Modes in the Play area
At any given time the Play area of the user interface is in a specific state, or mode. The mode that is currently active affects all aspects of the Play area user interface:
- The gestures that are available to interact with the board.
- The symbols that are shown on the board.
- The buttons that are shown in the toolbar.
- The entries that appear in the menu.
- The information that the status text area displays.
When Play mode is active the user interface provides interactions geared towards playing the game. You can place a stone or play a pass move, let the computer play a move on your behalf, pause/continue the game in a computer vs. computer game, and so on.
When Play mode is not active the toolbar always shows a button with the symbol to let you return to Play mode with a single tap.
When Scoring mode is active the user interface provides interactions that let you determine the game score. Notably you can mark dead stones and stones that are in seki, and the intersections on the board are marked with black and white overlays to show which side’s territory they belong to.
The app automatically activates Scoring mode when the game ends and you did not turn off automatic activation in the settings.
You can manually activate Scoring mode at any time either via menu action or via a toolbar button with the symbol .
The toolbar button is shown only in a few circumstances and only when Play mode is active, so usually you have to go through the menu to activate Scoring mode.
When Board setup mode is active the user interface provides interactions that let you place or remove stones without playing moves, in order to set up a desired board position.
By default the app activates Play mode when you start a new game. You can then activate Board setup mode via a menu action. If you prefer you can turn on a setting that causes the app to automatically switch to Board setup mode when you start a new game.
There is currently no toolbar button for activating Board setup mode - you always have to go through the menu.
When Markup editing mode is active the user interface provides interactions that let you place or remove various types of graphical elements - summarily called “markup” - on the board. Some markup examples are squares, triangles, arrows, or number and letter markers.
You can manually activate Markup editing mode at any time via a menu action.
There is currently no toolbar button for activating Markup editing mode - you always have to go through the menu.