Most other XBoard commands are available from the menu bar. The most
frequently used commands also have shortcut keys or on-screen buttons.
+These shortcut keystrokes are mostly non-printable characters.
+Typing a letter or digit while the board window has focus
+will bring up a type-in box with the typed letter already in it.
+You can use that to type a move in siuations where it is your
+turn to enter a move,
+type a move number to call up the position after that move
+in the display,
+or, in Edit Position mode, type a FEN.
Some rarely used parameters can only be set through options on the
command line used to invoke XBoard.
XBoard) using that application's paste command. In many X
applications, such as xterm and emacs, the middle mouse button can be
used for pasting; in XBoard, you must use the Paste Position command.
+@item Copy Game List
+@cindex Copy Game List, Menu Item
+Copies the current game list to the clipboard,
+and sets the X selection to this text.
+A format of comma-separated double-quoted strings is used,
+including all tags,
+so it can be easily imported into spread-sheet programs.
@item Paste Game
@cindex Paste Game, Menu Item
Interprets the current X selection as a game record and loads it, as
Use mouse button 1 to drag pieces to new squares, or to delete a piece
by dragging it off the board or dragging an empty square on top of it.
To drop a new piece on a square, press mouse button 2 or 3 over the
-square. This brings up a menu of white pieces (button 2) or
-black pieces (button 3). Additional menu choices let you empty the
-square or clear the board. You can set the side to play next by
-clicking on the word White or Black at the top of the screen.
+square.
+This puts a white or black pawn in the square, respectively,
+but you can change that to any other piece type by dragging the
+mouse down before you release the button.
+You will then see the piece on the originally clicked square
+cycle through the available pieces
+(including those of opposite color),
+and can release the button when you see the piece you want.
+To alter the side to move, you can click the clock
+(the words White and Black above the board)
+of the side you want to give the move to.
+To clear the board you can click the clock of the side that
+alread has the move (which is highlighted in black).
+The old behavior with a piece menu can still be configured
+with the aid of the @code{pieceMenu} option.
Selecting @samp{Edit Position} causes XBoard to discard
all remembered moves in the current game.
@cindex General Options, Menu Item
The following items to set option values appear in the dialog
summoned by the general Options menu item.
-@itemx Always Queen
-@cindex Always Queen, Menu Item
-If this option is off, XBoard brings up a dialog
+@itemx Almost Always Queen
+@cindex Almost Always Queen, Menu Item
+If this option is on, 7th-rank pawns automatically change into
+Queens when you pick them up,
+and when you drag them to the promotion square and release them there,
+they will promote to that.
+But when you drag such a pawn backwards first,
+its identity will start to cycle through the other available pieces.
+This will continue ntil you start to move it forward;
+this will then fix the identity of the piece,
+so that you can safely put it down on the promotion square.
+If this option is off, what happens depends on the
+option @code{alwaysPromoteToQueen},
+which would force promotion to Queen when true.
+Otherwise XBoard would bring up a dialog
box whenever you move a pawn to the last rank, asking what piece
-you want to promote it to. If the option is true, your pawns are
-always promoted to queens. Your opponent can still under-promote.
-The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-Q} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+you want to promote to.
@itemx Animate Dragging
@cindex Animate Dragging, Menu Item
If Animate Dragging is on, while you are dragging a piece with the
Furthermore, a double-click on a piece that can only make a single capture
will cause that capture to be made.
Promoting a Pawn by clicking its to-square will suppress the promotion
-popup, and make it promote to Queen.
+popup or other methods for selecting an under-promotion,
+and make it promote to Queen.
@itemx Periodic Updates
@cindex Periodic Updates, Menu Item
If this option is off (or if
where the right mouse button brings up the (now deprecated) drop menu
rather than displaying the position at the end of the principal variation.
Default: False.
+@item -pieceMenu true|false
+@cindex pieceMenu, option
+This option allows you to emulate old behavior,
+where the right mouse button brings up the (now deprecated) piece menu
+in Edit Position mode.
+From this menu you can select the piece to put on the square you
+clicked to bring up the menu,
+or select items such as @kbd{clear board}.
+You can also @kbd{promote} or @kbd{demote} a clicked piece to convert
+it into an unorthodox piece that is not directly in the menu,
+or give the move to @kbd{black} or @kbd{white}.
@item -variations true|false
@cindex variations, option
When this option is on, you can start new variations in Edit Game or
@cindex queen, option
@cindex alwaysPromoteToQueen, option
Sets the Always Queen menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
+@item -sweepPromotions true/false
+@cindex sweepPromotion, option
+Sets the Almost Always Promote to Queen menu option.
+@xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
@item -legal/-xlegal or -testLegality true/false
@cindex legal, option
@cindex testLegality, option
projects / xboard.git / blobdiff