edit menus

hi stupid newbie problem.....................I seem to be only able to create cubes. On the tutorials, I see there are supposed to be drop down menus showing different shapes to choose then a bigger edit menu appears when you click on the object to sculpt it. I have no menus.......................Therefore I cannot get to grips with this building tool at all and desperately need a good working tutorial, retrieve the menus which must be hidden somewhere, or I fear I'll have to give up................appreciate any pointers. I have asked mentors when they are about, some are helpful some not. BUt if I can't do anything else besides cubes theres no point.

thanks in anticipation
dog

No big problem. You can do it either of two ways....

(1) Go ahead and rez a cube. Then, with your Edit window open, click the word "More" that appears somewhere near the bottom of that window (I'm not in world right now, so I can't be more precise, but you'll see it). Clicking "More" will open up a much richer menu of Edit options. One of those is a pull-down menu that you can use to change the shape of your cube. Do it.

(2) Instead of rezzing a cube first, open the Edit window (CTRL-3) and click the word "More" to expand the menu. You'll see a row of icons across the top. The one that looks like a magic wand is the "Create" function. Click it and then look for the row of shape icons right below. Select the shape that appeals to you (cylinder, sphere, torus, whatever), and then click the magic wand where you want the shape to appear.

Once you have clicked the word "More," the expanded Edit window will always be there when you open Edit, unless you decide to shrink it for some odd reason.
Bingo.

you can also right click and choose create from pie menu then choose your shape
-LW

sorry guys i failed...........when i tried sl in 2006, i couldn't do it then and still can't now. If I right click and create a cube with magic wand then right click edit, all i get is some coloured x,y,z co-ordinates on the screen. If i click 'more' then i get pie with take copy, attach HUD (whatever that is), attach, more (again), return, wear or delete. If I click more (again) then i get mute, inspect, report abuse. No drop down menus. So still unable to create any other shape then a cube, nor able to alter shape of it, except stretching on horizontal/vertical planes or flipped through 360 degrees, or stretching the little boxes on the cube.
I suspect these menus are hidden somewhere, maybe shrunk off screen?.......ho hum.
thanks for your assistance anyway.
dog

Don't give up so fast. This is really very easy. Go ahead and rez your cube. When you do that, your Edit window will be open. Right? OK, it has five tabs, labelled "General," "Object,", Features," "Texture," and "Contents." If you don't see those, it's because you didn't click the word "MORE," so click it.

OK, now click the "Object" tab. There's a pull-down menu that says "Building Block Type." It defaults to "Box." Open it and choose another shape. See? your cube changes.

Now try the other experiment I suggested before. Click the magic wand at the top of the Edit window. See the shape icons below it? Click one (not the cube) and then click the ground. You'll get the shape you chose with the icon.

The only time you need to mess with the pie menu is if your Edit window isn't already open. If that's the case, then by all means, go ahead and right click your cube, look at the pie, and select "Edit" to open the window. If you don't like pies, you can also open the Edit window at any time by typing CTRL-3.

I suggest that you take a deep breath, relax, and then take a trip to the Ivory Tower of Prims (look for it in Search). There are all sorts of great tutorials there. You can also use the "Events" tab in Search to look for classes in how to build. There are loads of them every day. The basics of building are not very hard, but it does sometimes help to have a good teacher at your elbow.

Please don't get discouraged, OK?

I'm no good at explaining stuff.. But if you're still confused, add me ingame and we'll see if we can get online together sometime =) Sometimes live help is easier for some.

I like Roligs explaination though, lol.

Take a closer look. There's another window that pops up, called the Editor. Initially, it will look like this:



Where it appears on your screen will be wherever you left it the last time it was opened. It's impossible to move it fully off-screen, but you can move it enough that just a small sliver of it shows. So if you don't see it, check around the edges of your screen. You'll probably find the edge of it poking out somewhere.



Don't click the More on the pie menu. Click the blue More button on the editor window. After you do that, the editor will look like this:



All the options are there, on the various tabs.

aaaahhh this edit window has appeared now. I assume like chosen said below, that it was lurking off-screen somewhere, because that's the first time I've seen it. After trying every bit of the pie without success and searching round the edges, I didn't know what u meant. I assumed i must be missing part of the programme. Lets hope it doesn't disappear again!
Thanks very much to all you kind people who have helped me not give up on sl now. I will play building things (other than cubes!) over the weekend and then zap to mainland and try my luck there. Must fix my hair first. Maybe we'll meet in another life..once again thanks very much and hope I haven't been too much of a nuisance.
doggie