Working with the Stage

Working with the Stage

The Stage takes up the largest part of the document window. It displays the visual items (layers) of the currently selected slide. A visual item may be an image, a movie, or a title. These visual items can be sized and positioned on the Stage.

The Stage displays directly above the Storyboard/Timeline view. When a single slide is selected in the
Storyboard/ Timeline, the slide is displayed on the Stage. If Animation is turned in for this slide, then
the Stage displays two parts, the left side displays the start of an animation and the right side displays the end or finish of the animation. All layers contained in a single slide are displayed on the Stage.

Within the Stage, you can move, zoom and rotate each individual layer of a slide. There are several
different methods you can use to manipulate and edit your slide. You can click and drag a layer, use
the jog wheels, or edit the zoom and rotation values numerically. For more detailed information, see The Stage in the Reference section.

To drop and edit an image in the Stage:

1. Select a single slide in the Storyboard/Timeline

2. Drag a single image from the Image Browser or from the Finder.

3. Drop the image in the Stage. A new image layer is added to the slide. A white outline indicates the
image layer is selected.

4. Click on the new layer and move the image to any location in the Stage. A hand cursor is visible
while you are doing this. Moving the image in the Start window affects the start of the animation
and moving the image in the Finish window, affects the end of the animation.


TIP: When dragging layers, you can use the snap to stage boundaries (green guidelines),
or edges of other layers (yellow guidelines). Click the Control key to temporarily disable
snapping.


5. To zoom or enlarge the layer, click the image to select it and then drag a corner of the selected
white outline, or Option+click and drag the mouse up and down. You can also use the Zoom jog
wheel to enlarge your image or enter a percentage in the Zoom text box.

6. To rotate the layer, click the image to select it and then drag the sides of the selected white outline

(a rotate cursor appears), or Command+click and drag clockwise or counter-clockwise. You can also use the Rotate jog wheels to rotate your image or enter a degree value in the Rotation text
box.

7. Continue to add additional layers to the slide by dragging to the Stage again. A slide can have up to
six layers.


The Stage
The Stage displays the layers of the currently selected slide. The layers can be freely sized, positioned,
and rotated on the Stage. In addition to the slide layers, there may also be an optional background
layer and an optional foreground layer (watermark). Both can be set in Settings... in the Slideshow
menu.
If animation is enabled for a slide, the stage is displayed twice. The start of the animation is displayed
on the left side, and the finish of the animation is displayed on the right side. That way you can
quickly drag around the layers to create the desired animation effect.
Dragging to the Stage
Dragging files from the Finder or from the media browser in the Sidebar adds new layers to the
currently selected slide:
Image File - Adds a new image layer to the currently selected slide. If the Option key is pressed,
the layer below the mouse highlights in yellow, and its image file will be replaced instead when you
drop it.
Movie File - Adds a new movie layer to the currently selected slide. If the Option key is pressed,
the layer below the mouse highlights in yellow, and its movie file will be replaced instead when you
drop it.
RTF Text File - Adds a new title layer to the currently selected slide. If the Option key is pressed,
the layer below the mouse highlights in yellow, and its title will be replaced instead when you drop
it.
Positioning Visual Items
You can position, zoom, and rotate items on the stage in several different ways:
Click on an image, movie, or title layer to select it. The item displays a thin white outline and four
resizing handles at the corners to indicate that it is selected. This item will also be selected in the
Storyboard or Timeline.
Drag the layer around on the Stage to position it.
Click on one of the resizing handles at the corners and drag to resize the layer.
Use the jog wheels at the bottom of the stage to change the zoom or rotation of the selected layer.
Optionally, you can also enter the zoom and rotation value numerically in the text fields above the
jog wheels.
Press the ⌥ key and click on a layer and drag up/down to change the zoom value.
Press the ⌘ key and click on a layer and drag around the center to rotate it.
Click just outside a layer’s boundary and drag to rotate the layer.
FotoMagico 4 Help > Reference > The Stage
FotoMagico 4 Help - Copyright © 2007-2012 IMAGINE. All rights reserved.
51Guidelines
As image, movie, or title layers are positioned, zoomed, or rotated on the Stage, guidelines will appear
to help you align the items. By default items snap to these guidelines:
Green guidelines help to snap to the center or the edges of the Stage.
Yellow guidelines help to align an image, movie, or title with itself - on the other side of the stage.
This is helpful when creating certain animation effects, e.g. a completely horizontal pan across an
image, without any vertical motion and no zooming effect.
Press the Control key to suppress automatic snapping to the guidelines.
Use the yellow guidelines to create perfectly horizontal or vertical panning animations.
Contextual Menus
Right-click or Control +click on an item reveals a contextual menu. The commands in this contextual
menu depends on whether an image, a movie, or title was clicked:

Clicking on a slide or title in the Stage:

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