NEWB Rant

[RobertB]

Sorry guys....despite the blood, sweat and tears that IR generates for their software......I am somewhat aghast how I could not figure out how to create a hyperlink to an outside URL from a HOTSPOT on a text object. I spent two hours this morning before a critical lunch in hopes of delivering the most basic project. I read the help menu on and offline...and did an online keyword search (which I got zero results with many trys) and looked for something in the project tut's. I could not find ANY specific examples of specific words or url's.

I just cannot believe this function would be that difficult. Yea, I could create an html document much easier to do this...but, that is not why I purchased this software....I purchased Autoplay to make my time spent more efficient, not to replicate my tasks at hand.

As the subject stated, this is a rant, but, I guessed I am more p.o.'ed that as a non-code writing dude, I could not figure this out in two hours or less. I then needed to create the most rudimentary navigation which hardly exemplifies the namesake of my company.

Here is a copy of my files.

http://www.northstarmultimedia.com/test1.zip

Again, I have another job that actually requires some difficulty...now I am somewhat frightened....I have 20 hours budgeted for the job.....based on this experience it might take me 100 hours.

Your encouragement, patience, inspiration and direction is appreciated. But, this is where I would depend on more robust templates...again, I can show ROI if I can reduce my man-hours.

-Robert

[Bruce]

Re: NEWB Rant

Try this:
www.diginetx.com\downloads\Klapperich.zip

[RobertB]

Re: NEWB Rant

Thanks Bruce...that helped me see how you got there....

[Bruce]

Re: NEWB Rant

Hapy to help ;-)

[Worm]

Re: NEWB Rant

I can appreciate your feelings. Sometimes you can bang your head on a wall and all you end up with is a headache.

It sounds as if you are like me and learn best by example. There are so many people here that kick in and answer questions from the simpliest to the complex. I'm sure if you post questions, you'll get some sort of direction from someone.

AMS is a wonderful product. I think this forum, and those who participate, are its greatest assets.

[Lorne]

Re: NEWB Rant

Uh, Corey, telephone support is $40 US per call. Email support, however, is fast and free. (People often comment that they never expected such a quick response to their support emails. We guarantee a response within 2 business days, but that doesn't mean we sit on the email for 2 days.)

AKHacker...

I am somewhat aghast how I could not figure out how to create a hyperlink to an outside URL from a HOTSPOT on a text object.

I'm somewhat aghast too. It sounds like all you want to do is have a web browser open up to a URL when you click on a hotspot object? That's simple enough...just use a File - Open action.

If you're trying to make a specific word in a text object act like a hyperlink, and you don't want the other words in the text object to be part of that hyperlink, then you have 3 options:

- use one text object, and put a hotspot object on top of the word you want to make into a link

- use one text object for the background text, and one text object for the word you want to make into a link. Put the single-word text object on top of the background text object, so it covers the same word in the background text. That way, you can set different text colors for the word to make it look like a hyperlink as well.

- use a web browser object to display html

And of course, there's always the option of not embedding the link in the text. (Put it next to the text, or something.)

It would be nice if that sort of question had been foreseen and answered in the documentation, but you know what? Our mind-reading abilities only go so far. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

At some point, our users have to be able to think for themselves. Of course, two heads are better than one, which is why this support forum is here, and why we still offer free email support when some of our competitors seem to cringe at the thought.

In any case, I'll make a note to make the word "hyperlink" go somewhere in the docs for version 5.0. Are there any other search terms I should jot down? (What other words did you try?)

[RobertB]

Re: NEWB Rant

OK...that is nice to know...I did call in fact and was told about the service call...and, the young lady was very nice and informed me that I should send an email....so, that might be a good resource in the future....

I did try various try's of file open action and then going to the URL...but, I kept getting an error message...and the closer I got to my lunch, the blinder I got....

The keywords I used were hyperlink, target url, text link, ....I cannot remember the rest...

Thanks Loren....

[Lorne]

Re: NEWB Rant

Thanks for the keywords, they're really helpful.

What was the error message? Are you sure you had the correct URL? Were you testing it behind a firewall that might be blocking your access to that URL?

BTW, depending on the project, sometimes it's worth $40 to get an immediate answer to a question. (For instance, we've had users call at the last minute when a lot of money is at stake -- $40 is peanuts compared to losing a big contract.)

We also have a premium support policy that you can purchase, giving you priority telephone and email support at any time (during business hours) for a full year. If you anticipate having a lot of last-minute questions, it's a good deal at $195 per product.

Our free email support really is superb, though. (The amount of work that goes into helping users around here is phenomenal.)