[mgp-users 00850] Re: What would be neat: Navigation Buttons:

[Adam Shapira <ashapira@techno-info.com>]

Hans Fangohr wrote:
> 
> > I think it would be neat if MagicPoint had a such
> > thing as Navigation Buttons ... that way if your
> > mouse is over one of those buttons when you click
> > the mouse, instead of just going to the next page,
> > it would go to whatever page that button is linked
> > to.
> 
> A similar feature exists: press the CTRL key, and then move your mouse
> over the (page) numbers that turn up in the left lower corner of your
> screen.
> 
> I think this feature (and the timing-bar when you start mgp with "-t N")
> clearly make mgp superior to power point.
> 
> Enjoy,
> 
> Hans

Thanks, Hans, but I don't think I'll be able to
sell my dad onto MagicPoint without actual
Navigation Buttons due to the way he uses
them.

My dad will have (for example) one slide which
briefly discusses several ideas. Next to each idea,
he puts a bulet-symbol which when pressed takes
him to a slide that discusses that particular
idea in detail.

He sometimes uses the option of moving sequentially
from one slide to the next in his presentation.
However, due to how heavily he uses navigation
features, I don't think I can sell him onto a
program that omits this feature, and I can't
really say that I blame him.

I know *one* way that such navigation could be worked
into the MagicPoint markup language, if the authors
of the program choose to implement it. Here's just
one possible suggestion of how it could work:


If someone wants, let them specify an argument to
the "%page" command (as follows):
  %page "void-page"

If they do that, let that assign a symbolic name to
the page. (No, not a name that the user actually sees
during the presentation, but a name that the page can
be referred to by elsewhere in the source code).

Now, somewhere else, let the user (if he/she wants)
do the following command:
  %navbutton "img/bulet.png" "void-page"

Wouldn't it be neat if the user could this way create
a bullet that would actually lead them to the page
symbolically referred to as "void-page"?

That way, if the left-button of the mouse is pressed
when the mouse-cursor is *not* on a navigation button,
it would go on to the next page, just as it does now
... but if the mouse-cursor *is* on a navigation button
when pressed, it would go to whatever page the navigation
button links to.


I feel 98% certain that there's *at least* **one**
person that I would be able to sell on to MagicPoint
if it had this feature that I can never sell on to
MagicPoint when it doesn't have this feature.

     Just a thought,
          Adam