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Using Contraption Property Editors

Most contraptions have their own Property Editors, which are displayed in the Properties Pane. Property Editors have controls (such as knobs and sliders) that you can use to change properties, resulting in changes to the sound. In this module we show you how to open and hide Property Editors, how to move them, what the title bar buttons mean, and how to use shortcut menus.

How to open and hide Property Editors

To open a Property Editor do one of the following:
  • Double-click on the contraption in the Patcher Pane

    OR
  • Right-click (CTRL+left-click on Macintosh) and choose Edit from the shortcut menu.

The Property Editor will open in the Properties Pane.
To hide a Property Editor:
  • Click on the close button (X) of the Property Editor

    OR
  • Right-click (CTRL+left-click on Macintosh) and choose Close from the shortcut menu.

The Property Editor will disappear from the Properties Pane.

Note: hiding a Property Editor doesn't delete the contraption. You can only delete a contraption in the Patcher Pane. Once you've hidden a contraption's Property Editor you can reopen it using the method above. The Property Editor will reappear in the same location with its settings intact.

Buses and AuxIn/AuxOut contraptions do not have Property Editors as they do not have properties to edit.

How to use title bar buttons

Each Property Editor has a title bar - this is the area at the top of the Property Editor that contains the name of the contraption, and three buttons. The layout of the title bar is slightly different on Windows and Macintosh, as shown below:

Button How to use it and what it does
? (Help) Click on the ? button to open the Help File for that contraption.
X (Close)

Click on the X button to hide the Property Editor.

Note: If you have multiple Property Editors that you want to hide, SHIFT+click on one of the X buttons to hide them all at once.

-- (Preset)

Click on the -- button to open the Contraption Presets window.

Note: The preset button will only display as -- if no presets have been stored. Once presets have been stored, this button will display a number instead, like this: . The number displayed is the number of the preset that you most recently stored or recalled. See Storing, Recalling and Managing Contraption Presets for details.

How to move Property Editors

Property Editors can be moved around the Properties Pane, which is useful if you want to organize them.

To move a Property Editor:
  1. Click on the title bar of the Property Editor you want to move.
  2. Drag the Property Editor around the Property Pane to move it.

How to use the Property Editor shortcut menu

Property Editors have their own shortcut menu that you can use to close the Property Editors and to open the Parameter Control window.

To open this shortcut menu:
  • Right-click (CTRL+left-click on Macintosh) on the Title Bar or in the background of the Property Editor

You can then choose from the following menu items:

Close Closes the Property Editor. An alternative to using the X button.
Close All Closes all of the Property Editors in the Properties Pane. An alternative to using the X button.
Close All But This Closes all of the Property Editors in the Properties Pane, except for the one you are clicking on. An alternative to using the X button.
Parameter Control Opens the Parameter Control window with the current contraption selected. This allows you to map contraption parameters to a MIDI control source or to make changes to parameter mappings.

Note: contraption controls such as knobs and sliders have a different shortcut menu.

See Also

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