Event Timer

When you preview your publication from inside the Opus Editor, a small dialog will appear in the bottom right of the screen. It displays the time elapsed since you launched the preview and provides a Mark button for you to mark events in your publication.

You can press the Mark button as often as you need.

When you return to your publication the Time Mark List will display the time for all the marks you have made. You can use this list for reference to set other settings in your publication or to add to your page notes with descriptions for you to time your publication.

To view the Time Mark List at any time during editing:

  1. Select Time Mark List from the View menu.

Helpful things to consider:

  1. Often in publications you want to have objects show or hide in time to other events, such as sequencing bullet points to a voice over. The Event Marker tool can help you work out the times quickly. Simply preview the page, and while the voice over is playing, click on the Mark button each time you want a bullet point to appear. The Time Mark List will show the list of timings for the page and you can then use this list as a reference when you set up your Actions or Timeline.

  2. Each time you go to a different page in your publication, the timer resets to zero and begins its count again. This feature is useful if you want to create ‘hands free’ or running demonstrations. Preview your publication and read the information on each page, click the Mark button and move to the next page, then repeat this process for every page. The Time Mark List will now contain the timings for each page, which you can then use to fill in the Show page for option in the General tab of Page Properties.

  3. Every time you preview your publication, the timings in the Time Mark List are cleared. Alternatively, click on the Lock icon image\Time_Mark_Lock.jpg at the bottom of the Time Mark List dialog – this will keep the timings from the previous preview. You cannot create new timings until you click the Lock icon again to unlock the timings.

  4. When you start a new publication, the Event Marker tool is automatically set to display every time you preview your publication. To turn off the Event Marker for new publications or for the publication you are currently working on, select Options from the Tools menu and click on the General page of the View tab and remove the tick from the Use Time Marker in preview option.

Note:
At any time you can turn Event Marker back on by ticking this option again.