Intro

Yesterday I posted a sample project, which showed how you can use Hyperlinks as interactive objects in 4 use cases. Because I know that in this portal, you prefer short blogs, I will split the explanation of the workflows in two articles. This one explains:

• Navigation menu with hyperlinks (slide 2 in the example)
• Show/Hide with dynamic hyperlinks (slide 3 in the example file)

In part 2 you’ll get the detailed explanation of the last two use cases:

• Close popup window (using multi-state object)
• Forced View of popups, all need to be viewed before navigation button appears.

At the end of each workflow you’ll find a comparison with the traditional use of click boxes and buttons.

1. Navigation menu

The list with commands which you can open when clicking the down arrow next to the field ‘Web page’ looks shorter than the Simple Actions list under the Actions tab for an interactive object:

Some commands are indeed missing, but most Slide commands can be found under the unique ‘Slide’ command. In this screenshot you see how to translate the Jump to Slide command, which you’ll need to create navigation buttons (see Menu slide, second slide in the example project):

Comparing with interactive objects

The big advantage of using hyperlinks is that everything could be done with one text container, in which you mark several items as hyperlinks . Great way for a custom Table of Contents, which you can have sliding in/out. Especially for responsive projects: click box over text is not possible in a normal fluid box; limiting number of objects make setup much easier for Fluid Boxes workflow as well as for Breakpoint Views.

Alternative for buttons? Advantage is that you don’t have shrinking of the text when pressed, you don’t have to configure InBuilt states. Disadvantage: you miss the Visited state to indicate that an item has been visited.

2. Show/Hide

The slide with the hyperlinks in ellipses, was created as a ‘dynamic’ hyperlink (to be compared with Dynamic buttons). Text in the ellips are user variables, used as hyperlink.

The user variables v_fx and v_KC  have a default value of ‘Show’, while the text shapes with the info are hidden with the On Enter action of the slide. A simple conditional action (similar for both) is used:

It would also be possible to have all the info boxes in one multistate object (which I use in the next two use cases).

Comparing with interactive objects

Similar to the navigation solution, if you don’t like shrinking nor styling of InBuilt states this could be a solution. Again, since a Visited state is missing, that can be a drawback.

Another drawback is that you cannot use shared actions, which I would have done in this case. You need to use duplicate advanced actions.