Wiley 3ds max 7 Bible 978-0-7645-7971-4 Manuel D’Utilisation

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Chapter 1 ✦ Finding Your Way — Exploring the Max Interface

The Authorize 3ds max command lets you enter an authorization number to authorize the
software. The About 3ds max command opens the About dialog box. This dialog box displays
the serial number and current display driver.

The New Features Guide, User Reference, MAXScript Reference, and Tutorials are Web
browser-based help interfaces. An organized list of topics is available in the left navigation
pane, as shown in Figure 1-11, and the right includes a pane where the details on the selected
topic are displayed. Across the top are five toolbar buttons used to control the interface. The
Hide button hides the left navigation pane, the Back and Forward buttons move between vis-
ited pages, the Print button prints the information in the right pane, and the Options button
displays a pop-up menu of options.

Figure 1-11: The User Reference includes panels for viewing the 
index of commands and searching the reference.

Above the left navigation pane are five tabs that open separate panels when selected. The
Contents panel displays a list of topics; the Index panel lists all topics alphabetically; the
Search panel includes a text field where you can search for specific keywords; the Favorites
panel keeps a list of bookmarks to topics you add to the list; and the Query panel lets you
type a question and query for answers.

Throughout the textual descriptions, keywords linked to other related topics are highlighted
in blue and underlined.

The Web offers many sites that can also help, and Max links to the Online Support, Updates,
Resources, Partners and Training pages on the Discreet site from the Help ➪ 3ds max on the
Web menu. Selecting either of these menu commands automatically opens a Web browser
and loads the Discreet Web pages.

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