Note: This is a work in progress and many formatting issues have been fixed. Read more about the project on the home page.

show

show menuBar

show titleBar

show groups

show all cards

show marked cards

show posInteger cards

show card picture

show background picture

show picture of card

show picture of bkgnd

show field [at point]

show button [at point]

show window [at point]

show externalWindow [at point]

The show command displays HyperCard objects and elements.

Show menuBar displays the menu bar at the top of the screen (unless the screen is locked). Show titleBar displays the title bar on the card window if it’s been hidden. (Normally, the title bar is visible.)

Show groups displays a two-pixel gray underline for all text that has the group text style. (By default, the group text style is invisible.) The underline appears for grouped text in every field (in all stacks). Use the hide groups command to remove the underline.

The show card forms display the specified cards in the current stack in turn, beginning with the next card or the next marked card.

The other forms of the show command display the card or background picture, a window, or an object at a specified location on the screen. If the point is not given, the window or object is displayed at its previous location.

Showing a window makes it the frontmost window. With external windows, an external command or external function must first create a window before show will work on it. Show does not create windows.

Examples

-- show a series of cards

show all cards

show ten cards

put 26 into howMany

show howMany cards

show card window

-- built-in windows:

show tool window

show window "tools"

show Message box at 100,100

show window "Message"

show message watcher

show window "Message Watcher"

show variable watcher

show window "Variable Watcher" at 70,280

-- external windows:

show window (line 9 of the windows)

show window "Navigator" -- only if it already exists

show window "Script of My HD:Home" at 100,100 -- only if it is open

-- show objects:

show card field 1

show field "Names" at 1,1

show bkgnd btn id 35 at 10,10

-- show the picture of a specified card or bkgnd:

show picture of card 3

show pict of first cd

show picture of background "jazz"

Demo Script

on showPictureDemo

  -- draw a picture and show it only when done:

  show bkgnd field "demo field"

  hide card picture

  drawPicture -- see below

  show card picture

  displayMessage "Click the mouse" & return & "to continue..."

  set the cursor to arrow

  wait until the mouseClick

  lock screen

  doMenu "revert" -- Don't keep the new picture

  choose browse tool

  unlock screen with dissolve slowly

  hide bkgnd field "demo field"

end showPictureDemo

on drawPicture

  setUpPaint

  put "50,16,12,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3" into theSides

  repeat with itemNum = 1 to the number of items in theSides

    set polysides to (item itemNum of theSides)

    drag from "240,160" to "240,250"

  end repeat

end drawPicture

on setUpPaint

  set lineSize to 1

  choose regular polygon tool

  set the pattern to 1

  set centered to true

  set filled to true

  set grid to false

end setUpPaint

Placeholders

posInteger

An expression that evaluates to a positive integer.

For example:

3

67 mod 13

the number of bg fields

the number of backgrounds

the number of cards div 2

See also: background, bkgnd, button, card, chunk, field, menu, and menuItem

card

An expression that identifies a card by name, number, or id using one of the following forms (in AppleScript, use “background” in place of “bkgnd”):

recent card

back

forth

card id posInteger [of bkgnd

card text [of bkgnd] -- name

card posInteger [of bkgnd] -- number

ordinal card [of bkgnd]

position card [of bkgnd]

ordinal marked card

position marked card

marked card posInteger

For example:

card id 3894

card "Index"

card 1 of background 1

prev card

previous card of this background

next card

this card

first card

last card

middle card

any card

first marked card

last marked card

next marked card

previous marked card

marked card 1

marked card (the number of marked cards)

When used inside a card script in HyperTalk: me

When a card receives a message: [the] target

bkgnd

A HyperTalk expression that identifies a background by name, number, or id, using one of the following forms:

bkgnd id posInteger

bkgnd text -- name

bkgnd posInteger -- number

ordinal bkgnd

position bkgnd

For example:

bkgnd id 3894

bkgnd "Index"

bkgnd 1

prev bkgnd

previous bkgnd

next bkgnd

this bkgnd

first bkgnd

last bkgnd

middle bkgnd

any bkgnd

From within a background script, the term me refers to that background.

When a background receives a the message [the] target, that message is referring to the background.

field

An expression that identifies a field by name, number, or id using one of the following forms (in AppleScript, use “background” in place of “bkgnd”):

card field id posInteger [[of] card]

card field text [of card] -- name

card field posInteger [of card]

ordinal card field [of card]

[bkgnd] field id posInteger [of card]

[bkgnd] field text [of card] -- name

[bkgnd] field posInteger [of card]

ordinal [bkgnd] field [of card]

For example:

card field id 3894

card field "My Notes"

card field 1

first card field

background field 3 of card 1

When used inside a field script in HyperTalk: me

When a field receives a message: [the] target

A field can also be referred to as a part when you’re talking about its position among all buttons and fields within the same card or background.

point

HyperTalk Definition

An expression that evaluates to a specific screen location, in the form of two integers separated by a comma.

Item 1 of a point is the horizontal offset (in pixels). Item 2 of a point is the vertical offset (in pixels). For example:

91,303

"91,303"

"30" & "," & "100"

the clickLoc

AppleScript Definition

An expression that evaluates to a specific screen location, in the form of a list with two integer elements. For example:

{ 91, 303 }

clickLoc

button

HyperTalk Definition

An expression that identifies a button by name, number, or id, using one of the following forms:

[card] button id posInteger [of card]

[card] button text [of card] -- name

[card] button posInteger [of card]

ordinal [card] button [of card]

bkgnd button id posInteger [of card]

bkgnd button text [of card] -- name

bkgnd button posInteger [of card]

ordinal bkgnd button [of card]

For example:

card button id 3894

card button "Return"

card button 1

first card button

bkgnd button 2 of card 2

last bkgnd button

When used inside a button script: me

When a button receives a message: [the] target

A button can also be referred to as a part when you’re talking about its position among all buttons and fields within the same card or background.

AppleScript Definition

An expression that identifies a button by name, number, or id, using the same forms as HyperTalk except that “background” must be used in place of “bkgnd”.

window

One of HyperCard’s built-in windows, the window containing the current stack (called the card window), or any other window containing a stack, as follows:

card window

tool window

window "tools"

pattern window

window "Patterns"

scroll window

window "scroll"

[the] message [window]

[the] message [box]

[the] msg [window]

[the] msg [box]

window "message"

message watcher

window "message watcher"

variable watcher

window "variable watcher"

window "Home"

window "Readymade Buttons"

-- if longWindowTitles is true:

window "My HD:Home"

window 6

window ID 21403082

Note: If a window containing a stack is inactive, you can set only its location and visible properties.

Important: External windows can’t be substituted for the window placeholder (see the externalWindow placeHolder).

externalWindow

A window displayed by an external command or an external function; a window that’s not one of HyperCard’s built-in windows:

window "navigator"

window "Script of stack My HD:Home"

window "JT's Cool Palette"

show

Examples

Demo Script

Related Topics

Placeholders

posInteger

card

bkgnd

field

point

button

window

externalWindow