The
Patching pane of the Max Preferences window
contains a listing of parameter settings related to how
Max behaves as you use it to create patches.Max's
behavior as you patch (e.g.
segmented patch cords,
enabling
Assistance
in a patcher, etc.), and settings that control how the Max interface
responds to you (e.g., auto fix width,
autocompletion,
etc.)
There are several preferences you can set that will control the way that
Max object boxes behave while you're creating them, and how you'd like them
to behave while you edit the box content and type text into them (in both patching
and
Presentation Mode.
You can enable or disable
autocompletion
by clicking in the Object Box Autocompletion checkbox in the Patching pane of
the Preferences Window.
You can also enable polite autocompletion (where autocompletion will be turned off then you
hit the backspace key once) by clicking in Polite Autocompletion checkbox
in the Patching pane of
the Preferences Window (by default, polite autocompletion is disabled).
You can change the way that Max behaves when you click on an object so that
you can begin editing the text in a box as soon as you click on an object
by clicking the Edit Box on Click and Typing Automatically Edits
Selected Box checkboxes in the Patching pane of
the Preferences Window.
You can enable or disable these features independently for both patcher and
Presentation Mode.
When Select Text on Click is enabled, clicking on a text object box selects
it immediately for editing. When disabled, clicking on a text object box
selects the entire box instead of selecting the text inside.
When Typing Automatically Edits Selected Box is enabled, typing begins
to edit an entirely selected box immediately. When disabled, typing does
not affect an entirely selected box until you click it again to select
the text.
While you can easily change the size of a Max object box by clicking and dragging
its resizing handles, you may find it useful to set your preferences so that boxes
are automatically resized at a fixed percentage size based on the text you type into
them.
When the Auto Fix Width is enabled, Max will automatically adjust the width of
all object boxes, a comments, or a message boxes to accommodate all the text
they contain on a single line.
When performing this automatic resizing, Max sets the proportion of the text line
length used when autosizing using the Fix Width Ratio setting found in the
Patching pane of the Preferences Window.
Although you can control the presence and size of Max visual patching grid in
individual windows using the
Patcher Inspector,
you may want to set these parameters to automatically be set whenever you launch
Max and start patching in new patcher windows.
-
Choose Preferences... from the Max/MSP menu (Macintosh) or the Options menu (Windows)
to show the Preferences Window. Click on the Patching tab in
the Preferences Window.
-
Click in the checkbox in the Value column for the Show Grid (default for new patchers) setting. The
next time you launch Max, you will see the grid in every unlocked Patcher window.
on startup.
-
Choose Patcher Inspector from the View menu to show the Patcher Inspector.
-
Double-click in the Value column for the Grid Size setting to show a
cursor and text box. You can type new horizontal and vertical values into the
text box and type a carriage return to set the alignment grid size.
-
Choose Preferences... from the Max/MSP menu (Macintosh) or the Options menu (Windows)
to show the Preferences Window. Click on the Patching tab in
the Preferences Window.
-
Click in the checkbox in the Value column for the Snap to Grid (default for new patchers) setting. The
next time you launch Max, the Snap to Grid feature will automatically be enabled.
You can choose to use straight or
segmented patch cords
as a default setting as you patch with Max.
In addition, you can also avail yourself of the entertaining feature that lets
you control the rate at which objects appear and disappear from an unlocked patcher
window as you add or remove them, and also control similar timing for scrolling
automation.
-
Choose Preferences... from the Max/MSP menu (Macintosh) or the Options menu (Windows)
to show the Preferences Window. Click on the Patching tab in
the Preferences Window.
-
Click the checkbox in the Value column for the Segmented Patch Cords setting. The menu
item will be checked, segmented patch cords will automatically be enabled as the new
default setting.
To set the default time it will take Max objects to appear and disappear
when you create them while patching, double-click in the Values column
of the Box Fade Time or Scroll Animation Time settings to get a text cursor
and type in a value, in milliseconds.
You can change the default color and transparency of the
Object Palette.
-
Choose Preferences from the Max/MSP menu (Macintosh) or the
Options menu (Windows) to show the Preferences Window and click on the
Patching tab.
-
Click in the Values column for the Object Palette Background Color and use the
Color palette
to change the color of the Object Palette. You can change the transparency of
the Object Palette by adjusting the Alpha Channel value (0. will give you a
completely transparent palette, and 1.0 will display an opaque color.
The Max application keeps track of this setting, and it will be used
whenever you launch the program.