Buttons

Buttons can create a number of different types of question:

• Select buttons can create multiple choice questions.
• Select buttons with custom graphics can be used to create simulations.
• Select buttons with hotspot graphics can create hotspots (hotspot areas).
• True/False buttons can allow users to rate statements.
• Yes/No buttons are just True/False buttons with different graphics, and they can be useful in surveys and tests.

Select buttons have marks if they are selected and if they are not selected. Marks can be as small as 0.01 or as large as 9998. Marks can also be negative.

True/False buttons have marks for True selected, False selected and no selection.

The maximum number of buttons you can have in one screen is 200.

Results Text

The Results Text Area in the Screen Inspector is where you can enter text you want to appear in the user's results. This text will also appear in the results collected centrally using a NetSeries webserver.

Dynamic linking. If you wish you can dynamically link text in a Text Area to results text for the Button. In this way, your results text is updated every time you change the Text Area to which it is linked. To do this just enter the name of the Text Area (as it appears in the Screen Inspector), but with square brackets either side of the name. For example, if you wished to link the text in a Text Area called Text 1 to the screen results text, then all you have to do is enter [Text 1] in the space for Results Text in the first tab of the Screen Inspector.

Copying text. You can click on a Text Area using the right mouse button and copy the text to the Results Text Area for a Button. You can also double-click on a Text Area to edit it, select just some of the text, and then right-click to copy just the selected text to the Results Text Area for a Button.

Other Controls

Lock. If lock is selected then you will not be able to move the Button using the mouse or the arrow keys on the keyboard — it prevents accidental movements. However, you can still move and resize a Button by entering values in the Left, Top, Width and Height fields.

Name. You can give a Button more or less any name you wish. However, if you are swapping files between SimpleSet and Editor then keeping names such as Button 1, Button 2, etcetera is important because SimpleSet uses these names to match Text Areas to Buttons.

Layer. Text Areas, Buttons, Shapes and Pictures can be made to appear above or beneath each other. Change the Layer setting to bring the object forwards or backwards. Layer 1 is shown at the front, and layer 10 is shown at the very back. Note also that Drags, Menus, Fields and Videos are always shown on top of other objects, and this is why they do not have Layer menus.

Position. When set to Normal the size of a button matches the size of the graphic image for the button. However, you can also set Position to Stretch or Crop, and these are useful if you have selected a Hotspot button and need to resize it to fit the area it covers.

Style and Visual Appearance

The Style setting selects between different graphic buttons. You can use the Style menu to select buttons with Yes and No instead of True and False. There are also hotspot graphics that can be cropped or stretched using the Position setting.

Other topics

Sounds

You can attach sounds to both Select and True/False buttons. The attached sounds will play every time the button is pressed. Attached sounds can be in WAV, MP2, MP3 or AIF formats.

Maximum Selections

The Screen tab of the Screen Inspector has a field called Maximum Selections. It sets the maximum number of Select buttons that can be selected at one time. If this is set to zero then it has no effect. It has no effect on True/False buttons, but it does affect the way in which the maximum and minimum for a screen is calculated if there are Select buttons in the screen.

Setting Answers

Useful shortcut: You can click on a Button with the right mouse button and a menu will appear that allows you to set whether the Select button is a correct selection, or whether True, False or no selection is the correct choice. This menu sets the marks to zeros and ones.

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