[Xerte] tutor

Thu Mar 19 18:19:43 GMT 2009

I believe 2pm GMT is 7am PDT (when on Daylight Savings Time, it's
GMT-7).

Xerte is AS2/Flash8. I use the following site for the AS2 Language
Reference:
http://flash-reference.icod.de/

That is a reference manual, not a tutorial. It won't teach you AS, but
it gives you a description of the properties, methods and events
available in AS2.

Don't be too intimidated by ActionScript. It is very close syntactically
to JavaScript. And for the most part, I get by with the following:

// navigation
myFrameworkOrDecisionIconID.nextPage(); // navigates to next page in
framework or decision
myFrameworkOrDecisionIconID.prevPage(); // navigates to previous page in
framework or decision
myFrameworkOrDecisionIconID.exit(); // exits framework or decision
rootIcon.navigate('lesson1'); // where 'lesson1' is the id of a page
// drop shadow
myGraphicOrTextID.dropShadow(2,45,0x000000,.5); // size, angle, color,
alpha (Range: 0-1)
// and, for drawing arrows
myGraphicID.lineStyle(2,0xff0000,100); // line width, color, alpha
(Range: 0-100)
myGraphicID.beginFill(0xff0000,100);  // color, alpha
myGraphicID.arrowTo(550,100,600,150); // startX, startY, endX, endY
myGraphicID.dropShadow(2,45,0x000000,.8);
// text
myTextIconID.setText('<p>This is a paragraph.</p>');
// graphics
myGraphicIconID._alpha=0; // hide a graphic by making it fully
transparent
myGraphicIconID.fade('in', 1); // fade in a graphic over 1 second

Of course, there is a lot more you can do, but that short list should
cover much of what you are likely to need to do.

Paul

> -----Original Message-----
> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-
> bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of ron at kccsoft.com
> Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 10:43 AM
> To: 'Xerte discussion list'
> Subject: RE: [Xerte] tutor
> 
> April 3 Friday 2pm (Nottingham time) works but my personal preference
> is 3
> or 4pm (2 = 6am here - Pacific time).
> 
> I suspect the learning will break down into two areas: Xerte icons
> (which aw
> people are roughly familiar with) and actionscript.
> 
> Should these two areas be separated for learning purposes?
> 
> I suspect Xerte is like AW in this regard... you can do lots with the
> icons
> but unless all you do is page turners you are going to do 95% of
> everything
> with scripting, so scripting is where you should focus IMHO.
> 
> Julian - I agree with what you are saying below but the question for
> someone
> like me is where to start with actionscript? 2 or 3? How much or how
> little?
> I've personally found most AS learning very frustrating, how to
animate
> a
> cartoon, etc. Can you tell us what in your opinion is the best
resource
> for
> learning AS relevant to Xerte? I mean focusing on actual AS that is
> immediately usable that we can see results from instead of trying to
> buy the
> 600 page Flash books and working through the irrelevant tutorials in
> them?
> I'd rather learn one or two basic things that are immediately usable
> rather
> than try to master an entire new language.
> 
> I'm not clear either on what version of Flash I need to work with...
> I've
> got 2004 but someone was saying the other day that won't cut it?
> 
> Thanks
> RonM2
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Julian
> Tenney
> Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 6:54 AM
> To: Xerte discussion list
> Subject: RE: [Xerte] tutor
> 
> You will have to grapple with some scripting to build interactions in
> Xerte. It is just the way it is and always will be. You can build some
> simple interactions without scripting, but scripting is where the
power
> lies. If you want to create rich interactivity of your own design,
> scripting is the way to do it. If you really do not want to script,
> then
> you will probably have a better time using the Page Templates
template.
> 
> You should learn some script. It is not hard to learn. A little script
> goes a long way in Xerte because of all the classes behind the scenes
> that are doing most of the heavy lifting. The scripting language in
> Xerte is very simple, and forgiving for new scripters.
> 
> J
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Gregory P
> Sweet
> Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 1:45 PM
> To: Xerte discussion list
> Subject: Re: [Xerte] tutor
> 
> I second what Hal says: Show me how to create interactions without
> scripting.
> 
> -Greg
> 
> xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk wrote on 03/18/2009 07:37:45 PM:
> 
> > What would be useful for me as a very new user would be a basic run
> > through the icons to create interactions without resorting to
> > scripting. The navigation would also be useful to know more about,
> > without using a linear structure. I guess there will need to be a
> > fair amount of differentiation within any tutorial to accommodate
> > the very different levels of competence with Xerte.
> > --
> > Hal MacLean
> > Director of Learning
> > +44 (0)7957 538915
> >
> > www.cleveratom.co.uk
> > +44 (0)845 868 9020
> >
> > Cleveratom Limited,
> > Fenchurch House,
> > 93 Springfield Road, Chelmsford,
> > Essex, CM2 6JL.
> >
> > __________________________________
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> > __________________________________
> >
> 
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