Add your own Tools.

Any action you repeat can become a Button that sits on the Canvas beside the built-in Tools. This page covers Buttons. Widgets ship with Altar.

What a Button can do

| Action | You provide | When you click it | | --- | --- | --- | | Run script | A .jsx or .jsxbin file, or code typed in | Runs the script. | | Apply expression | Expression text | Sets it on every selected property that accepts an expression. | | Run menu command | A numeric After Effects command ID, for example 2000 for New Composition | Runs that menu command. | | Apply effect | An effect match name, for example ADBE Gaussian Blur 2 | Adds the effect to each selected layer. | | Apply preset | An .ffx file | Applies it to each selected layer. | | Open extension | The panel’s bundle ID, for example com.vendor.panel | Opens that panel. |

Make a Button

1. Open Settings and pick a Group

   Right-click the Canvas, choose Settings, then open a Group under Groups. To make a new one, use the plus beside Groups.

2. Choose Add Button

   Search for a script, panel, preset, effect or expression snippet Altar has found on your machine, or leave the field empty and pick one of the six actions to fill in yourself. If a search finds nothing, Apply an effect by match name… takes you to the effect form.

3. Fill in the details

   Add what the action needs, then a Name, an Icon, colors and a Description. With no icon chosen, Altar uses letters from the name. Choose Create Button.

4. Try it on the Canvas

   The Button appears in that Group. Select something in After Effects and click it.

Any Button can also be created from the plus beside Buttons in the Settings list. Menu, effect, preset and open-extension Buttons ask you to pick or create a Group first. Scripts and expressions are saved under Buttons → Your tools and are not placed anywhere yet. Open the Tool and use On your layout to put it on the Canvas or into a Group.

What happens when you click

Altar shows the result as a short message.

• Expression, effect and preset Buttons make one undo step. They need the right selection first: properties for an expression, layers for an effect or preset. Without it you get a message asking you to select them.
• Script Buttons run your code as written. Altar cannot promise a script is one undo step, so wrap it in your own undo group if you need that. A script can end with ({ success: true, message: "Done" }) to control the message. An { ok, message } object also works. Otherwise Altar says “Script complete.”
• Menu command Buttons do whatever that command does. Undo depends on the command.

Alternate actions on modifier keys

A Button you made can do something different when you hold Ctrl/Cmd, Alt or Shift as you click. Combinations of keys are not available.

1. In Settings → Groups, open the Group that holds the Button.
2. Open the arrow beside the Button to show its modifiers.
3. Click a key, then choose the action it should run.

Built-in Tools list their modifier keys under Modifiers on the Tool’s page and in its hover card. Group rows show them as read-only icons. You cannot change those.

Edit, move and delete

Once a Button is on your layout, open it under Buttons → Your tools to edit, remove or delete it. On your layout moves it between the Canvas and Groups. Remove from layout takes it off and keeps it. Delete removes it for good after you confirm. Menu, effect, preset and open-extension Buttons live in their Group. In Edit mode, the X on a Button in a Group removes it from that Group.

Next

• Settings
• Arrange Tools and Groups