is locked.

Enabling help files in locked Patcher windows

Choose Preferences from the Max/MSP menu (Macintosh) or the Options menu (Windows) to show the Preferences Window. Click the Assistance tab to show the preferences. Click in the Help in Locked Patchers checkbox in the Preferences window. When this option is checked, you will be able to use Assistance even when a Patcher window is locked. The Max application keeps track of this setting, and it will be enabled or disabled depending on its state the last time you quit the program.

Enabling/Disabling layout bubbles

Choose Preferences from the Max/MSP menu (Macintosh) or the Options menu (Windows) to show the Preferences Window. Click the Assistance tab to show the Assistance preferences, and click in the Layout Bubbles checkbox to enable or disable Layout bubbles.
When Layout bubbles are enabled, they will appear in the Patcher Window. When the Layout Bubbles checkbox is unchecked, all Layout information will be printed in the Clue Window.
The Max application keeps track of this setting, and it will be enabled or disabled depending on its state the last time you quit the program.

You can choose both the background color of the Layout bubble and the color of the text displayed in the bubble.

Changing the layout bubble's display colors

Choose Preferences from the Max/MSP menu (Macintosh) or the Options menu (Windows) to show the Preferences Window, then click the Assistance tab to show the preferences. Click in the Values column for the Assistance Background Color and Assistance Text Color settings and use the Color palette to change the look of the layout display (Note: these colors are used for both the layout and assistance bubbles). The Max application keeps track of this setting, and it will be used whenever you launch the program.