Action Buttons

Action buttons are objects you create in your sketch which you can press to perform a variety of actions, including hiding or showing objects, moving or animating objects, linking to a different page in your document or to a web site, scrolling the sketch window to a particular position, or making a presentation. Use action buttons to repeat frequent actions conveniently or to help explain the mathematics of your sketch to others who may interact with it.

Using Action Buttons

Create action buttons using the Action Button submenu in the Edit menu. Once you’ve created an action button, there are several things you can do with it.

Handle Body

Some buttons stay down after you press them, indicating that their action is still continuing. You can click such a button a second time to stop its action.

· Start the button’s action by clicking the button body (not the handle) with the Arrow tool.

· Select the button by clicking the handle (not the body) with the Arrow tool. Once the button is selected, you can hide it, delete it, and perform other actions on it.

· Change the button’s font, size, style, and color by first selecting it, then using the Text Palette.

· Move the button to a different position by using the Arrow tool to drag the button’s handle.

· Change the button’s label by double-clicking it with the Text tool.

Hide/Show Buttons

A Hide/Show button hides or shows a group of objects.

Use Hide and Show buttons when there are details in a sketch which you sometimes want visible and sometimes want hidden. For example, your sketch might use a single triangle to show the construction of the circumcenter, centroid, and orthocenter. If you show all the construction lines at the same time, the sketch will be very confusing. You can use Hide/Show buttons to show or hide the construction lines for each of the three different constructions.

Animation Buttons

An Animation button animates one or more objects. The objects must be either geometric objects or parameters.

Use Animation buttons to automate motion in your sketch. You can use an Animation button to move a point along its path, to move an independent point around randomly in the plane, or to vary a parameter. Use Animate Properties to set the animation speed and direction and to set the domain for parameter animation.

Movement Buttons

A Movement button moves one or more points toward defined destinations.

Use a Movement button to move an independent point or a point on path toward a specific destination.

Link Buttons

A Link button links to a different page in the current document, or links to a web site or other location defined by a URL.

Use a Link button to make it easy to navigate among pages in a document that contains more than one page, or use a Link button to open up a web site that’s related to the topic of your sketch.

See also
Link Button
Link Properties

Scroll Buttons

A Scroll button scrolls the sketch window so that a specific point in the sketch is located either in the center of the window or at the top left corner of the window.

Use a Scroll button in large sketches to position the window to show a particular part of your sketch.

Presentation Buttons

A Presentation button automatically activates a group of other buttons. The buttons can be activated either simultaneously or in sequence.

Use a Presentation button to choreograph a complex set of motions or to present a Sketchpad slide show.