Many moons ago, when I was a young girl learning Authorware, I ran into a problem. I had set up a slider, and I was using a Conditional set to Dragging@"Slider." The Conditional was set to Match When True and to Try Again Branching, so it continually executed while the slider was being dragged. The problem with this is that the slider position did not visually update until the user let go of the slider!

Ultimately, I discovered that you could force the screen to update by adding a zero second Wait inside the Dragging response. It wasn't quick or easy, but I finally found the solution.

This week, someone on the macromedia.authorware newsgroup asked a question about getting a knob to "pop" to 30 degree increments. "Aha!" sez I (I'm given to these moments of erudition), "I can use the problem I had earlier as this person's solution." So I suggested that he use a Decision icon to only direct the flow through the Wait and update the screen when he wanted the knob to "pop" to that position.

The moral of the story is: most things that cause us problems one day will likely themselves become solutions to other problems in the future.

I have no idea whether he actually implemented my solution, but I thought it would make a nice example file, so I built it and uploaded it to my website.

As a special bonus, I discovered something new while making this file. The original problem could also have been solved by embedding an expression into the Interaction and setting the Icon to "Update Displayed Variables." However, that solution would not have solved this problem. Or would it?

Tune in next week to see if I provide a second solution using an embedded expression.

You can attach any sort of content to a Decision Icon (including an entire Framework and its pages, if you put it in a map). If you set the Decision's Time Limit, then it becomes much easier to create a timer that counts down. I hate math, so anything that makes the Math easier is ok by me.

You can also use this to automatically exit that content when the time limit is reached. I happened to build an example file based on this concept this week, again in response to a newsgroup question, and I have posted it for those who are interested.

I've made no secret of the fact that I like Fireworks. A lot. Something is going on in the macromedia.fireworks newsgroup that I find intriguing.

Kim Cavanaugh, the force behind The Beginner's Guide to Dreamweaver and Fireworks, has come up with a great idea! She has a Fun with Fireworks challenge every week, and Fireworks users send in their responses to the challenge. It's a great way to generate a lot of different ideas and example files.

So, I guess I'm thinking that something like that might be fun for the Authorware community. Kind of like a mini "Authorware games," only every month, and not judged. Just people, kicking around ideas together.

I've updated the survey on my site, to see if there's enough interest in this idea to make it worth doing. So tell me what you think.