Kwik Interface – Video instruction

When Photoshop loads Kwik, users see the following interface (Kwik Panel):

When no project is opened:

The Toolset Bar shows buttons (in this order, from left to right) to Create a New Project, Open a Project, or Open the Last Project.

The Recent Projects area lists all previously opened project. Double-click one of them and it will open. Press DELETE key over one of them and it will be removed from the list.

Based on your Settings, you may see “greened icons” sample projects in the list as well. They are officially, provided by Kwiksher, tutorials that can be re-created for personal learning just with a double-click. To more information on how to install or create new projects using the samples as guidance, check their proper pages.

The Status Bar shows the following buttons (from left to right):

– Settings: which opens the Settings window;

– Days to expire: if you are using a paid version, you will see the number of days till your subscription expires. If you are using the trial version, you will see “Trial”;

– Version number: shows the installed version number;

– Cloud Icon/Get Updates: the icon changes according the Settings. Clicking it check for updates. Icon colors are:

• Gray means the Check for Updates When Starting feature is disabled in the Settings window. In this scenario user will be in charge to check for updates manually. To do so, just click the icon;
• Orange means the Check for Updates option is enabled and there is a new free version available for download (just click the icon to do so);
• Blue means the Check for Updates option is enabled and user is using the most updated version available;

When a project is opened:

When a project is opened, the interface changes to something similar to that (varies according the opened project):

The Toolset area shows different tools accordingly. Although more information on each tab is provided separately, this is the current 5 toolset categories list:

– Project and Pages: offers tools related to the entire project (project settings and new page addition, for example) and/or the current page (actions, timers, variables, etc);

– Layers and Replacements: offer tools for the selected layer and offer options to replace the selected layer content by a different one (sprite sheet, map, etc);

– Animations: presents tools for linear, path animations and pre-made animations (in the past called Widgets);

– Interactions: offers options for buttons, drag, spins, etc;

– Physics: shows all the tools related to physics use;

The Project info are provides information about the opened project (name, target device, etc) but also tools for publishing your project:

The Publish button exports the code for the project and activates Corona Simulator for previewing. When the publishing process finishes, the following alert will appear to remind the importance of create icons for the final application (otherwise your app icons are going to be the Kwik icon):

If, for any reason, an external file, like an audio or a sprite sheet, was not copied properly to the build folder (this will crash the Simulator), the alert message will show like in this example:

Click OK and Corona will start. Depending on your Settings, you may need to manually open your current file in Corona (point to your project/BUILD/ folder. If you are using Windows, you will need to click the main.lua file. On a Mac, this is not necessary).

– Compress Images: pressing it will externally execute an open-source program called pngquant that compresses PNG files immensely. It is recommended that you use it when your project is ready to be submitted to the main stores. After doing that, always test your project in the device to check for potential issues (some images may get imperfections after the compression). DO NOT use folder names with spaces, otherwise the compress will not to work. For more information on pngquant, check the official site at http://pngquant.org;

– Export Images: enables/disables the export of images during the Publish process (this is a shortcut for the Export Images feature available in the Settings window). When enabled all layer images will be exported. If disabled, only the Lua code is exported – check the Settings page for more options;

– Export Current Page Only: if enabled only exports the Lua code for the current page. If disabled, Kwik exports code for all pages in the project. When a project is opened and this option is selected, a text field will appear with the number of the current page, enabling you to change it for a higher number. Doing so, Kwik will export the current page till the page number in the text field. For example, if the current page is 3 and you enter 7, Kwik will export pages 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7;

– Close Project: closes the current project;

The 2 buttons at the left side (below the Publish button) toggles the Pages/Components list content. At their right side, you have a visual clue of the current page being edited.

– Delete: allows you to delete a page or component selected in the list (you can also delete a page/component selecting it and pressing the DELETE key on your keyboard). Multiple selection is allowed;

One row below:

– Search icon: toggles search by kind of component or text input;

– Copy: allows you to copy the selected component into Kwik’s clipboard. Multiple selection is allowed;

– Paste: allows you to paste the content of Kwik’s clipboard into the same page, another page or in all project pages. For more info on how to use the paste feature, check the Copy and Paste page. Multiple selection is allowed;