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Use of Creator for a Catalogue
http://forum.digitalworkshop.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4838		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  nicke [ June 2nd, 2012, 8:09 am ]
Post subject:  Use of Creator for a Catalogue
I would like to use Creator 8 as a photo' catalogue. I have a number of photo's stored as jpgs, currently these are in a slide show. What I would like to be able to do is forward the slideshow to specific slide based on the user inputting a variable.

That is:

User inputs a number
Slideshow jumps to that number
Slideshow pauses

Failing this the presentation could to load am image from a variable containing a file name.

However looking through the manuals and online there seems no way of doing this.

Doing this would avoid having to create a presentation with over 200 pages.
Author:  Lar_123 [ June 4th, 2012, 12:37 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Use of Creator for a Catalogue
Nick
Welcome to the Opus & Creator forum.
Quote:
What I would like to be able to do is forward the slideshow to specific slide based on the user inputting a variable.
It is easy. Less than 20 minutes if you are 'new' to Creator.

Here are the steps:
1) create a Slideshow object (and add about 4 images for testing)
2) create a Text Input object, and in properties under the 'Text Input' Tab... assign a new page variable. I called mine 'slideNUM'. (at this point you can also restrict input to numeric only in that same Tab... if that helps)
3A) THIS ONE is not so obvious, but is simple.
Select the Page object. And type Ctrl-E or Right-Click and select 'Edit Actions'.
Add a Trigger: under 'Advanced', choose 'Variable Changed'. Of course assign or select slideNUM as the variable you want to use.
3B) Now you need an action.
* click on the Programming Tab
* select 'Script'
* in that editor space, type: Slideshow_1.GotoSlide( slideNUM )
and Click Apply.
Note: this assumes that your slideshow object has the name 'Slideshow_1'. If it is some other name, simply correct that simple script to conform.
* Click 'OK'

You are finished.
Save your Pub, and then go test it in Preview mode.

Attachments:
File comment: Screenshot of GotoSlide Action set up in Scripting (OpusPro shown)
Opus GotoSlide.jpg
Opus GotoSlide.jpg [ 31 KiB | Viewed 13877 times ]
Author:  Lar_123 [ June 4th, 2012, 12:54 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Use of Creator for a Catalogue
I should mention that Creator often uses index numbers starting at 'zero'. If you want to make the Input Text based on '1', then there is just a little tweaking to do.

Added: If you want to display a catalogue item name or description, that could be set up fairly easy as well. If your "catalogue" does not change much, then you need not worry about maintenance procedures very much and you can choose a very primitive method: Such as...

Create a Listbox 'A' -- and enter Item Labels or names.
Create a Listbox 'B' -- and enter a product description.


Listboxes CONTENTS are indexed, so you can use the same variable, 'slideNUM', as an Index number to be selected for a Listbox. That is, apply the same 'pointer' to these other objects.
Author:  mackavi [ June 4th, 2012, 9:47 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Use of Creator for a Catalogue
Nice try Lar...

...but there is no scripting in Creator.

Mack
Author:  nicke [ June 4th, 2012, 7:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Use of Creator for a Catalogue
Thanks for the welcome and the hint, but as has been pointed out there is no scripting in Creator,

As the work I do in Creator is for voluntary organizations, neither their budget or my wallet will stretch to the £600 for Opus-PRO,

Nick
Author:  Lar_123 [ June 4th, 2012, 9:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Use of Creator for a Catalogue
Sorry to mislead you Nick. I was not paying attention or knowing where Creator differed from Opus.

I do not play with Standard Actions a whole lot, and am not sure what action might accept a variable as part of going to particular frame, or index value. I wonder if Creator has action to "set Variable to expression"? (under Programming tab if that exists).
Author:  mackavi [ June 4th, 2012, 10:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Use of Creator for a Catalogue
Yeah it does.


Try this:

1. Create a simple image box on the page.

2. In the filename box add: D:\<myImage>.jpg where <myImage> is a page or publication variable defined as a number.

This will allow you to manipulate which image is being shown. You can simply specific a value such as myImage = 7 to show image 7.jpg or you could use a ticker to automatically increment / cycle the images.

The D:\ is just the path to the folder of numerically named images.

Mack
Author:  nicke [ June 5th, 2012, 8:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Use of Creator for a Catalogue
Thanks Mac - I had not realised that you could use variables in filenames.

This is a much more elegant and simple solution than that I had come up with. I had set up a slideshow within a "loop until" this worked fine for the first few slides but was too slow for slides further down.

Regards

Nicke
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