• A file having the name of the tutorial, with an .htm or .html extension.
• A folder having the same name with '_files' appended, which contains all the images used in the tutorial.

For example, if the title of the tutorial is Mosaic Tile Background, after saving the tutorial to your hard drive, the two parts will look like this (highlighted in green):

1. Activate the transparent layer you want to create the drop shadow for.
2. Duplicate this layer, renaming the duplicate layer "Shadow".
3. With the "Shadow" layer active, choose Adjust...Brightness and Contrast...Brightness/Contrast, and set the Brightness all the way down to -255 (negative 255), which will turn the image black.
4. Using the Mover tool, drag this image slightly to whichever side you want the shadow on.
5. Move the "Shadow" layer below the original layer in the Layers palette.
6. Apply a blur to the shadow using Adjust...Blur...Gaussian Blur. The radius of the blur depends on how you want the shadow to look, but something in the range of 7.00 - 15.00 works well.
7. Lower the opacity of the "Shadow" layer, as needed. Sometimes, it helps to change the Blend Mode to Hard Light.
8. If you want a perspective shadow instead of a drop shadow, use the Pick tool to skew the image left or right, depending on where your light is coming from. If you want your shadow to fall in front of the object instead of behind it, flip the shadow before skewing it and move it into place.

This method gives you a tremendous amount of control over the position, thickness, blur, and opacity of your drop and perspective shadows. It's a great alternative to the Drop Shadow effect, and is much easier to use than the Eye Candy perspective shadows.

To see the extrusion fall down and to the right, set both Horizontal and Vertical Offsets to 1.
To see the extrusion fall up and to the right, set the Vertical Offset to -1 (negative 1) and the Horizontal Offset to 1.
To see the extrusion fall down and to the left, set the Vertical Offset to 1 and the Horizontal Offset to -1 (negative 1) .
To see the extrusion fall up and to the left, set both Vertical and Horizontal Offsets to -1 (negative 1).

Use a contrasting color for interesting extrusions. Check the Shadow on new layer check box if you want to manipulate the shadows.

To apply the repeated drop shadows without revisiting the Drop Shadow dialog each time, click the REPEAT icon . I have this icon on my standard toolbar for easy access. Or use the REPEAT keyboard shortcut, CTRL + Y.

Here's some gradient text with an extrusion out to the left. For this one, I used a Vertical Offset of 0 and a Horizontal Offset of 1, repeating the shadow five times:

Depending on your settings in the Batch Process dialog, this command can also be used to make copies of files or convert files from one format to another.

This code causes a Message Box to pop up - the text in the Message Box is highlighted in yellow above. The 'true' at the end of the line highlighted in pink makes this the foreground material. The name given to this material, Material1 (which will be used later in the script) is highlighted in blue.

Similar code can be inserted for obtaining the background material:

The text that will appear in the message box is highlighted in yellow. Note the line highlighted in pink - the 'false' at the end of this line ensures this will be the background material. Again, the name given to this material, Material2, is highlighted in blue.

In the code where the material is to be used, insert the name you gave the color - highlighted in blue above. In the following example for the Flood Fill tool, the foreground material, or Material1, will be used - it, too, is highlighted in blue:

If you need more than two different materials in your script, just insert the same Message Box code where you want to ask for more input, using different names (blue highlight) for the results.

Note: The code shown above will work in all versions of Paint Shop Pro. PSP 9 introduced a simpler way of coding the 'true' and 'false' conditions, but as there are still many using PSP 8, I recommend making all scripting code PSP 8-compatible, as much as possible.

The easiest way to prevent this error is to code 'SelectPoint': None, in the Mover step - this way, it will not matter where the image is on the layer, because the entire layer will be moved. This is equivalent to holding down the SHIFT key when using the Move tool to move a layer, which always moves the active layer, no matter where you click with the Move tool.

The user can do any of the following:

• Click Continue to apply the command to the image and move on to the next command in the script.
• Click Skip Command to skip this particular command, and instead move on to the next command in the script.
• Click Stop Scripts to cancel this operation and close the Step Script dialog.

Note: Paint Shop Pro remains in Script Single Step mode until you toggle off this command.

I have found this command so handy when debugging and testing scripts that I have placed an icon for it on my Script toolbar, so it's right there handy when I need it.

Script 'xxxxxxx' has completed successfully.

where xxxxxxx is the name of the script. If there was any problem encountered during the execution of the script, that message will say

Script 'xxxxxxx' has completed with an error.

Note: Be aware that when you UNcheck this box, the undone commands will be active (not undone) when the script is executed. Each of them will be executed, followed immediately by the Undo step that followed them when the script was recorded. Hence, leaving this box checked is probably the best option.

One of the powerful and convenient features of the History palette is that it allows you to selectively choose steps applied to an image and save those steps as a Quickscript. You can then apply the Quickscript to another image (or to the current image). The Quickscript is saved to a file called QuickScriptTemp.PspScript, and resides in the Scripts-Trusted folder. If the History palette is wide enough, the Save Quickscript button () can be seen along the top of the palette. If it is not there, click on the "More Buttons" double arrow on the right edge of the palette to see additional options:

Note: Be aware that there is only one Quickscript; each time you select History palette commands and click the Save Quickscript button, the previously saved Quickscript is overwritten.

The History palette also allows the user to save selected commands to the clipboard to be pasted into scripts. To use this option, select the steps or actions you wish to save to the clipboard, and right-click to activate the History Context Menu. Choose Copy to Clipboard to copy the saved commands to the clipboard. These commands can then be pasted into a script as needed, or used to build a "snippets" library of commands for future use.

In PSP XI, the History Context Menu has lost many of its entries:

The most probable reason most of these options were dropped from the PSP XI History Context Menu is that they are available as icons at the top of the History palette. Most of these commands can be returned to the History Context Menu, if desired, using Customize. However, the "Save to script" option is not available as an icon, nor is it listed as a command in Customize. To return this command to the History Context Menu:

• Create a script with a single step - the SaveHistoryToScript command, as below:
  

  Note: In the SaveHistoryToScript step, replace the xxxxxxxx in the Filename parameter with the complete path name to the script where you want to save the selected actions - on my system, I use r'C:\PSP\PSPXI Files\Scripts-Trusted\FromSaveHistoryToScript.PspScript'. In addition, the other parameters within that command, such as the Author, Copyright, and Description parameters, should be replaced with your information. Finally, if you want the Save As dialog to be presented each time you choose this option, change the Default in the ExecutionMode parameter to Interactive.

• Save this script to a Scripts-Trusted folder, calling it SaveHistoryToScript.PspScript.
• Using Customize, bind this script to an icon, and then drag this icon to the History Context Menu.

Note: Note that the pixels that are "pushed into oblivion" are not really totally lost. They appear to be invisible because they have been pushed into the transparent area. However, these pixels can be recovered by unlocking transparency and unerasing.

# GetVersionInfo
Version = App.Do(Environment, 'GetVersionInfo')


The version information is contained in a dictionary that is in this format:

{'BuildType': u'Released', 'MinorVersion': 0, 'MajorVersion': 11, 'MicroVersion': 0, 'BuildNumber': u'20060728.00', 'VersionString': u'11.00', 'Program': u'Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI'}

Therefore, to extract the version information, use the MajorVersion key, like this:

Version['MajorVersion']

Then use the "if-else" structure to execute the appropriate code. An example would be the Text command in PSP 8 that was replaced by the TextEx command in PSP 9:

if Version['MajorVersion'] == 8:
    # Text
    App.Do( Environment, 'Text', {
        .
        .
        .
else:
    # Text
    App.Do( Environment, 'TextEx', {
        .
        .
        .

If it is necessary to identify the version down to the minor and micro versions, the VersionString key can be used instead:

Version['VersionString']

• Create the text in vector format.
• Select the text using the Pick tool (K).
• Choose Objects...Convert Text to Curves...As Character Shapes.
• Choose Objects...Ungroup.
• Select the character to modify with the Pick tool - use the bounding box to reshape the character.

If you want to change the size of some characters while retaining the text properties of the text, you can do the following:

• Create the text in vector format.
• Activate the Text Entry box for the text using one of the following methods:
  • Click on the text with the Text tool when it changes to the "edit text cursor", OR
  • Right-click on the text object sublayer in the Layers palette and choose Edit Text, OR
  • Double-click on the text object sublayer in the Layers palette.
• Select the character(s) to modify in the Text Entry box.
• Change the Tool Options parameters or Materials palette materials for the selected character(s).