# Presentation Buttons and Properties

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# Presentation Buttons and Properties

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A Presentation button automatically activates a group of other action buttons. The buttons can be activated either simultaneously or in sequence. Use a Presentation button to choreograph a complex set of motions or to present a Sketchpad slide show.

| Creating and Using a Presentation Button

Select one or more action buttons and choose Edit | Action Buttons | Presentation to create a Presentation button. Pressing a Presentation button has the same effect as pressing each of its selected parent actions either all at once or one after the other. Use Presentation buttons when you want to combine several related actions into a single button for ease of use.

Press a Presentation button once to start the presentation. The button remains pressed until all its actions complete. You can press Esc or press the button a second time, while the button is still pressed, to stop a simultaneous presentation or to move a sequential presentation on to the next action in the sequence.

You can also press the Esc key to advance or end the presentation. (You may have to press the Esc key more than once.)

Choose Edit | Properties | Presentation to determine whether the actions occur simultaneously or in sequence, and to set a variety of other options.

| Presentation Properties

This Properties panel appears only for Presentation action buttons. Use it to determine how the presentation takes place. The panel appears automatically when you choose Edit | Action Buttons | Presentation to create a button. After you’ve created the button, choose Edit | Properties, or choose Properties from the Context menu, to display the panel again to make further adjustments.

This panel appears only for Presentation action buttons. A Presentation button presents the actions of a list of other parental buttons.

Present Actions: This choice is available only when the Presentation button presents more than one action button.

Choose Simultaneously to activate all actions of the presentation at the same time. Pressing a simultaneous Presentation button has the same effect as activating all of its parental action buttons at once. If you choose Simultaneously, you can also set stopping conditions for the Presentation (see Stop after, below).

Choose Sequentially to activate the actions of the presentation one after another in the order in which they were selected when the button was created. Pressing a sequential Presentation button has the same effect as pressing the parental action buttons one at a time, waiting for each activated action to be completed before proceeding to the next parental action. If you choose Sequentially, you can also specify a pause between presented actions (see Pause between actions, below).

When you present a parental Animation button sequentially, Sketchpad waits for the animation to complete before continuing the sequenced presentation. If the animation doesn’t complete on its own, you can stop it yourself either by releasing the pressed Animation button, by choosing Stop Animation from the Display menu while the animation is continuing, or by pressing Esc. Once the animation stops, the sequenced presentation resumes.

Before Starting: Check these options to specify any additional effects you’d like to occur at the moment the Presentation button is pressed. Based on your choices, Sketchpad will deselect any previously selected objects, stop any previously started animations, and erase any previously displayed traces before commencing the presentation.

Stop After: This choice is available only when the presentation presents actions simultaneously. Choose Stop after last action stops to allow each of the presented actions to proceed independently, and the presentation to complete only when the last presented action has finished. Choose Stop after first action stops to stop all of the presented actions stop as soon as the first one stops. (This choice can be useful for coordinating two or more animation or movement actions.) Choose Stop after elapsed time to enter an overall duration in seconds for the presented actions. (This choice is useful when you want to stop an animation after a fixed amount of time.)

Pause Between Actions: This choice is available only when the presentation presents actions sequentially. Enter the amount of time (in seconds) you want to pause between each step of the sequence. If you enter zero, each step of the presentation commences as soon as the previous step completes. If you enter a nonzero pause, Sketchpad waits between steps.

| Reset Buttons

Sketchpad has no "reset" button as such, but many sketches do include a button that returns the sketch to the state it was in when it was opened, and such buttons are often labeled "Reset." In most cases, these are Presentation buttons that combine two elements: one or more Hide/Show buttons and one or more Movement buttons. The Hide/Show buttons are often set to "Always hide objects" in order to hide objects that the user might have shown while exploring the sketch. The Movement buttons act on points the user might have dragged, returning them to their original locations, or they act on parameters the user might have edited, returning them to their original values.