How to Read These Docs
The formatting conventions used across the Spectralite documentation.
A few conventions repeat on every page. Knowing them makes each instruction quicker to follow.
UI labels and menu paths
Anything you click, type into, or read on screen appears in bold, spelled exactly as the app spells it. A button reads Add fixture, a panel reads the Timeline panel, a checkbox reads Leap Motion input enabled.
Menu paths use > between each level, so Edit > Outputs means open the Edit menu and choose Outputs, and Edit > Inputs > MIDI means open Edit, then the Inputs submenu, then MIDI. Follow the chain left to right.
Keyboard shortcuts
Shortcuts list both platforms because the modifier key differs. Mac uses Cmd, Windows uses Ctrl, so a shortcut is written as Cmd+S (Mac) / Ctrl+S (Windows). Press the modifier for your platform together with the listed key. Where only one platform is named, that shortcut is specific to it.
Node Editor colors
In the Node Editor, the input and output sockets on a node, and the wires that connect them, are colored by data type. A number socket, a color socket, and a vector socket each carry their own color, and a wire takes the color of the socket it leaves. Two sockets connect only when their types match, so the colors are a quick check: a wire that would join two different colors is not a valid connection. The data types page lists every type and its color.
Callouts
Highlighted boxes flag things worth pausing on. Two types appear throughout:
An info callout adds a tip or a detail that helps but is not required to finish the task.
A warning callout marks something that can lose work or produce a result you did not intend, such as an action that cannot be undone. Read these before you act.