Drag and Drop Programming

[JanP]

Has anyone had a play with the Drag and Drop programming available in Inspire?

Not only can you drag the action onto the desktop and the shortcut is immediately created but if you drag it on top of an object the object will immediately carry out the assigned action!

Give it a try. What a great new feature![clap][clap]

Janice

[LisaD]

And there is a new video Activtip that shows how this works. Try here:

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/server.php?show=nav.1147

Lisa

[Laura OHalloran]

Wow!

I didn't understand your post at first Janice but once I played the Activtip it made it amazingly clear!


You are right - what a fantastic, easy way to add those actions - I want to do it now!!

Great stuff again. [clap]

Laura

[dsmccracken]

Can somebody tell me how to move actions from the Current Selection tab (which seems to be like a library) to the Drag and Drop tab (which seems to be where you must have them to use them). Haven't been able to find that in Help, haven't been able to take as yet unavailable courses for AI, and there's no user manual, as others have noted. The closest non-help I've found is this:

Drag and Drop Actions

The quickest way to associate an action with an object is from the Drag and Drop Tab of the Action Browser. The following table lists the actions and briefly describes what happens when you click on the action object:

....

A comprehensive manual would have to cover what the randomish help entries manage to skip, or to hide.

[Louise Chew]

you can't actually do that so it won't be mentioned anywhere.
We just picked some of the most popular actions & put them as drag/drop ones. However, who knows for the future - the list may get bigger!

[AndyJD]

That would be great to see Louise as it is a very useful and easy feature to use.

[dsmccracken]

:confused: Thanks for clearing up the Drag and Drop into Drag and Drop, Louise, but what is the purpose of the Current Selection, then? I can't see how to use it at all--except to highlight it by clicking on it.

[Louise Chew]

this is how to assign an action to an object on the page

so select your object
open the current selection tab in the actions browser
pick an action
click on assign/apply (can't quite remember the wording) - the button at the bottom of the browser
now that object will run that action
some actions have targets & properties that you can apply - so you can make an action run from one action but apply to a different object for example.

Hope that helps.

[ccoda]

The drag and drop action list was constructed using feedback from these forums about our users' most popular actions.In future releases it can be expanded based on further feedback.

You'll find that the Current Selection tab is more useful for assigning actions that also require parameters, for example 'Go To Another Page' (where you have to specify a page number). The current selection tab will display the additional parameter information in a grid.

[dsmccracken]

Ah, didn't think about selecting an object and then seeing the Apply Changes button at the bottom wake up. Thanks!

[excelteacher]

Can an image play a sound when we click on it, even though it does not contain anything? One of my students designed a flipchart and wanted to do just that, but we couldn't figure out how.:confused:

[Selena Woodward]

Yes I think...

I just made a picture of a grasshopper play "Ironic" by Alanis ;)

It works the same way it did in V3.
Add your image
Go to the action menu
Go to "document.. actions"
Click "open document/file"
Browse to the sound you want to use.
Click Apply Changes

Then the media menu will appear. You can make amendments here about how it plays or just click ok

Now you image will play the sound.
You can turn it off be clicking on the speaker icon (if you've toggled that the media player doesn't show up in your options)

Hope that helps?

[excelteacher]

Selena,
[clap]That worked perfectly!! I just had to find where the sound was located. My students will be SO happy that their sound is now attached to their picture.

[andrew_schwen]

How can I set action properties? For example, I want to click on an image and get a pen tool--I can get this to work with the drag and drop feature but I want to be able to click on a different image and get a different color tool than the other one...right now it seems to default on blue. Ideally I would like it if students could drag the image and have a colored path following the object.

[LisaD]

Unfortunately, I don't think that there is an action to choose a specific pen color or size. I think it basically selects the pen tool and the last color/thickness chosen.

Lisa