Home THE HYPERCARD CENTER
HyperTalk Reference
Home » HyperTalk Reference »

Note: This is a work in progress and many formatting issues have been fixed. Read more about the project on the home page.

show

show menuBar
show titleBar
show groups
show all cards
show marked cards
show posInteger cards
show card picture
show background picture
show picture of card
show picture of bkgnd
show field [at point]
show button [at point]
show window [at point]
show externalWindow [at point]

The show command displays HyperCard objects and elements.

Show menuBar displays the menu bar at the top of the screen (unless the screen is locked). Show titleBar displays the title bar on the card window if it’s been hidden. (Normally, the title bar is visible.)

Show groups displays a two-pixel gray underline for all text that has the group text style. (By default, the group text style is invisible.) The underline appears for grouped text in every field (in all stacks). Use the hide groups command to remove the underline.

The show card forms display the specified cards in the current stack in turn, beginning with the next card or the next marked card.

The other forms of the show command display the card or background picture, a window, or an object at a specified location on the screen. If the point is not given, the window or object is displayed at its previous location.

Showing a window makes it the frontmost window. With external windows, an external command or external function must first create a window before show will work on it. Show does not create windows.

Examples

-- show a series of cards
show all cards
show ten cards
put 26 into howMany
show howMany cards
show card window
-- built-in windows:
show tool window
show window "tools"
show Message box at 100,100
show window "Message"
show message watcher
show window "Message Watcher"
show variable watcher
show window "Variable Watcher" at 70,280
-- external windows:
show window (line 9 of the windows)
show window "Navigator" -- only if it already exists
show window "Script of My HD:Home" at 100,100 -- only if it is open
-- show objects:
show card field 1
show field "Names" at 1,1
show bkgnd btn id 35 at 10,10
-- show the picture of a specified card or bkgnd:
show picture of card 3
show pict of first cd
show picture of background "jazz"

Demo Script

on showPictureDemo
-- draw a picture and show it only when done:
show bkgnd field "demo field"
hide card picture
drawPicture -- see below
show card picture
displayMessage "Click the mouse" & return & "to continue..."
set the cursor to arrow
wait until the mouseClick
lock screen
doMenu "revert" -- Don't keep the new picture
choose browse tool
unlock screen with dissolve slowly
hide bkgnd field "demo field"
end showPictureDemo
on drawPicture
setUpPaint
put "50,16,12,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3" into theSides
repeat with itemNum = 1 to the number of items in theSides
set polysides to (item itemNum of theSides)
drag from "240,160" to "240,250"
end repeat
end drawPicture
on setUpPaint
set lineSize to 1
choose regular polygon tool
set the pattern to 1
set centered to true
set filled to true
set grid to false
end setUpPaint

Related Topics

Placeholders

posInteger

An expression that evaluates to a positive integer.

For example:

3
67 mod 13
the number of bg fields
the number of backgrounds
the number of cards div 2

See also: background, bkgnd, button, card, chunk, field, menu, and menuItem

card

An expression that identifies a card by name, number, or id using one of the following forms (in AppleScript, use “background” in place of “bkgnd”):

recent card
back
forth
card id posInteger [of bkgnd
card text [of bkgnd] -- name
card posInteger [of bkgnd] -- number
ordinal card [of bkgnd]
position card [of bkgnd]
ordinal marked card
position marked card
marked card posInteger

For example:

card id 3894
card "Index"
card 1 of background 1
prev card
previous card of this background
next card
this card
first card
last card
middle card
any card
first marked card
last marked card
next marked card
previous marked card
marked card 1
marked card (the number of marked cards)

When used inside a card script in HyperTalk: me

When a card receives a message: [the] target

See also: button and field

bkgnd

A HyperTalk expression that identifies a background by name, number, or id, using one of the following forms:

bkgnd id posInteger
bkgnd text -- name
bkgnd posInteger -- number
ordinal bkgnd
position bkgnd

For example:

bkgnd id 3894
bkgnd "Index"
bkgnd 1
prev bkgnd
previous bkgnd
next bkgnd
this bkgnd
first bkgnd
last bkgnd
middle bkgnd
any bkgnd

From within a background script, the term me refers to that background.

When a background receives a the message [the] target, that message is referring to the background.

See also: card

field

An expression that identifies a field by name, number, or id using one of the following forms (in AppleScript, use “background” in place of “bkgnd”):

card field id posInteger [[of] card]
card field text [of card] -- name
card field posInteger [of card]
ordinal card field [of card]
[bkgnd] field id posInteger [of card]
[bkgnd] field text [of card] -- name
[bkgnd] field posInteger [of card]
ordinal [bkgnd] field [of card]
For example:

card field id 3894

card field "My Notes"

card field 1

first card field

background field 3 of card 1

When used inside a field script in HyperTalk: `me`
When a field receives a message: `[the] target`
A field can also be referred to as a part when you’re talking about its position among all buttons and fields within the same card or background.

point

HyperTalk Definition

An expression that evaluates to a specific screen location, in the form of two integers separated by a comma.

Item 1 of a point is the horizontal offset (in pixels). Item 2 of a point is the vertical offset (in pixels). For example:

91,303
"91,303"
"30" & "," & "100"
the clickLoc

AppleScript Definition

An expression that evaluates to a specific screen location, in the form of a list with two integer elements. For example:

{ 91, 303 }
clickLoc

button

HyperTalk Definition

An expression that identifies a button by name, number, or id, using one of the following forms:

[card] button id posInteger [of card]
[card] button text [of card] -- name
[card] button posInteger [of card]
ordinal [card] button [of card]
bkgnd button id posInteger [of card]
bkgnd button text [of card] -- name
bkgnd button posInteger [of card]
ordinal bkgnd button [of card]

For example:

card button id 3894
card button "Return"
card button 1
first card button
bkgnd button 2 of card 2
last bkgnd button

When used inside a button script: me

When a button receives a message: [the] target

A button can also be referred to as a part when you’re talking about its position among all buttons and fields within the same card or background.

AppleScript Definition

An expression that identifies a button by name, number, or id, using the same forms as HyperTalk except that “background” must be used in place of “bkgnd”.

window

One of HyperCard’s built-in windows, the window containing the current stack (called the card window), or any other window containing a stack, as follows:

card window
tool window
window "tools"
pattern window
window "Patterns"
scroll window
window "scroll"
[the] message [window]
[the] message [box]
[the] msg [window]
[the] msg [box]
window "message"
message watcher
window "message watcher"
variable watcher
window "variable watcher"
window "Home"
window "Readymade Buttons"
-- if longWindowTitles is true:
window "My HD:Home"
window 6
window ID 21403082

Note: If a window containing a stack is inactive, you can set only its location and visible properties.

Important: External windows can’t be substituted for the window placeholder (see the externalWindow placeHolder).

externalWindow

A window displayed by an external command or an external function; a window that’s not one of HyperCard’s built-in windows:

window "navigator"
window "Script of stack My HD:Home"
window "JT's Cool Palette"

See also: window placeholder

HyperTalk Reference

Version 0.8b4 (July 4, 2025)

Made with Macintosh

Switch to Modern View