The Buttons tab in the Properties dialog box will only appear in the dialog for Button objects. This tab allows you to change the type of button you are creating, by default buttons are push buttons, however you can also make them work like radio buttons or on/off buttons.
Note:
As well as using this tab to create buttons of various colours, you can create buttons that are wholly graphical by unticking the Colour option in this tab and adding an image to the object in the Image tab. Alternatively, you can create a button that is a combination of both.
It is possible to change the caption text on a button for each object state. This means it is now simple to create toggle buttons which display "Off" and "On" labels, for instance. See Button Captions In Object States for more information.
Click on the Colour option if you DO NOT want to have a coloured button. This will deactivate the Colour panel options but you can still change the Options panel settings.
Note:
If you remove the Colour option, the button will be completely blank on screen unless you have inserted a background colour in the Background tab and/or an image in the Image tab.
The Theme combo box allows you to choose the style used to draw the button:
Traditional – the original Opus button style, modelled on the standard Windows 95 buttons.
Modern XP – mimics the default Windows XP button styling
Modern Smooth – similar to the XP style but with a smooth gradient rather than a bevelled appearance.
Windows Theme – uses the Windows Theme currently installed on the user’s machine.
Note:
The default theme used for all new buttons can be set in the Defaults section of the Options.
To change the Surface colour, click on the down button and select a colour from the drop down colour well.
Modern themes have only two additional settings:
The hot colour is that used to highlight the button when the mouse cursor is over it. To change the Hot colour, click on the down button and select a colour from the drop down colour well.
To change the Border colour, click on the down button and select a colour from the drop down colour well.
The Traditional theme has a number of settings available:
To change the Light bevel colour, click on the down button and select a colour from the drop down colour well.
To change the Dark bevel colour, click on the down button and select a colour from the drop down colour well.
If you want to change the width of the bevel, click on the spin buttons beside the Bevel width option to increase or decrease the width one pixel at a time.
If you want to change the transparency of the bevel, click on the spin buttons beside the Bevel transparency option to increase or decrease the level of transparency.
Click on the Add black outline if you want to add a simple black outline to the whole button.
Note:
This option helps to separate the button from the background and is therefore particularly useful where one of the bevel colours is similar to the background colour of the page.
Click on the Push Button option if you want the standard style of button behaviour, that is, the button goes in when clicked but immediately pops back up.
Click on the Checkbox (Push On – Push Off) option if you want the button to stay down when first clicked until you click on it again to switch it off.
Use the Link to Variable option if you want to store the state of the button in a variable. Click on the down button next to the box and select the variable you want to use from the list of variables in the current publication. Alternatively, click on the New… button to open the New Variable dialog to create the variable you want to use.
Note:
When the button is pressed down, the variable will contain the value true. When the button is up, the value is false. This is useful because you can use an If action to check if the variable is true or false and have a different list of actions happen when the button is up or down. This is an excellent method of storing users choices, for example, all buttons pressed down are their preferences and all buttons not pressed can be ignored.
Click on the Radio Button if you want the button to be part of a group of buttons of which only one can be on at a time. Use the spin buttons to select the group number this button will be part of.
Note:
Each button in a group must have the same number in the Group box. With a Radio button, when you click on one button it stays down until another in the group is pressed.
If you use the Radio Button option you can also set which of the buttons is initially down. Click on the Button is initially down option to make this button the one in the group that starts in a down position.
Note:
In some circumstances it is good practice if one Radio Button in a group is set to be initially down, offering a default value. There are two Systemvariables associated with this option for each group of radio buttons, they are RADIO_GROUP_1_ID and RADIO_GROUP_1_NAME – see Publication Information section of the System Variables Glossary and Understanding Radio Buttons for more information.
Click on the Apply button to save your changes.
You can now choose to quickly apply a sound effect for your button by clicking this button. This will bring up the Sound Browser for you to choose a sound file from. Once you have chosen the file and clicked OK. The QuickBuild will now create the relevant action to provide a sound effect which will be played when you button is clicked on.
If you want to edit the sound effect you should go to the Actions tab for the button.
Creating and Editing Properties