Intro

In a previous article I posted a sample project explaining the workflow as answer to this thread. Here you’ll find the workflow to set up such a project.

Setup

Objects – timeline

This is the timeline of the slide:

From bottom to top:

• Five question buttons, which are shape buttons labeled SB_Quest1….SB_Quest5. They have a pausing point at the default 1.5secs. For those buttons I deleted the InBuilt Rollover and Down states, but added two custom states: ‘Current’ and ‘Done’.
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• A group of shapes used as text container for the answers SS_Answer1…. SS_Answer5. I could have used a multistate object as well, but using individual shapes made the shared action bit easier.
• A shape used as Cover. Its position in the stack order is important: it needs to be above the answer and question objects, but under the multistate object SS_ExtraInfo. That cover is a shape, filled with dark gray, partially transparent. Beware: it is also used as text container: has the hyperlink ‘Close Lightbox‘.
• Multistate object SS_ExtraInfo which has a state to appear in the lightbox for each of the answers. The Normal state is empty (Alpha and Stroke shape = 0).
  
• Button Bt_Info (used a button from the Assets panel, but edited the colors). Which will appear with the answer popup. Strictly not necessary to be on top of the stack, I will hide it when the lightbox appears.

Variable

One user variable v_quest was created. Default value can be empty. It will store the number of the question chosen by clicking the question button. That number is necessary for two advanced actions. as you’ll see below.

Events and Actions

On Enter event: EnterAct

This simple non-conditional action is meant to reset the slide to the original situation:

If I had used a multistate object for the Answer popups, with a Normal state that was invisible (like for the SS_ExtraInfo), I would not have needed the second command (Hide Gr_Answer). By hiding the Cover, I also hide the hyperlink since it is a text in the cover. No need to hide SS_ExtraInfo since the Normal state is invisible. Why didn’t I use a hyperlink instead of the button Bt_Info? Because the advanced action was not triggered as it does when using SWF output. Too bad.

Question buttons:  Shared Action ‘QuestAct’

Another non-conditional action, based on this Advanced action:

I converted it to a Shared action, with these 6 parameters:

If you prefer a multistate for the answers, you will still have 6 parameters, but the Group will be replaces by the name of the multistate object, and the Answer object by the wanted state.  Reason I choose a group, was that I had expected to be able to use a hyperlink which would not have been possible in a state. Too bad that the action for the hyperlink was not working.

Button Bt-Info: Advanced action ShowLightBox

This is an action with 6 decisions. The first decision is non-conditional, the five remaining decisions are conditional because a different state has to be shown based on the question number in the variable v_quest.  Those decisions have only one command and can easily be created with the duplicate decision button.

Hyperlink: CloseAct

The hyperlink in the Cover shape triggers a 6 decision action very similar to the previous one:

More…

You can extend the described workflow to more than 5 questions. The shared action can be used, and you may have to add decisions to the two longer advanced actions.

I didn’t provide a close button on the answer popups, for learners who don’t want to see the lightbox, for whom the answer popup is sufficient. It could be done with a hyperlink or an extra button.

It would be possible to have something happen when all question buttons have been clicked, but that will require the creation of one extra variable for each button, a Boolean to be toggled from 0 to 1 if a button has been clicked.  The check for the extra happening has to be added to the CloseAct.