When starting RoboLab always go to Inventor 4. Inventor 4 has the most options and buttons which are needed for effective programming.

Wires/Wiring

• Using the pointer tool, you can single click on a wire to select just that segment.
• Double click on the wire and you select the full connection from source to destination.
• Triple click on a wire and you select the entire tree (one source to many destinations).
• Use the auto string feature by moving the icon you are placing close to the icon you would like to connect it to.
• Icons may have up to 4 active corners for you to wire the two at the top are the ones to write the program the two at the bottom modify the icon

Look for the "flashing corners" to know where to place the string tool. To connect the wires you need to click on the activated end corner of the first icon and then click on the activated begin corner of the following icon in the program.

• Use mouse clicks to add your own anchor points to control how your wire bends.
• Double-click to end a wire.
• Right-click (command-click on Mac) to to get rid of an unwanted wire.
• Press control-b to remove all the broken wires.

Palettes/panels

• Tools Clicking your right mouse button while holding down the shift key, gives you a menu of cursor tools. This provides easy access to the eye-dropper and paint brush tools.
• Tools Use the Tab key to cycle between the select tool, text tool, string and change value tools.
• Tools - Using the spacebar to toggle between the select tool and string tools.
• Functions - Right-click (command-click on a Mac) anywhere on the window to get a pop up Functions palette.

Icons

• Right-click (hold command key on Mac) on an icon to replace it with a new icon from the Functions palette.
• Use the align icon tools at top of window to organize your program better.

Debugging

• Click on the "broken arrow" (Run program) to get error messages and isolate the problem.
• Double click on an error message to be taken to the part of your program that is suspected of having an error.
• Use sounds and the set-display icon (in the RCX communications submenu) to indicate the progress of a program.

Changing the color of background Changing the color of background allows you to use less ink on the printer and/or choose a better color. To change the background color go to "Window", "Show Tools Palate", and click the lower box in the bottom half of the palate. To find out what an icon does There are two ways. One way is to double click the icon and the front panel for that icon should appear. The other way is to enable "Show Help" from the menu help command. Hovering the cursor over an icon should pop up a help window. In this menu a link at the bottom allows a sample program to be seen.