Efficient workflow for repeated (shared?) actions

Report · Oct 31, 2023

Hi,

I have a PPT slide deck (32 slides) and would like to add a pop up text box to each. I have slide 1 set up the way I want it, with a "show text" button, a "hide text" button, the text box itself, and advanced actions for applicable showing/hiding.

Is there an efficient way to replicate this interaction for each of the 32 slides (same structure of interaction, but different text in each box)? So far I figure that duplicating/renaming each advanced action for each slide will work, but then I will have dozens and dozens of actions to sift through and I'm hoping someone out there has a smarter approach!

Report · Oct 31, 2023

Your suggesttion is what I would choose: one shared action instead of multiple duplicate advanced actions.

To help you better, I would need o see the complete present setup. you talk about Show/Hide, but another workflow with multistate object, or with the popup text stored in a variable could prove to be a better approach.

Report · Oct 31, 2023

Thanks for this! "Shared action" is exactly what I was going for. Now each action from slide 1 is saved as "shared," and I just have to choose the objects to receive that action on each slide (phew).

I haven't worked with states before, but I think I can see that working too-- set a visible state and an invisible state for the text box, and set buttons to change between them? (would I then need to create states for each slide/text box, or can I "share" states like actions?) I have a whole stack of slide decks that need the same treatment, so I have plenty of opportunities to practice different things!

Report · Nov 01, 2023

I will offer you some links to relevant blog posts. BTW if you use BingChat (AI) with questions about Shared actions, you'll often find my blog posts amongst their resource links.

https://blog.lilybiri.com/tip-3-show-slash-hide-or-multistate-object-advanced-slash-shared-actions

That post explains the advantages/disadvantages of both workflows.

Setting up the shared action sometime needs different thinking from advanced actions, for an optimal use of the Parameters:

https://blog.lilybiri.com/tip-5-parameters-shared-actions

An example of an improvement for a shared action was part of one of my workshops about advanced/shared actions. Recording is lost now, because version 12 got rid of all advanced features, including advanced/shared actions. I created a blog explaining the forementioned workflow:

https://blog.lilybiri.com/tips-and-tricks-advanced-to-shared-action-intermediate

You cannot share states, but you can time a multistate object the rest of the project. That means that the Normal (empty) state is ready on all slides, you'll just have to add the custom state with the text.

BTW I have an introduction course for Shared actions in the blog as well, it will be easy to find. It starts ith:

https://blog.lilybiri.com/who-is-afraid-of-dot-dot-dot-shared-actions-crash-course-introduction