About Styles and the Style Editor

 

style_icon

Main Style Window

Style Menu Commands

Options Window

Overview of Styles

The purpose of styles is to save you time and effort by storing font, color and option information in a separate file in which you label every combination you desire with a single code number. You can make as many combinations of fonts and colors and options as you like and then store them each with their own code in a single file. You can use the same Styles file for all your experiments, or you can copy and modify as many different Styles files as you like-one for every experiment if you want. If you place a custom Styles file in the same folder as an input file, then that is the one DirectRT will use. If not, then DirectRT will simply use the default Styles file located in the main program folder.

Every Trial Has a Style

In every input file, you'll notice that there is a column called "Style". Every trial has its own Style value that is set in this column. Before the session begins, DirectRT opens the Styles file and reads every style in it. It organizes them by the code numbers you give to them. Then as DirectRT prepares each trial it reads what style you want applied to it. DirectRT says "Style 12? No problem!" and proceeds to set the colors, the font, the alignment of stimuli and other settings according to style 12 in the Styles file.

You'll also see that you're not limited to a single style on any given trial. You can switch styles at any time by placing a style code in later columns of the input file. You can also place multiple style codes within a single text file in order to present some nicely formatted text. See Formatting Text Files sample for how to do this.

Style Files

Every set of styles is located in a .DRT style file. Edit style files by double clicking on them, or open the style editor from the DirectRT main program window (select Edit->Style File)

This section will explain the purpose of the different style options and explain how to use the DirectRT Style Editor.

See Also

Style - Setting Styles in Input Files