1.2.2. Frame halos

When a frame is added to a Sophie page and the frame is selected, frame halos are visible. They look like this:

Directly above the frame appears the green frame title bar, which can be dragged to move the frame around the page. In the upper right corner is the delete halo. If you click the delete halo, you'll be asked if you're sure that you want to delete the frame.

Five halos appear directly above the frame's upper left corner. From left to right, these are the frame appearance halo, the frame properties halo, the save frame as template halo, the frame link halo, and the frame timeline halo. To the right of the frame appear the move forward and move backward buttons. Each is discussed in detail below.

Below the frame's bottom right corner appears the rotate handle. This can be dragged to rotate the frame. If you want to change the center of rotation or if you want to rotate a more precise amount, use the frame properties HUD. If the frame is a text frame, above the rotate handle will appear the chaining halo which allows you to control text flows. To learn more about chaining, go here.

The frame appearance halo & HUD

The frame appearance halo opens the frame's frame appearance HUD, which looks very similar to the page's appearance HUD:

The frame appearance HUD also includes a checkbox labeled Visibility. This is checked by default; if this is unchecked, the frame will be hidden in preview mode and the reader application. In authoring mode, it will appear semi-transparent, but it can still be manipulated.

The Wrap Mode setting controls whether or not text in other frames will wrap around the selected frames. The choices are WRAP, which will wrap text, and NO_WRAP, which will not wrap text. By default, frames are set not to wrap.

See the section on setting frame border & fills for more information on how borders and backgrounds work.

The frame properties halo & HUD

If you click on the frame properties halo, the frame properties HUD appears. It looks like this:

The Position settings allow you to set the position of the frame relative to the top left corner of the page. The Size settings allow you to set the width and height of the frame. Orientation allows you to control the frame's rotation (in degrees clockwise); to change the center of rotation from the center of the frame, choose another point on the square to the right.

The Insets section of this HUD allows you to set values for margins and padding. Margins are extra space added around the frame so that text will wrap around it. Padding is extra space added inside the frame between the frame and any text within the frame. To learn more about margins and padding, go here.

The save frame as template halo

Clicking the save frame as template halo will save selected properties of the current frame as a frame template. To learn about frame templates, go here.

The frame link halo & HUD

Clicking the link halo will open the link HUD, which looks like this:

The link HUD allows you to set actions related to the frame - actions that will be performed when the frame is hidden or shown or when the reader's mouse clicks on it or moves over it. See the section on working with links for more details on how links in Sophie work.

The frame timeline halo & HUD

Clicking the timeline halo will open the timeline HUD, which looks like this:

The timeline HUD allows you to change settings to the frame's timelines. To learn more about how timelines work, go here.

Move forward & move backward

The move forward and move backward buttons move the frame forward or backward relative to other frames on the page. For example, if a frame appears to be beneath another frame, you could select the first frame and click its move forward button to move it in front of the second frame.