2.3. Flaps, tabs, and palettes
The flaps hold most of Sophie’s functionality that you can’t get at through the halos and HUDs. Each flap has tabs in it; each tab has palettes. You can switch tabs by clicking on the tab name. By dragging the edges, you can change how big the tabs and palettes are. This diagram shows where the flaps, tabs, and palettes are in Sophie's interface:
The left flap is generally concerned with the structure of your book.
The right flap generally contains content that can be used to make books.
A bottom flap may appear if you're working with timelines.
The left flap
The left flap has tabs called Books, Pages, Tools, Config, Servers, and Timelines.
The books tab
The books tabs contains two palettes, Open Books and Embedded Books. Open Books lists all books open in the current Sophie session; Embedded Books lists all embedded books that are resources of the currently selected book.
The pages tab
The pages tab is currently non-functional. In the future, this will display thumbnails of all pages of the current Sophie book.
The tools tab
The tools tab currently holds a non-functional Search palette.
The config tab
The config tab contains two palettes: Plugins and Plugin Information. The first lists all the plugins currently installed in Sophie; if you select one, Plugin Information will explain what that plugin does. A plugin-based structure allows Sophie to be expanded in the future.
The servers tab
The servers tab lists any Sophie Server that you are currently connected to. This is not functional in this release.
The timeslines tab
The timelines tab is not currently functional.
The right flap
The right flap has tabs called Resources, Changes, Library, Book Extras, and Styles.
The resources tab
The resources tab lists all the resources in the selected book. There are two palettes, titled Resources and Detail View. Resources lists all resources in the current book; they can be filtered by media type, or you can see all by choosing Clear Filters. Detail View shows information on the resource currently selected in the Resources palette.
The changes tab
The changes tab, which contains a single palette, lists all actions that have been performed in Sophie. At this stage in development, this is only useful to developers; eventually, this will useful to the user.
The library tab
The library tab contains three palettes: Frame Templates, Page Templates, and Book Templates. The frame templates palette lists all saved frame templates in the current book; the page templates palette lists all saved page templates. The book templates palette lists all currently installed book templates. While these palettes reflect changes made by the author, they are not presently interactive.
The book extras tab
The book extras tab contains the Book Extras, All Annotations, and Stickies palettes. The Book Extras palette allows annotations to be moved into the book's resources. The All Annotations palette is for the creation and management of annotation sets which can be exported from Sophie. The Stickies palette allows the creation of new sticky notes on the current page of the book.
The styles tab
The styles tab is currently non-functional.
Working with flaps, tabs, and palettes
If you drag the innermost edge (the right edge of the left flap, or the left edge of the right flap), you can change the width of the flap. This may resize the book desktop and the other flap.
Flaps, tabs, and palettes have title buttons:
If the title button is double-clicked, the content of the flap, tab, or palette is hidden. The same thing can be accomplished by clicking the X icon in the upper right of a flap, tab, or palette's title bar. Hidden palettes look like this:
And a hidden flap looks like this:
Double-click the title button again to unminimize it.
The title bars of flaps, tabs, and palettes also have controls on them; to the right of the flap, tab, or palette's title bar are buttons. These buttons allow flaps, tabs, or palettes to be hidden, maximized, or pinned. Palettes can also be floating, rather than docked to the sides of the application window. A floating palette looks like this:
By clicking the buttons in the upper right of a floating palette, tab, or flap, you can cause it to return itself to its original docked position. Clicking the X will hide it; clicking the palette title button in its tab will show it again.
