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Selecting and arranging objects

Select objects

  • Click an object to select it. Its handles appear, and the inspector shows its properties.
  • Shift-click more objects to add them to the selection, or drag a rectangle on an empty part of the slide to select everything inside it. Selected objects move, nudge and delete together.
  • Press ⌘A (Edit ▸ Select All) to select every object in the build on screen.
  • Click an empty part of the slide, or press Esc, to deselect.
  • Press ↩ to edit the selected object: retype its text, or open its formula.

To see every object on the slide at once, choose View ▸ Show Objects (⌥⌘J). Each object gets a faint outline, which helps with objects that are hard to find, such as text on a picture.

Move objects

  • Drag a selected object.
  • Press the arrow keys to nudge it, and hold ⇧ for bigger steps.
  • Hold ⇧ while dragging to move only horizontally or only vertically.
  • Type exact coordinates into X and Y under Arrange in the inspector.

While you drag, the object snaps to the edges and centres of other objects, to guides and to the slide's edges and centre. Hold ⌥ to drag freely. See Grids, guides and rulers.

Moving in one build or in all builds

On a slide with several builds, a drag moves the object in the build on screen only. Earlier and later builds keep its position, so you can lay out each step of a slide separately. Manimble writes this as a marked shift at the start of the build and the opposite shift at its end.

To move the object in every build instead, choose Arrange ▸ Apply Move to All Builds (⇧⌘A) right after the move.

Resize and rotate

  • Drag a corner handle to resize the object about its centre.
  • Type a Width and Height in the inspector. For pictures and shapes, turn off Keep aspect ratio to stretch one dimension on its own.
  • Type a Rotation in degrees in the inspector.

For text, Format ▸ Bigger (⌥⌘=) and Format ▸ Smaller (⌥⌘-) change the font size instead.

Lines and arrows

Select a line or arrow to show a handle at each end. Drag an end to move it; hold ⇧ to snap the angle to 15° steps.

When you drag a line end near another object, that object's attach points appear: its corners, the middles of its edges, and its centre. Release on one to attach the end to it. An attached end is written as a point of the object (for example box.get_corner(UR)), so it stays on that point. Hold ⌘ to place the end without attaching it.

Stacking order

When objects overlap, the Arrange menu changes which is in front:

Command Shortcut
Bring to Front ⇧⌘F
Bring Forward ⌥⇧⌘F
Send Backward ⌥⇧⌘B
Send to Back ⇧⌘B

Forward and Backward step past the next object that overlaps the selection. Manimble writes the order as set_z_index(...) calls, changing as few objects as it can. The same commands are in an object's right-click menu.

Group objects

Select two or more objects and choose Arrange ▸ Group (⌘G). The objects become one group, written as group1 = Group(a, b) # manimble group. Clicking any member then selects the whole group, so it moves, nudges, deletes and stacks as one.

Arrange ▸ Ungroup (⇧⌘G) removes the group and leaves its members selected.

Copy, cut and paste

Copy (⌘C), cut (⌘X) and paste (⌘V) work on selected objects, within a slide, between slides and between decks.

  • A copied object carries the code that makes it. Pasted into a slide of the same deck, it becomes the same code on the new slide, at the same position, so the copy is fully editable.
  • Pasting into the same slide places each copy slightly offset, so it doesn't hide the original.
  • Some objects can't be copied as code: an object made together with others by one call, one made in a loop, or one whose code depends on other names in the slide. These are pasted as a picture instead, and Manimble tells you so.
  • Between decks, and into other apps, objects are pasted as pictures. Text is also put on the clipboard as plain text.

You can also paste from other apps, such as a picture from a browser, a screenshot, or a selection copied in Google Slides. See Inserting content.

Delete objects

Select objects and press ⌫. Manimble removes the code that makes and shows each object.

When other code depends on a named object (for example SurroundingRectangle(title) or title.get_right()), the name and those statements stay, and only the statements that show the object are removed. Deleting an object made in a loop removes all the objects of that loop. An object built inside a larger expression, such as a list comprehension, has to be removed in the source.

Undo and redo

Edit ▸ Undo (⌘Z) and Edit ▸ Redo (⇧⌘Z) step through every change made in Manimble while the deck is open, including slide changes such as deleting or reordering slides.