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Lesson 1: Introduction to New Button Actions

What are NBAs
List of NBAs
NBA Descriptions

What are New Button Actions?

NBA stands for New Button Actions, which is a feature in HyperStudio that is used to attribute an action to an object such as a button, a graphic, or a page in the stack.

You have to create a button and double-click the the button to open its actions window as shown on the right.

You will find New Button Actions under Things to Do. Click the box in front of New Button Actions to open the New Button Actions window.

This box will open up where you can browse through the different NBA choices. The list

of NBAs are listed where it says Title. As you click on the title of the NBA, a description and/or instructions will be shown where it says Info.

List of New Button Actions

Choose from this List under "Names" on the New Button Action box

**Note: These NBAs are described as on the New Button Actions list when you add an NBA.

New Button Actions
Obscure Cursor	ButtonRunner	NetPage	StarFld
HideShow 2	AutoRecord	Movie Controller	SlideShow
Menu Chooser	Hide Cursor	Multiple HideShow	CDPlayer
Blabbermouth	ClearChangeFlag	Pause	PictureShow
KeyMapper	BackToBrowse	Quit	RollCredits
Ghost Writer	I'm A Home Stack	TextMover	Sequencer

Descriptions

Each of these NBAs will help you add an action to something on your card. A description of each will give you an idea of how each work so you can decide if it s an appropriate action to use. You will find the NBA titles on row 1 on this page. Rows 2-4 are on the next page. You can use the table to link to any NBA title on either page. Use the back button on your brower if you need to go to the page you were on.

ObscureCursor

This NBA hides the mouse cursor until the mouse is moved. No command text is required.

HideShow 2

This NBA allows you to hide, show or flip the appearance of one of HyperStudio's screen objects. This NBA only works with objects that are on the current card.

MenuChooser

This NBA allows you to choose a menu item by pressing a button. HyperStudio will act as if the user had picked the menu item with the mouse, although the menu will not drop down.

Blabbermouth

This NBA allows your computer to talk to you. Just type what you want the computer to say, and that's it! You can also type in the name of one of your text fields and Blabber Mouth will read what is in the text field.

KeyMapper

This NBA allows you to activate buttons in your stack by pressing keys. You can map any key to activate a named button by entering the name of the key, followed by a backslash, then the name of the button and a return.

For example:

m\My Button

Y\Your Button

...activates "My Button" when the "m" key is pressed and "Your Button" when the "Y" key is pressed. Keys are case sensitive so "y" and Y" can be used to activate different buttons. The Control key can be mapped using an asterisk(*).

So...*k\His Button

...activates "His Button" when Control-k is typed. In addition to the alphabet and number keys, the following keys can be mapped by typing their names: ESCAPE or ESC, TAB, DELETE, RETURN, ENTER, HELP, HOME, END, CLEAR, PAGEUP, PAGEDOWN, UPARROW or UP, DOWNARROW or DOWN, LEFTARROW or LEFT, RIGHTARROW or RIGHT,

F1-F15 and SPACE.

These names are not case sensitive. You can map as many keys as you like in the parameter list. Once activated, key mapping stays active until you exit the stack, exit browse mode, or run a button containing KeyMapper NBA with an empty parameter list.

Ghost Writer

This NBA allows text to be automatically typed into a text field one letter at a time, as if a ghost was sitting at the keyboard. Just type in the text you want to appear in the text field below. Type the '@' character to have GhostWriter type the delete key. At any point in your message you can change the speed of the typing (the default is 5 letters per second) by enclosing a speed command in curly brackets.

The different speed commands are:

{fastest} - type as fast as your computer can
{faster} - type 20 letters per second
fast} - type 10 letters per second
{normal} - type 5 letters per second
{slow} - type 2 letters per second
{slower} - type 1 letter per second
{slowest} - type 1 letter every 3 seconds.

You can also choose which text field the text will go into by enclosing the name of the field in curly brackets. If you do not choose a text field, the text will go into the currently active field.

Lesson 1 , continued...

Created by Neva B.Odom

Last updated April 27, 2007