Icon Editor Help

Drawing Tools

Selecting a Drawing Tool

Pencil

Lines

Hollow Squares, Rectangles

Filled Squares, Rectangles

Hollow Circles, Ellipses

Filled Circles, Ellipses

Contiguous Brush Fill

Color Substitute Brush Fill

Move/CopyTool

Horizontal Flip

Vertical Flip

Rotate

SnapShot

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Pencil Size

Eraser

Selecting a  Color

Customizing Dithered Colors

Extracting Icons from EXE and DLL FilesIntalling an Icon to Program Manager

Creating a New iconedit.ini file

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File Menu

New

Open

Save

Save As

Exit

Edit Menu

Undo

Copy to Clipboard

Paste from Clipboard

Reset Dithere Colors

Save Dithered Colors on Exit

Reduce Form for Snapshot


Pencil

The pencil tool allows drawing on a pixel level.  If the pencil size is (2x2), (3x3) or (4x4) then the pixel size increases accordingly.  Icons have a resolution of (32x32) pixels.  With a brushsize of (1x1) you can draw 32 pixels horizontally and 32 pixels vertically.

To draw a pixel:

1.	Select the pencil tool if it is not already selected.  The tool indicator displays the currently selected tool.

2.	Place the mouse cursor over the editing area and click the left mouse button.


Lines

1.	The line tool allows drawing of straight lines.  The width of the lines varies according to the pencil size (1x1, 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4).

2.	To draw a straight line:

3.	Select the pencil line if it is not already selected.  The tool indicator displays the currently selected tool.

4.	Place the mouse cursor over the editing area .

5.	Press and hold the left mouse button.  This anchors the beginning point of the line.

6.	Drag the mouse to the entend the line as desired.

7.	Release the left mouse button.


Hollow Squares and Rectangles

This tool allows drawing of hollow squares and rectangles.  The width of the edges of these shapes vary according to the pencil size (1x1, 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4).

To draw a square or rectangle:

1.	Select the hollow square and rectangle tool if it is not already selected.  The tool indicator displays the currently selected tool.

2.	Place the mouse cursor over the editing area .

3.	Press and hold the left mouse button.  This anchors the top left corner of the box.

4.	Drag the mouse to shape the box as desired.

5.	Release the left mouse button.


Filled Squares and Rectangles

This tool allows drawing of filled squares and rectangles.

To draw a filled square or rectangle:

1.	Select the filled square and rectangle tool if it is not already selected.  The tool indicator displays the currently selected tool.

2.	Place the mouse cursor over the editing area .

3.	Press and hold the left mouse button.  This anchors the top left corner of the box.

4.	Drag the mouse to shape the box as desired.

5.	Release the left mouse button.


Hollow Circles and Ellipses

This tool allows drawing of hollow circles and ellipses..The width of the edges of these shapes vary according to the pencil size (1x1, 2x2 3x3, or 4x4).

To draw a circle or ellipse:

1.	Select the hollow circle and ellipse tool if it is not already selected.  The tool indicator displays the currently selected tool.

2.	Place the mouse cursor over the editing area .

3.	Press and hold the left mouse button.  This anchors the center of the circle.

4.	Drag the mouse to shape the circle or ellipse as desired.

5.	Release the left mouse button.


Filled Circles and Ellipses

This tool allows drawing of filled circles and ellipses.

To draw a filled circle or ellipse:

1.	Select the filled circle and ellipse tool if it is not already selected.  The tool indicator displays the currently selected tool.

2.	Place the mouse cursor over the editing area .

3.	Press and hold the left mouse button.  This anchors the center of the circle.

4.	Drag the mouse to shape the circle or ellipse as desired.

5.	Release the left mouse button.


Contiguous Brush Fill

This tool allows filling of a contiguous area such as a rectangle or a circle.

To Fill a Contiguous Area

1.	Select the contiguous brush fill tool if it is not already selected.  The tool indicator displays the currently selected tool.

2.	Place the mouse cursor inside the area to fill .

3.	Click the left mouse button.


Color Substitute Brush Fill

This tool allows the substitution of a color on the icon being edited, with another color of your choice.

To substitute a color:

1.	Select the substitute brush fill tool if it is not already selected.  The tool indicator displays the currently selected tool.

2.	Select a solid color in the color palette area.

3.	Place the mouse cursor over the pixel in the editing area whose color you wish to substitute .

4.	Click the left mouse button.


Move/Copy Tool

This tool allows you to move or copy a selected object within the editing area

To move or copy an object, follow the procedure listed below.

1.	Select the move tool if it is not already selected.  The tool indicator displays the currently selected tool.

2.	Press the left mouse button and draw a rectangle around the object you wish to move, and then release the left mouse button.  You have just drawn a selection rectangle.

3.	Place the mouse cursor inside the selection rectangle, and press the left mouse button.

Move

4.	Drag the selection rectangle to the new location you wish to move the selected object.

Copy

.	Press the Shift key and drag the selection rectangle to the destination location.

.	Release the left mouse button.

.	To complete the move or copy, position the mouse cursor anywhere outside the selection rectangle and click the left mouse button.


Horizontal Flip

This command produces a mirror image in the horizontal direction of the entire icon or a selected part of the icon.  Left becomes right and right becomes left.  To cancel the effect of a Horizontal Flip, click the Horizontal Flip command again, or click the Undo command.

To flip the entire icon

1.	If the Horizontal Flip tool is not already selected, select it.  Subsequent clicks of this tool flips the entire icon.

To flip a selected area of the icon.

1.	If the Horizontal Flip tool is not already selected, select it.

2.	With the mouse cursor over the editing area, press the left mouse button and draw a selection box around the area you wish to flip.

3.	Click the Horizontal Tool to flip the selected area.

4.	To complete the move, position the mouse cursor anywhere in the editing area and click the left mouse button.


Vertical Flip

This command produces a mirror image in the vertical direction of the entire icon or a selected part of the icon.  Bottom becomes top and top becomes bottom.  To cancel the effect of a Vertical Flip, click the Vertical Flip command again, or click the Undo command.

To flip the entire icon

1.	If the Vertical Flip tool is not already selected, select it.  Subsequent clicks of this tool flips the entire icon.

To flip a selected area of the icon.

1.	If the Vertical Flip tool is not already selected, select it.

2.	With the mouse cursor over the editing area, press the left mouse button and draw a selection box around the area you wish to flip.

3.	Click the Vertical Tool to flip the selected area.

4.	To complete the move, position the mouse cursor anywhere in the editing area and click the left mouse button.


Rotate

This command rotates the entire icon, or a square selected part of the icon 90 degrees to the right.  To cancel the effect of the rotate command click the Undo command or click the Rotate command three more consecutive times.

To rotate the entire icon

1.	If the Rotate tool is not already selected, select it.  Subsequent clicks of this tool rotates the entire icon.

To rotate a selected area of the icon.

1.	If the Rotate tool is not already selected, select it.

2.	With the mouse cursor over the editing area, press the left mouse button and draw a selection box around the area you wish to flip.  As you draw a selection rectangle you will notice that the selected area is always square.

3.	Click the Rotate Tool to rotate the selected area.

4.	To complete the move, position the mouse cursor anywhere outside the selected area and click the left mouse button.


SnapShot

This command enables you to take a picture of Any Area on the Windows Desktop.  Since the Icon Editor covers almost the entire desktop, a command in the Edit Menu enables you to reduce the Icon Editor area during a Snapshot.  To enable it simply open the Edit Menu and click the Reduce Form for Snapshot command.

 To take a SnapShot perform the following steps.

1.	With the Left Mouse Button click on the SnapShot tool, even if it is already selected.

2.	Move the Mouse Cursor over the area of the Windows Desktop you wish to SnapShot.

3.	Click the Left Mouse Button, or press the Enter key.

To restore the previous image click the UNDO command.


Edit Area

The area where the icon is actually drawn.  With the aid of the mouse pixels, lines, boxes, and circles are drawn directly on the edit area.


Pencil Size

The following pencil sizes, in pixels, are available.

1.	1x1

2.	2x2

3.	3x3

4.	4x4


Eraser

For colors other than white, the eraser behaves like the pencil.  You can draw in the editing area from (1x1) to a (4x4) pixel size.  With a white eraser you can make transparent any area of the icon.  Transparent areas of an icon are easily detectable on the windows desktop when you drag the icon to a new location.  While being dragged, objects behind the icon are visible.  The size of the eraser corresponds to the pencil size selected.

To activate the eraser, press the right mouse button and move the mouse over the areas you wish to erase.  When erasing is complete release the right mouse button.

To select the color of the eraser, place the mouse cursor over the desired color, in the color palette area, and press the right mouse button.


Copy to Clipboard

This command copies the currently displayed icon to the windows clipboard. This command is normally used to transfer an icon to another Windows application, such as CorelDraw! or Excel for Windows.  It can also be used to temporarily store an icon.


Paste from Clipboard

This command copies the contents of the Windows clipboard onto the editing area.  This command is very useful if you previously used the clipboard to temporarily store an icon.

Note: This command will only be useful if the current contents of the clipboard is an icon or a bitmap.


Reset Dithered Colors

Excecuting this command reset all (16) dithered colors to their internal defaults.


Save Dithered Colors on Exit

Setting this option will save the changes youve made to the dithered colors (if any) to a file called iconedit.ini when you exit the program.

If youve customized the dithered color palette and you do not want these changes to appear the next time you start the Icon Editor, clear this option.

Tip: 	To save the dithered colors to the iconedit.ini file without exiting the Icon Editor, execute the File|Exit command while pressing the shift key.  This is the same technique used by Program Manager and File Manager to save system options without exiting these programs.


Reduce Form for Snapshot

Setting this option will cause the Icon Editor program space to reduce in size during a desktop snapshot.  Clearing this option not reduce the Icon Editor program space during a desktop snapshot.


Undo

Use the Undo command to undo your previous drawing action.  For example, if you've just drawn a circle using the Filled or Hollow Circle tool, you can restore your previous icon image by clicking the Undo command.  You can also Undo the results of a Move command with the Undo command.


Selecting a Drawing Tool

To select a drawing tool place the mouse cursor over the desired tool and press the left mouse button.  The seleted tool is displayed in the top left corner of the screen.


Extracting Icons from EXE and DLL Files

As well as editing regular icons files this program enables you to extract icons from Windows EXE program files, and some Windows Dynamic Link Libraries (files with the extension DLL).Two files included with Windows 3.1 each contain many icons.  They are:

C:\WINDOWS\PROGMAN.EXE

C:\WINDOWS\MORICONS.DLL

If you are using the Compuserve Windows Information Manager (WINCIM), the EXE file WINCIM.EXE also contains many icons.

To extract these icons perform the following steps.

1.	Execute the File Open command and specify a file type with extension EXE or DLL

2.	Change the default directory to the WINDOWS directory.

3.	Select the PROGMAN.EXE file or the MORICONS.DLL file depending on which file extension you selected.

4.	This will open the selected file and extract all available icons.  The icons will appear in a grid with 7 columns and a variable number of rows.  If the number of available icons exceeds what is visible on the screen, a scroll bar will automatically appear on the right side of the grid.  Use the scroll bar to scroll up or down the grid to see more icons.

To select an icon for editing do the following

5.	Click on the icon you wish to select.

6.	Drag the icon to the editing region, or double click on the desired icon in the grid.

To cancel selection of an icon do the following

Click the Undo button.


Icon files

Files which contain a single icon.  An icon file should always have the extension ICO.


DLL Files

Files which may contain icons.  Windows 3.1 comes with a file named C:\WINDOWS\MORICON.DLL.  This file contains 106 icons which are available to windows users.


EXE Files

Windows executable files  which always contain at least (1) icon..One Windows EXE file which contains (46) icons is C:\WINDOWS\PROGMAN.EXE.  In general if you know the location of a specific Windows program you can extract its icon(s) and modify it.


New

This command clears the editing area to begin drawing a new icon.  If the icon currently being edited requires saving you are prompted to do so via the Save As dialog box.


Open

This command displays the Open Icon dialog box and permits you to open a new icon for editing.  If the icon currently being edited requires saving you are prompted to do so via the Save As dialog box.  The Icon Editor permits opening of the following files.

1.	Regular Icon Files (Files with the ICO extension)

2.	C:\WINDOWS\MORICONS.DLL

3.	C:\WINDOWS\PROGMAN.EXE

4.	Any Windows EXE file

For more information see the section on extracting icons from DLL and Windows EXE files.


Save

This command saves the currently open icon file if one exists.  The previous icon file is overwritten with the icon image currently being edited.  If no icon file is currently open, then the Save As dialog box is displayed, permitting you to create a new icon file.  By default icon files are given the ICO extension.


Save As

This command saves the currently open icon file, if one exists, under a new file name.  The Save As dialog box is displayed permitting you to specify a new icon file name.


Exit

This command exits the Icon Editor and returns you to Program Manager.  If the icon currently being edited requires saving, you are prompted to do so via the Save As dialog box.


Selecting a Color

For outlining tools, such as the pencil and hollow shapes, (16) solid colors are available.  For filled shapes and the contiguous brush fill tool, (32) colors are available, (16) solid colors and (16) dithered colors..  To set the color for the drawing tools, place the mouse cursor over the desired color, in the color pallete area, and press the left mouse button.

For the Eraser (16) solid colors are available.  To set the color for the Eraser place the mouse cursor over the desired color, in the color palette area, and press the right mouse button.


Customizing Dithered Colors

In the color palette you can customize the (16) dithered colors to any color you want.  Dithered colors are customized by using the (3) horizontal scroll bars located underneath the color palette.  The scroll bars work as follows.

Scroll Bar (1)	Controls the intensity of the color RED.

Scroll Bar (2)	Controls the intensity of the color GREEN.

Scroll Bar (3)	Controls the intensity of the color BLUE.

To change a dithered color do the following.

1.	Place the mouse cursor over the dithered color to change and click the left mouse button.

2.	Using the scroll bars, vary the intensity for RED, GREEN, and BLUE until the color you want is shown.


Installing Icons to Program Manager

The Icon Editor will install the following icons.

•	Icon being edited with a filename assigned to it.

1.	Click on the picture displaying the actual size of the icon being edited.  (to the right of the save button)

2.	Open the Filemenu and click on the Install Icon command.

A dialog box will appear with instruction on how to proceed.

3.	Switch <alt tab> to Program Manager and click on the Icon you wish to replace.

4.	Switch back <alt tab> to the Icon Editor and click the Ok button.  To cancel the command click on the Cancel button.

•	Icon from the Icon Grid.

1.	Extract icons from an EXE or DLL file. See Extracting Icons from EXE and DLL Files

2.	Click on the icon in the grid you wish to install.

3.	Open the Filemenu and click on the Install Icon command.

A dialog box will appear with instruction on how to proceed.

4.	Switch <alt tab> to Program Manager and click on the Icon you wish to replace.

5.	Switch back <alt tab> to the Icon Editor and click the Ok button.  To cancel the command click on the Cancel button.


Creating a New iconedit.ini file

If the iconedit.ini file should ever become corrupted or you accidently delete it, creating a new one is easy.  Just follow the procedure listed below.

1.	Open the Notepad file editor which comes with Windows 3.1, or an equivalent ascii file editor.

2.	Press <enter> to create a file of (1) character in length.  This is necessary because Notepad will not allow you to save a file of zero length.

3.	Save the file as iconedit.ini in the same directory where the Icon Editor is located.

4.	Start the Icon Editor, if it is not already running, and execute the Edit | Reset Dithered Colors command.

5.	Set the Edit | Save Dithered Colors on Exit command if necessary.