Custom Scrollbars

The Tools toolbar contains a Horizontal Scrollbar $image\Scrollbar_Horiz.jpg$ button and a Vertical Scrollbar $image\Scrollbar_Vert.jpg$ button that allow you to add scrollbars to any object that is too big to display the whole contents within the bounding box. For example, you may have a Text object on the page that has been sized to show five lines of text at a time but the text may be many lines longer; often you will not show all of the contents for aesthetic reasons.

When you add a scrollbar, Opus creates a Scrollbar object that has a standard look – this look may not fit in with the design of your publication, so you can customize the scrollbar as you like:

$image\Scrollbar_Example_1.jpg$	$image\Scrollbar_Example_2.jpg$
Example 1: Standard Scrollbar object	Example 2: Customized Scrollbar object

There are four objects that you can change for each scrollbar:

The Scrollbar object – this is the frame in which the two buttons (e.g. the Up and DownButton objects) and the Thumb (i.e. the Image object) sit on. In Example 1 above, this is the grey shaded area of the scrollbar; in Example 2, this has been made transparent by turning off the Use Background option in the Background tab of the Scrollbar objects Properties dialog.
The Up button – this is a Button object that can be edited like any other Button object. In Example 1, the Colour option in the Button tab of the object’s Properties dialog has been selected; in Example 2, this option is turned off and a graphic has been added to the Image tab instead.

Note:
The Up button appears when you add a Vertical Scrollbar – the Left button replaces this when you add a Horizontal Scrollbar.

The Down button – this is also a Button object like the Up button and can be changed in exactly the same manner.

Note:
The Down button appears when you add a Vertical Scrollbar – the Right button replaces this when you add a Horizontal Scrollbar.

The Thumb – this is an Image object. In Example 1, both the Background tab and Border tab in the object’s Properties dialog have been used to create the style; In Example 2, these options were replaced with a graphic added to the Image tab instead.

Customizing the Scrollbar object:

First you must add a scrollbar to an object on a page – see Adding Scrollbars to Objects for more information.
When a scrollbar has been added to an object, the Scrollbar object is added to the object – see Example.
Right-click on the part of the Scrollbar object that you want to edit to open the right-click menu and select the Properties option – this will open the Properties dialog for the object selected.

Note:
As described above, a Scrollbar object is made up of four parts: the Scrollbar object itself (i.e. the container for the other three objects); the two Button objects (e.g. Up and Down); and the Image object (i.e. Thumb).

Make your changes to the selected object’s Properties dialog and click on the Apply button to save your changes.
Repeat steps 3 to 4 for each part of the scrollbar that you want to change.
Sometimes you may require both a horizontal and vertical scrollbar on an object, and you may want to apply the same custom style to both axes:

Applying the same custom style to both axes:

Add a Vertical Scrollbar to an object – see Adding Scrollbars to Objects for more information.
Customize the scrollbar – see Customizing the Scrollbarobject above for more information.
Right-click on the Scrollbar object in the Objects tab of the Page Organiser to open the right-click menu and select the Duplicate to New Axis option. This will copy the style of the Vertical Scrollbar and add a new Horizontal Scrollbar to the object that is a duplicate of the customised Vertical Scrollbar.

Note:
You must select the Scrollbar object (i.e. the object named Scrollbar) to see the Duplicate to New Axis option in the right-click menu.