Today I wanted to have an interaction response trigger automatically if a certain condition was true when the flow entered the interaction or when the condition became true. I wanted it to execute only once.

An example of where you might want to do this is if you wanted to play verbal instructions for an interaction right as the buttons appeared, but only if the user had the sound enabled. You would also want the instructions to play if the user turned on the sound after entering the interaction.

Last week, I spoke about "Off" automatic matching on Conditional responses. You might think that option would be a good choice for this situation, and it would if I only wanted the conditional to work when the condition became true through user interaction. The same goes for "On False to True."

That leaves "When True" automatic matching. This works great for matching when you first enter the interaction, but depending on how its branching and the branching of the other responses on the interaction, this will continue to match as long as the condition is true. So, how to run it only once? Simple, add "~TimesMatched" to the condition (SoundOn & ~TimesMatched).

Have you ever sat with your finger over the Delete button, wondering if you will break any references to an icon by deleting it? Thinking of making a model out of a piece of code and don't want to accidentally wind up with any @"Deleted Icon" references?

Authorware has a neat feature I ran across accidentally that will let you view the references to and from an icon. In Authorware 5.2 and above, right-click on that icon you are hesitating over, and select "Connections." In any version of Authorware, you can reach the Connections Dialogue from Modify>Icon>Connections.

If you downloaded the models that came with my TAW presentation from last year, you may notice that references that are supposed to point to @"All Sections" are @"Deleted Icons." This is because I did not check this before creating those models.

Models for the next release of Authorware

The chat will be Thursday, May 22. The chat will start at 6:00 pm CDT. For the rest of the world, that is 6 hours earlier than current UK time and 5 hours earlier than GMT. In the US this is 7:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 mountain, and 4:00 pacific. Expect the chat to last around 1.5 hours.

The last chat resulted in the decision that we as a community are going to work together to create the models we all want as development tools. If you are interested in participating, send a blank e.mail to AW_Models-Subscribe@topica.com to subscribe to the AW Models mailing list. The log of that chat can be found at http://www.authorware-amy.com/Chat/051402.htm.

Whenever I host a Chat, I have an unofficial "cohost." Steve Howard has attended every one of my chats so far, and has done a lot of the behind-the-scenes work of putting the logs together.

This is Steve with my dog Nada. Nada is a 10 year old Xoloitzcuintli. He hates everyone.

Ronny Elgad volunteered to translate the Tips from the Tip of the Week Newsletter into Hebrew so that Authorware users in Israel can get better support on Authorware in their native tongue.

If you've been looking for inexpensive Authorware training, the upcoming Texas Authorware Workshop (TAWII) could be just what you need.

With sessions from familiar names such as Joe Ganci, Dan Clinger and Jennie Thornton, and Macromedia engineer Mike Baker, this workshop would be a steal at any price. But it is priced so low you can't afford not to go.

Be sure to check out the Pre- and Post-Conference Advanced Scripting classes from Joe Ganci and brainiac Chris Swenson.

Rumor has it that Dallas hotels are filling fast for the week of the workshop, so make your plans now!