Timelines are self-contained sequences of actions displayed on a Timeline Graph. They provide a good way to visualise the relationships between events as their start and finish times are also displayed visually on a timetable as illustrated below. They are intended to allow you to create and synchronise combinations of actions easily:
In this illustration, the Timeline Graph displays a sequence of actions that will happen over a period of seven seconds. The Show and Disable actions happen at the same time, next comes the video followed by the Bounce animation which clearly continues beyond both the Play Video action and the Print action. Finally after 7 seconds the timeline will cause the program to exit.
Note:
When some actions, such as the Exit action and Go to Page action are added to a timeline, the graph is covered with hatched grey lines. This indicates that any actions in that area will not be performed because an action has closed the publication or moved on to another page so therefore the timeline no longer applies.
Left clicking at any point on the timeline will move the Insertion Marker to that time and track (as indicated by the small circle on the insertion line). This marker shows where new actions will be added if you double click in the action palettes. The marker can also be dragged to a new location.
Note:
If you find it distracting, the ability to use a single click to move the marker can be disabled from the Timeline dialog Options button..
The right-hand side of the Timeline dialog shows the Action menus. Click on the menu that contains the action you want to add to the timeline.
To add the action to the timeline either:
Double- click on the action, the action will be added at the location shown by the insertion marker on the Timeline Graph, or, If that would cause a clash of actions, on the next available timeline track..
Click and drag the action to the correct starting point on the graph.
Note:
As soon as an action is added a popup box will appear beside the newly added action, showing the options you can set for this action. For example, if you add a Show action, the popup will display all of the options displayed in the Show tab for this action. For a comprehensive list of all the actions in Opus, see Working with actions for more information.
Fill-in the options for the action you have just added.
Note:
If at any time you want to edit the options settings, double-click on the icon in the graph to re-open the popup box.
Repeat steps 1 to 3 for each new action you want to add to the timeline.
Click on the Close button to save your changes. The Timeline dialog box will automatically close.
Click and drag the 
button in the bottom right corner of the dialog to expand the size of the dialog box on screen.
The splitter 
button between the graph and the actions allows you to expand the amount of space taken up by the graph. Move the mouse anywhere above the splitter button and the splitters vertical line will turn blue and the cursor will change to the 
shape. Click and drag the vertical bar left and right to resize the panels while the cursor is displayed.
Note:
The Timeline dialog box will also automatically roll-up out of the way if you click on the workspace behind it. You can then roll it back down by clicking on the title bar.
A simple Timeline toolbar appears above the Timeline Graph to allow you to perform basic editing on the events in the timeline, these include the standard: Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Duplicate, Undo and Redo buttons.
If you want to align all actions in a timeline to the same start point, then hold down the Shift key as you click on each action icon in the Timeline Graph – the selected actions will be highlighted in blue. Then click on the Align Start button on the Timeline toolbar.
Note:
This action is only available when you have selected more than one action in the graph.
If you want to align all actions in a timeline to the same end point, then hold down the Shift key as you click on each action icon in the Timeline Graph – the selected actions will be highlighted in blue. Then click on the Align End button on the Timeline toolbar.
Note:
This action is only available when you have selected more than one action in the graph.
If you want to spread the actions on one line of the Timeline Graph so that the interval or overlap between each action is even, click on the Distribute action in the Timeline toolbar.
Note:
This option only applies for actions on the same line of the graph.
If you want to play a sound in the timeline you can. Select the Play Sound action in the Timeline Graph and click on the Play
button on the toolbar. To stop the sound, click on the Stop
button on the toolbar.
Note:
The pattern of the sound file is shown in the middle of the Play Sound icon and the icon is stretched to the length of the time the sound will play for. This is particularly useful if you want to synchronise other actions to the sound. Please note that this only happens if the Play Sound action is set to "Wait for sound to finish before next action can start". If this option is not set, the duration of the action is effectively 0 so will draw as such.
Other actions, such as animations and transitions will affect the timing of actions and are therefore displayed as blocks of time on the graph – so you can see where they begin and end. Where an action is represented by a block of time, you can interactively edit that timing by resizing the block, much as you would resize an object on your page – see Example.
The Zoom panel allows you to increase or decrease the amount of space for a period of time. For example, if the slider bar in the Zoom panel is moved to the far left, the timing above the graph is shown at 1 minute intervals. If the slider bar is moved to the far right, the timing is 0.2 of a second per interval.
Note:
Changing the timing intervals is very useful if you either need to: accurately place actions at very small intervals; or if the intervals between actions is over a long period. The timings are shown in Minutes: Seconds and Milliseconds e.g. 0:0:2 is 20 milliseconds.
The Time panel shows the time stamp. For example, as you drag a time across a line in the graph the Time panel will show the current time position; and if you click on an action, it shows the timing of that event.
Timeline Graph is split into separate lines. This is simply to help you organise your timeline as you see fit, for example, if several actions start at the same time, you may want to have these appear on separate lines. There is no difference between each line.
Note:
You can add new lines by dragging an action below the last line; a new line is automatically added. The scrollbar on the right of the graph can be used to move up and down the graph.
The Timeline Graph will continue to expand as you add new actions past the current time displayed. In other words, if you want to have an action start at 1 minute but the graph currently only show 30 seconds, simply move the action to the far right of the graph and it will expand to show new times.
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You could also use the slider on the Zoom panel to increase the timing intervals; the timeline will fill in new time intervals to fit the size of the graph.
Note:
The timings refer to the actions themselves, not the objects.
Thus if you have a Play Video action this will appear as an instantaneous event. The video it starts to play will obviously last a certain time but this is not displayed on the timeline. However, with the timing displayed at the top of the Timeline Graph, it is a simple matter to take note of the video timing and place events at the appropriate point if that is what is required. Opus is a multithreaded program and so the video plays separately and will not impact on the timing of subsequent actions. Other actions such as animations and transitions will affect the timing of actions and are therefore displayed as blocks of time on the timeline – so you can see when they begin and end.