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I've made an swf using Quark Interactive and so far am very pleased with the result! However, I do have a little issue with it. The swf appears on this page: http://olleydesign.co.uk/Ashbourne%20site/about.html The flash is the navigation and picture element immediately below the horizontal navigation menu. When you rollover the buttons on the left the images and text on the right change, but I don't like what happens if you scroll over all the buttons very quickly… it looks like an swf muddle-mess! Is there a way of controlling the buttons so that they don't react if the visitor mouses-over hastily?

Hi, Lesley,

nice looking site.

As I do not know how you contructed the objects and events and actions, a quick wild guess would be that a delay action before the show object could help. 0.5 sec is probably sufficient.

Otherwise you need to tell me please how yours objects are set up, what events triggers them and what actions you use.

Thanks
Matthias

Thanks Matthias I've tried adding a delay but it just delays the effect of the flicking. I'll try to explain what I've done (BTW I'm pretty new to this so if my technique seems a little verbose, that'll be why!) I have made a scripts for each of the buttons on the left. Firstly I've specified for the rollover button image to show, then I've asked for a new image to fade in and the existing image to fade out (5 seconds each). All other images are set to "hide".

Hi, Lesley,

and your desired behaviour is that only if somebody is having the mouse over the button for at least 0.5 secs or 1 secs, then the new thing should show? If the mouse if over a button for less than 1 sec, then no action should occur?

And would it be fine that if someone moves the mouse over the desired button, he/she has to wait for 1 sec? Or how do you want to handle this?

Thanks
Matthias

the crux of the matter is that I don't want the buttons to react unnecessarily. I've found that if you mouseover all of them, resting finally on one button, they all have a go at running the script associated with the image display on the right. The user shouldn't have to wait too long for their chosen button to react, but if they have to wait just a little in order to resolve the above issue then I'd be content with this!

Hi, Lesley,

I am on the road today, so cannot do much testing.

Two things you can experiment with:

- Use the action "Stop User Interaction" at the beginning of a script and enable it after 1 sec again. Should stop all other things to react.

- Use the action "Stop Script" to stop the other scripts while your script is running.

Back in the office Monday, will do some tests then.

Best
Matthias 

I've had a go at both techniques but have realised that because all the panels on the left operate a script, the script will run even at the quickest mouseover! For example, if I mouseover everything on the left all scripts are initiated, and all run, despite stopping user interaction and adding delays… I guess I'm looking for an expression which says only run this script if the cursor remains on the button for at least 0.5sec! Is that possible?

Hi, Lesley,

took me 15 min of thinking and trying, was a bit tricky.

Here's the SWF I came up with. Scripts only start when the mouse is over the colorful bars for around 1 sec.

Is that what you imagined/need?

Best
Matthias

Yes, that's it! Please tell me how!!

Hi, Lesley,

here's how:

1. I put an invisible (color = none) object over the colorful bars. The invisible object has a mouse over event which triggers nothing. So it overrides the color objects and nothign happens when the mouse is over them.

2. Secondly I have two scripts running: The first script is looking at the mouse coordinates and records them. Then one second (or whatever you desire) later it records them again and compares if it is has changed. If not, the script starts another script, which then removes the invisible object. Now the mouse is over one of the colorful bars and starts the srcipt for the section.

3. The script also immediately puts the invisible object over the colorful bars, so that a mouse movement doesn't trigger a second script. Plus it waits until you move the mouse again and starts the first script again.

Sounds easy, right?

Took me a while, as I needed to play with it a bit. Here's the QXP as a jump start.

(Ignore the six scritps which show the text box objects, they are just for visualization. The two things you need to look at are the scripts "Does mouse move" and "Does mouse move again" and the "stopall" object (including its mouse over event).

Tell me if you need more help.

Best
Matthias 

Neat! And in ONLY 15 minutes! Thank you very much Matthias, I shall see if I can replicate this on my file! Lesley x

Well, everything's relative, right?

I have been using Interactive for quite a while, so for me having to figure out something for 15 minutes is long. With less experience you probably need longer. Give me a Freehand (which I learned on when being in production) and I create complicated illustrations in seconds. Give me AI and see me struggle.

Anyhow, the use case you described is interesting and not in our standard events (only trigger if at least 1 sec over object). Therefore I needed to create a workaround. My first ideas where to diable objects or to forbid user events,which was easy but continuously triggered the event or were difficult to end (when do we start looking at events again?).

Therefore the idea with an object that covers the others and onyl reveals them for a short while (and - as invisible - visually unnoticeable).

Thanks for the brain massaging opportunity!
Matthias

Hi Matthias That certainly does the trick, and I wouldn't have managed without the qxp file (that's the first time that I've used an expression, so far I have managed to avoid them!) But I have run into another problem: now the button images on the left flash when you mouse over! I've put a copy here: http://olleydesign.co.uk/Ashbourne%20site/aboutNEW.html I have an event for mouse exit > run script: hide button over image I guess that it could be this that is upsetting your script… Also, I have another issue which is that the client would like the page to open with a slideshow of the images… I can make the slideshow script but then I need to call the does mouse move script… http://olleydesign.co.uk/Ashbourne%20site/about.html Can you help… again?!

Hi, Lesley,

the flashing of the buttons is probably as you have a mouse enter scritp that shows hte flash and a mouse exit script that hides the flash, right?

Do you want it to flash? If yes, when?

The second issue you have I don't fully understand. Do you want to show the slideshow when somebody enters the page? Just call a script then. Is the issue that my script also needs to be called when entering the page? If yes, make a new script "Page 1 Entry" that calls your script and mine.

Best
Matthias

Matthias Guenther (Quark):

the flashing of the buttons is probably as you have a mouse enter scritp that shows hte flash and a mouse exit script that hides the flash, right?

That's correct, when the user is over a button it changes colour, when the mouse out it goes back to its original state and I have done this with scripts called at mouse enter and mouse exit.

Do you want it to Flash? If yes, when?

Actually, no, I don't want it to flash! I just hope I haven't done anything wrong when I replicated your script!

The second issue you have I don't fully understand. Do you want to show the slideshow when somebody enters the page? Just call a script then. Is the issue that my script also needs to be called when entering the page? If yes, make a new script "Page 1 Entry" that calls your script and mine.

Awww! I didn't realise I could do that! Thought that the scripts might have a bust up if I put them in the same room!

Thanks Matthias