Left end
Horizontally stretchable mid section
Right end
ButtBot v1 has only been tested on Windows 2000 Professional with Office 2000
installed. We are currently testing the software on other platforms and will
be updating this website with a release as soon as testing is complete.
Make sure you have downloaded the Buttbot installation zip file properly. Extract
the files in the zip file using WinZip or
similar software. If you downloaded the complete installation package (4,100
Kb) double-click setup.exe to start the installer. Follow the instructions.
If you downloaded the small package extract all the files to the same folder. Double-click ButtBot1.exe to run ButtBot.
ButtBot is provided to you on an "AS IS" and "WITH ALL FAULTS" basis. You assume the entire risk of loss in using ButtBot. ButtBot is complex and may contain some nonconformities, defects or errors. Provider does not warrant that ButtBot will meet your needs or expectations, that operations of ButtBot will be error free or uninterrupted, or that all nonconformities can or will be corrected. This Limited Warranty is non-transferable.
In order to use the batch functionality you have to create one or more settings
files. You should already have designed your button in your favorite graphics
application and sliced the image into three separate files; the left end, a
horizontally stretchable mid section and the right end of the button. ButtBot
will stretch the mid section horizontally so that the button size will be able
to hold the text. Recommended file format is GIF or BMP for these images.
Left end |
Horizontally stretchable mid section |
Right end |
Load these images into ButtBot by clicking the 'Open...' button next to the
corresponding part area in buttbot.
After the parts are loaded into ButtBot continue by setting the font properties for the text to be rendered on the button. Click the 'Set Font...' button to open the font settings dialog. Make your required adjustments and click 'OK' to return to the ButtBot main screen. In the samples area you should see the sample area being updated with your new settings.
If the button text isn't properly aligned with the button, adjust the left and top padding by entering values in the left and top padding fields. A value in the top padding field will move the text baseline down with that amount of pixels.
When you are satisfied with your sample button, save your settings by selecting 'Save Settings' from the file menu.
Open MS Excel and create a new worksheet. A template is provided with the installation of ButtBot. The structure of the Excel file should be as follows:
The first column contains the text to appear on the button.
The second column contains the filepath of the image ButtBot creates. If you do not provide a full path (such as "c:\images\en\btn_login.bmp") images will be saved in the ButtBot installation folder. Please note that ButtBot can only produce BMP images due to the license requirements for GIF files. You have to use your graphics application to convert the BMP images to GIF images before you use them in your website.
The third column is optional and provides information on when ButtBot should switch between different templates. If this column is left blank ButtBot will use the settings loaded when the batch function is triggered. In the sample Excel file above the first three buttons will be rendered with the samplebtn1.bmk template and the last two buttons with the samplebtn2.bmk template.
Save the Excel sheet and return to ButtBot.
To start batch creation you first have to load your Excel file into ButtBot. You do this by clicking the 'Open' button in the Batch Process area of ButtBot. After you have slected the appropriate file you are ready to start creating the images. Click the 'Batch Process' button and wait until ButtBot has finished. Using the included sample files and the demo excel sheet above the following output should have been created:
|
btn_login.bmp
 |
btn_sample2.bmp
 |
btn_logout.bmp
 |
btn2_newstyle.bmp
 |
btn2_clickme.bmp
 |
All you have to do now is to batch convert the BMP images to GIF or PNG using
your favorite graphics package. If your graphics application does not support
batch format conversion of BMP to GIF, please have a look at Irfanview
(freeware) or do a search at www.download.com.
If you check the "Create Report" checkbox ButtBot will create an HTML
Report with information on the buttons created. This is excellent for proofreading
your buttons. Please note that the Batch Report file only can be viewed in Internet
Explorer.
If you installed ButtBot using the full installer you can uninstall the software from Settings/Control Panel/Add Remove Software. If you downloaded the small installation package you only have to delete the folder where you unzipped the files. ButtBot makes no changes to your registry.