Digital Workshop

Hey all.

I need some help with a project of mine. I have a fullscreen publication, with a transparent window on top of that. I use this transparent overlay window (allways on top) to show content, which doesnt refresh if a page changes in the main publication.

But the problem now is, that the overlay window seems to keep the focus. I need some keyboard-input into the main fullscreen publication, below the overlay window (which IS part of the publication). I cant seem to get that input to the main page, but the overlay keeps getting the input.

So i need a fullscreen page, which has the focus from the keyboard and mouse for input, and a windowed page, always on top for other content.

A workaround maybe is to get the input from the overlayed window to the main page ( with variables ? ). But can't find a way..

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Remy

Hi Remy,

I would suggest using the Master Pages feature. It would sure make things easier I think.

Remy --

Using a Transparent Page, I don't believe you can do what you want.

Use a totally different approach: Use a Master Page set with "Objects from this page appear on top" and Hidden Objects with your Key Presses showing (Show) them and "Set a Variable" flag. You will need an "On Show" Trigger on the Master Page with an IF statement and a separate Variable for each Object you want to display using a Key Press to determine if an Object needs to be displayed.

When the first slave Page (using a Master Page) appears, no Hidden Object is seen. Do a Key Press to make the first Object visable (Show). This changes your flag Variable from "0" to "1" (they way I did it).

When you go to the second slave Page, your Objects would disappear UNLESS you use the On Show and IF statement with flag Variables.

Could you use a layout to accomplish what you want?

Hi DemoFred.

I know i can accomplish this with an transparent overlaying window (always on top), because i already made this. This works, but the problem was that my main page, didn't react to my keyboard input anymore. That was now focused to the overlaying page.

I did this because the transparent ( it contains a overlaying frame with text) window contains an RSS reader, which shows the latest news.
I want this to show information, even if the main page changes to another page ( which it does very regularly).

I never thought of the layout function, but the overlay (rss) must only be shown after the publication had some idle time. So in the same presentation I need full pages, and pages with this rss reader in it. So using a certain layout is also not the solution (i think... )


I already have a solution.
On the overlaying transparent page, i used a EventTrigger, which sets a global variable to the key that was pressed.
On the pages that need user input, i set a "variabel changed" trigger. Then i evaluate the global variable, and can run actions (functions).

This way i transfered the keyPresses from that window with the focus, to the underlying page.

code from the transparent page:

Since you have a solution I'll just post another "thought". What if you "page" in a frame and then each page has no background, then you make your chapter your size to fit the window/resolution you want. That way you can place your objects outside of the frame/page and you would still be on the same page.

I know it sounds confusing, but perhaps it would work for you. For instance, I have a 1024x768 width specified for my chapter. On each chapter page, I have an 800x600 frame. This I will use as my display "page". I center this frame in the 1024x768 real page. This allows me to put things around it, and they can interact directly with the stuff in the frame since everything is still on the same physical page.

Just a thought.

@ steve

I use masterpages very intensively, but here, i need to keep the overlay running, while the main pages change..

BW patrick.

Do you mean u sort of 'import' transparent pages into a main page, which is bigger than the main page?? This might work too..

Attached is a simple example of what I was talking about.

This is a simple example i just made to demonstrate what i'm trying to make.

I must have mis-read your initial question. I thought you wanted "Key Press" to work on your Pages.

That was my original question. This example was to make it more clear what i was trying to accomplish (basically)..

I will show the problem, and edit the example..
With the working solution i have now.

Here's the same thing using the method I spoke of above.

Next example

Thanks bwpatric,

I will look into that.
But you use a multi-frame as pages.
In my situation, i think that will be kinda hard, because i use different pages. One with fullscreen images / movies, some with a product-detail page ( multiple text fields, changing images), and some with product lists ( multiple images, textfields), and all the content dynamicly from a sql database.