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Start Effect Tab

The Start Effect tab controls two aspects of the transition:

  1. What effect to use in starting the transition. You have the option of starting the effect (when the transition is initially triggered) from the current settings of the CS Effect, or specify an effect code string (one copied from the CS Effects SHARE panel) to use as the effect starting point. Normally, we imagine you will leave it set at "Start from Current". If you do specify an effect (either by pressing SET EFFECT, adjusting the effect in the Effects interface, and pressing APPLY, or by pasting the effect code into the box), then when the transition is triggered, the transition will set the effect into the instance given in the INSTANCE NAME field. If your instance is not a CS Effect, you just want to leave this setting as Start from Current.
  2. How to trigger the transition. You have many options in how to trigger the transition. The options are:
    1. Keystroke. You can specify a keystroke, such an alphanumeric or special character, or select a special key from the list (for example, Space, arrow keys, Page Up, etc.). Keys such as ESC (Escape) or TAB are not permitted. The field marked "Wait for X presses" is a described below. To select a key, make sure the drop-down menu is set to "Type a key", then enter the (single) key in the box on the right. If you want to select a special key, choose it from the drop-down menu. The box for entering a keystroke will disappear.

      Note: alphabetic keystrokes are case-sensitive.
    2. Button instance name. If you specify the instance name of a button or movie clip, the transition will be triggered when the user presses that button, specifically the number of times given in "wait for X presses" (below).
    3. Time. Enter a time, in seconds, and the transition will be triggered when the time elapses.
    4. State. This is for state changes you make with CSStateManager or CommandSim Fire Department Edition scenarios. For the Instructor Edition (CSStateManager), you organize your transitions into states and then use a CSStateManager to trigger the state change. State changes are preserved across multiple Flash movies. For the Fire Department Edition, you can specify the state index (0 is first state). When the instructor puts the system in that state, or you enter the visual and the current state is that state, the transition gets triggered. By default, when the visual first loads, the system checks the specified state to see if it should trigger the transition. In this way, the system automatically sets up the state when the visual is first loaded.

Explanation of Choice between "Always" and "Wait for X presses"

This feature ties the transition to a specific number of presses of a keystroke or button press. For example, you may want one set of changes to occur when you press a key one time (like and arrow key), and a different (more involved) condition when you press it again. You can set up one transition to be triggered on the first press, and a different transition on the second or subsequent press of that character. Therefore, for each transition triggered by a keystroke or button press, you specify exactly which number of presses achieves that effect.

If you want to change the effect every time you press that key, you select the ALWAYS option (selected by default).

If you want to repeat the sequence of effect changes, you can create a RESET transition (described in the next section on End Effect), and when that transition is triggered, the number of recorded key/button presses gets reset to 0, so pressing the key or button will re-activate the transition when the number of presses is reached.

Programmatically Initiating a Transition (Advanced)

If you are familiar with Flash scripting, you can trigger a transition by invoking a method of the transition instance. The transition method is called startEffectTransition. Therefore, if you want to trigger the transition programmatically, use the following example:

myTrans1.startEffectTransition();

in which myTrans1 is the instance name of your transition.

 

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