Ever want to pop up some helpful feedback from anywhere in your piece when the user is idle too long? Yes, TimeOutGoTo() can do that, but the problem with it is that it acts like a Jump To Page type navigation. That means you can't use it to pop up a message in front of whatever is on the screen. Wouldn't it be nice if you could somehow use TimeOutGoTo() to execute a call and return subroutine?

Well, you can. The trick is to use the system variable "TimeOutRemaining" to trigger a conditional response. For this to work, somewhere at the top of your flow line put

--Set your time limit one second higher
--than you actually need
TimeOutLimit=31
TimeOutGoTo(@"Some Icon")

The idea is that you won't ever execute your time-out icon, but make sure you use a real icon. I tried TimeoutGoTo(10) before I got the logic worked out, and Authorware crashed when it tried to execute the Time-out!

Now, put an interaction somewhere where it will be used by your entire piece. If you have all your content nested beneath a single framework, put the Interaction in its entry pane. Otherwise, put it at the top of your flow line. Attach a Perpetual Conditional to the Interaction set to TimeoutRemaining <=1

Now, all you have to do is set up call and return navigation in that response that will execute your subroutine.

If you haven't played with subroutines before, be sure to check out the Subroutines ShowMe on your Authorware CD.

If you're like me, you learn shortcut keys by looking at it in the menu a few times, then trying the shortcut every now and again. As I get more confident that I know the shortcut, I use the menu less and less.

Authorware 6 has a whole lot of new keyboard shortcuts that appear on the menu, but are not mentioned in the Keyboard ShortCuts section of the Help files. They are in the menu if you know where to look, but because we've never had shortcuts for these things before, who thought to look there?

If you open the "Edit" menu, you'll find a new "Paste Hand" category. The shortcuts listed there will move the paste hand around for you. To save you having to look, if you hold down Control, Shift, and Alt, then the arrow keys will move the paste hand around in the direction of the arrow.

Under the "Insert" menu, the "Icon" category has a ton of shortcuts for inserting new icons. Note that these are the default icons, though, and not the custom icons you may have set up by dragging icons back to the icon palette.

If you're delivering Authorware on the Web, Web FX is a must-have. If you want to display and print HTML in Authorware, e.mail an attachment, ensure your user has a connection to the net, or even run a webcam in Authorware, you can do it with WebFX.

Note that when I mention a conference or product on this site, I have not been asked to and I am not getting paid. I only do this when I think it is something cool that you might like to know about.

These are Remi and Nada, two of my dogs. Remi is the one closest to the camera; he is four. Nada, his father, is in the background. Nada, at 11, is my oldest Xoloitzcuintli.

I've mentioned my dogs before, and I thought maybe I should tell you how to pronounce the word "Xoloitzcuintli." It's not as tough as it looks "Show-low-eets-queen-tlee." American Xoloitzcuintli owners shorten the word to "Xolo," whereas south of the border they shorten it the other way, which comes out as "squeently." Either is OK, because Xolo was the Aztec god the breed was named after, and itzcuintli was their word for dog.

Xolos are the National Dog of Mexico. You may already be familiar with the Toy Xoloitzcuintli, which was once called the Mexican Hairless. My dogs are Standard size.