Inspecting Attributes

Selecting and inspecting objects

• Select an object or multiple objects in your patcher window by Shift-clicking or clicking and dragging an outline around the objects.
• Click the Inspector button in the patcher toolbar.

When you open the object inspector on multiple objects, only the attributes shared by the objects are shown.If you have selected objects of different types, the Inspector window will appear with the title multiple objects inspector. In most cases, this means only the common box attributes will appear in the inspector.

Getting information about an Inspector setting

• Position your cursor over the Setting column of any row in the window to see the setting's info button. Hover over the button to see a brief description of the setting.

Editing font attributes

Editing basic text attributes

• Double-click in the Value column to edit the attribute
• Enter some text
• Press return or click outside the text box to store the change to the attribute
• If the attribute returns to its original value, it means you typed in something illegal for this attribute

Editing color attributes

• Click in the Value column to open the Color palette
• You can use the Color palette to select a color or open the Color Picker to apply your own color palette.

Editing menu attributes

• Click in the Value column to see the pop-up menu with attribute choices
• Choose the new attribute value from the menu or click outside the menu to cancel

Editing filename or folder attributes

• Click the Choose... button to use an open file dialog to pick a file or folder.
• Alternatively, double-click to the right of the Choose button to enter the filename directly

Editing large text attributes

• Click the Edit button to edit the text in a modal text editor window
• Alternatively, if you have a very small amount of text, double-click to the right of the Edit button to enter the text directly

Editing on/off (switch) attributes

• Use the checkbox to turn the attribute on or off

Editing time value attributes

• Use pop-up menu on the right to set the units
• Enter the value in the text field at the left-hand side

Working with Attribute Default Values

• Select an object or objects in the Patcher window.
• Click in any column in an attribute's row in the Inspector to select it.
• Click on the Modify Selected Item in the Inspector toolbar and select an option from the pull-down menu. When you release the mouse button, the selected option will be applied to your object.

You can use the Modify Selected Item pull-down menu to perform several useful tasks when you are editing attributes

• Choosing Revert Value from the Modify Selected Item pull-down menu will return the selected attribute to its previous value.
• Choosing Set to Default Value from the Modify Selected Item pull-down menu will set the selected attribute to its default value.
• Max lets you use Patcher-level formatting to apply consistent color schemes to the Max patching environment. You can save these files as Templates and use them as you patch. You can also set a Template to be your the default Template that will be used each time you launch Max.
• If you are working with frozen attribute values, you can use choose Set to Frozen Value from the Modify Selected Item pull-down menu to return the selected attribute to the setting you used when you originally froze the attribute. This menu item will only be enabled if the attribute has a frozen value and the current value deviates from that frozen value.

Adding an attrui Object to Your Patch

• Select an object in the Patcher window.
• Click in any column in an attribute's row in the Inspector to select it.
• Click on the Make Attribute in Patcher button in the Object Inspector toolbar. A connected attrui object will be automatically added to your patch that displays the selected attribute.