Presentation Properties

This panel appears only for Presentation action buttons. A Presentation button presents the actions of a set of other parental buttons.

Present Actions: This choice is available only when the Presentation button presents more than one other action. (In other words, it’s available when the Presentation has more than one parental action button.)

Choose Simultaneously to activate all actions of the presentation at the same time. Pressing a simultaneous Presentation button has the same effect as activating all of its parental action buttons at once. If you choose Simultaneously, you can also set stopping conditions for the Presentation (see Stop After, below).

Choose Sequentially to activate the actions of the presentation one after another in the order in which they were selected when the button was created. Pressing a sequential Presentation button has the same effect as pressing the parental action buttons one at a time, waiting for each activated action to be completed before proceeding to the next parental action. If you choose Sequentially, you can also specify a pause between presented actions (see Pause Between Actions, below).

When you present a parental Animation button sequentially, Sketchpad waits for the animation to complete before continuing the sequenced presentation. If the animation doesn’t complete on its own, you can stop it yourself either by releasing the pressed Animation button, or by choosing Stop Animation from the Display menu while the animation is continuing. Once the animation stops, the sequenced presentation resumes.

Before Starting: Check these options to specify any additional effects you’d like to occur at the moment the Presentation button is pressed. Based on your choices, Sketchpad will deselect any previously selected objects, stop any previously started animations, and erase any previously displayed traces before commencing the presentation.

Stop After: This choice is available only when the presentation presents actions simultaneously. When Stop After Last Action Stops is chosen, each of the presented actions is allowed to proceed independently, and the presentation completes only when the last presented action has finished. If you choose Stop After First Action Stops, all of the presented actions stop as soon as the first presented action stops. (This choice can be useful for coordinating two or more animation or movement actions.) When you choose Stop After Elapsed Time, the dialog box allows you to enter an overall duration in seconds for the presented actions. (This choice is useful when you want to stop an animation after a fixed amount of time.)

Pause Between Actions: This choice is available only when the presentation presents actions sequentially. Enter the amount of time (in seconds) you want to pause between each step of the sequence. If you enter zero, each step of the presentation commences as soon as the previous step completes. If you enter a nonzero pause, Sketchpad waits between steps.