Linker

Manual

Overview

Linker is a piece of Mongrel-engineered software that enables you to connect images, sounds, text and video that you have created or chosen. You can also link on-line to other users of the software.

Linker is a non-commercial piece of software, available free as a download from the internet. It is experimental and the work of people who like to make technologies for their own purposes and then share them. It is in constant development and refinement, and is not guaranteed glitch-free.

Click here for updates to the manual.

If you have comments, questions or suggestions please mail: Info@mongrelx.org

 

What you need to use Linker

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS to run the software.

You will need a contemporary computer running either Windows or MacOS or NT. The faster the machine the better it willl run.

Linker only works if you input images, sounds and texts of your own. You can source these through the net, cd¹s etc. If you want to use your own images you will need access to a scanner. For simple sounds try using the built-in mic on your computer. Text you can input with any word-processor programme.

 

Getting Ready

1. You can download linker from http://www.mongrel.org.uk/natural/linker/download.htm. It is available for the PC or the Mac.

2. Unstuff the software

3. A folder called "Linker" will be created on your desktop or hard drive.

4. Open the folder. You will see the Linker Icon and two other folders.

5. The folder "map manual" is a version of this manual made using Linker. Open this folder and start exploring the map manual to start getting the hang of a Linker map

6. You can re-edit the map manual using the edit functions of Linker. Use this to get familiar with the edit functions of linker. You will quickly understand how Linker works and what it can do. Then you can begin loading up elements and making your own map.

Exploring Maps

1. Nine images form the basis of Linker maps. Points in these images can be made to link to sounds, texts, video clips, and different parts of The map, to other pictures or to other maps on your machine. Additionally, links can change the map scale, ie. zoom in or out of the map. There is also a function that allows you to to get help on-line

2. To scroll around the map, push the cursor to the edges of the screen in any direction. The map images will appear as you roll the mouse over the map grid.

3. Links of different kinds are indicated by coloured dots:

name	function	colour
map	link to a different map	light green
jump	move to another part of the same map	dark green
	link to other users	red
video	link to a video clip	light blue
text	bring up text	pink
sound	link to a sound clip	red
image	link to an image	yellow
scale	change the scale view of the map	dark blue

 

To explore a link, click on a dot. Some map images are assigned a "background sound" which will be audible when you roll the mouse over any part of that image.

4. If you want to zoom out to see the whole map, try out some "scale" hotspots, or make one of your own.

 

Editing with Linker

1. Start by clicking on a place in the map where you would like a link to be. A black dot will appear.

2. Press "e" on your keyboard while you double click the mouse. The whole map image that would like to link from will appear in the middle of your screen, with a menu on its right-hand side. From this menu you can choose types of links and save them.

To make your links:

map	Use this to link to another map. Click on the place in the image where you would like the link to be made, press "e" and double click. Choose map and a dialog box will appear asking you which map you would like to link to. Choose the map folder you want and highlight the coloured icon with the suffix ".dir". Click "save" on the right hand side and the link is made.
jump	Use this to link to another part of the map. Click on the place in the image where you would like the link to be made, press "e" and double click. Click on "jump" in the right-hand menu and a new menu will appear on the left, listing the nine map images. Click on the one you want to link to and it will appear on the screen. Click on the exact part of this destination image that you would like the link to go to, click save on the right-hand side and the link is made.
Help	This link you to this on-line help
bksnd	Use this to assign a sound to the whole of a map image. The sound will be audible when the mouse rolls over any part of the image you have chosen. Click anywhere in the image where you would like the sound to be heard, press "e" and double click. Click on bksnd on the right-hand menu. A list of all the sound files you have loaded will appear on the left. Choose the sound you want, and click save on the right-hand side.
sound	With this function you can make sounds audible at a specified point in a map image. Click on sound in the right-hand menu. A new menu will appear on the left, which lists all your sound files. Choose the file that you want, then click save on the right-hand menu and the link is made.
video	With this function you can link to a video clip. Click "video" from the right hand menu. A new menu will appear that lists all your video files. Choose the one that you want, and click save to make the link.
text	With this function you can link to some text. Click "text" from the right hand menu. A new menu will appear that lists all your text files. Choose the one that you want, and click save to make the link.
scale	With this function you can zoom in and out of the map, ie. change its scale. Click "scale" from the right hand menu. Choose 100, 75, 50 or 25 from the new menu. The numbers are percentages - e.g.. 25 percent will zoom you out of the map so you can see the whole layout on the screen.
image	With this function you can link to an image that is not already part of the map.. Click "image" from the right hand menu. A new menu will appear that lists all your image files. Choose the one that you want, and click save to make the link.

 

TIP: when you are editing sounds, you can preview the files by highlighting their names. However, in Linker , you have to remember the images, video and text that you have loaded.

3. When you have made a link a coloured dot will appear on the map

4. To clear a link, click on the coloured dot you want to delete. Press "e" while you double-click. Choose clear from the menu.

 

TIPS ON EDITING

1. Map Layout: If you want to change the basic layout of the map, you can do this by changing the file names in your "map" folder . But you will lose any links you have already made.

2. Positioning Links: Linker is made so that the dots can only be positioned at particular points within the map images. You will see small notches around the frame of the map images. Imagine each of the notches extended into vertical or horizontal lines, making a grid across the image. You can make a link at any point along a grid line. In other words, you can make a link parallel to a notch, but not in the spaces in between.

With Linker , only one link is allowed in every grid square. When you are free to make a link, the cursor will be an arrow. When a square is already used up by a link the cursor will be a white circle.

 

LOADING UP THE FOLDERS

1. Before you start to make your own map, you will need to load up folders with the elements that you wish to link together. Open one of your copies of the blank-map folder and you will see five more folders - images, sounds, text, video and map.

2. We advise you to begin by making several copies of the "blank-map" folder. Give the folders different names (e.g. Map1, Map2Š) corresponding to each of the maps you wish to make. Because changes to maps are saved automatically, you should always keep an empty "blank map" folder.

3. Begin to fill the sound, text, image and video folders for the map you wish to begin making. The map folder should contain 9 image files. The other folders can contain up to 16 files. We advise you to use simple file names using lower-case letters, preferably 8 letters or less and avoiding suffixes.

4. The map folder is essential. Linker needs a minimum of nine images in this folder to make the basic "map" layout from which all links are made.

 

TIP: You can start using Linker with just these images and load the rest later.

required file formats:

 

map files	jpeg format, 72 dpi The size of these images will affect the speed with which you can explore you map. On older machines, make smaller files (e.g. 8 bit), on newer ones use larger ones (e.g. 24 bit). Experiment and find out what works best on your computer. In the map folder, the names of the files determine the order in which the images appear in the initial map layout. Linker will lay out the nine images in the map grid according to the numerical or alphabetical order of the file names.
image files	This folder is for images that you want to link to, but which are *not* included in the basic map layout. Image files should be: .jpg format, 72 dpi
text	Text files should be saved in a text-only .txt format. e.g. Simple text for the mac or notepad for the PC.
video	Video files should be .avi or .mov format.
sound	Sound files should be .aif .swa or .wav format. Files used for "background sounds" should be less than 900K.

 

Starting A New map

1. After you have placed elements in your folders you can open a new Linker map and start.

Double click on the "Linker " icon. A box will appear asking you to choose which folder you wish Linker to use to make a map.

2. Choose the folder you have loaded with elements (e.g. Map 1), and click on the coloured icon with the suffix ".dir". Now you can begin making links.