Hi

I have a unique animation challenge.  I have 10 action buttons in a row on 
the left of a slide that bring up text boxes on the right of the slide.  The 
right starts empty, and with each action button clicked, a text box appears, 
grows, and "flies" in from the area near its corresponding action button to 
the right side of the slide using a combination of effects.  I do this by:

Upon the slide loading, using the disappear effect on all 10, as well as 
shrinking them all to 25% size.
When the corresponding action button for each text box is clicked, the text 
box appears, follows a motion path to the right of the slide, and grows by 
400% (this makes it normal size after being shrunk to 25% earlier).  At the 
same time ("with previous"), I apply the disappear property to the 9 other 
text boxes to make sure the one flying in has a blank spot to fly into.  When 
in edit mode, all text boxes are stacked on top of each other (at their final 
spot on the slide).

Everything I've described so far works beautifully.  The problem is that 
each text box includes a hyperlink to slides further in the presentation.  
When I first made the slide, all of them worked fine.  However, when I began 
editing the text boxes and I think I may have changed their order, I noticed 
all the links stopped working except whichever one was on the text box that 
was on the top of the pile in edit mode.  I've tried copying and pasting the 
boxes that work and using the "bring to front" command to re-order the boxes, 
and I can't seem to get any of the links to work except the one on the top 
or, occasionally, the top most one and the two bottom-most ones (I have no 
idea why this would be).

It appears the boxes that are made to disappear are still there, not totally 
gone, and hence the links on the boxes on the bottom of the pile are covered 
by the ones above, and PowerPoint somehow can't make the links work when a 
text box is covered by another, even when that other box has been made to 
disappear.  Note that the links are all in the same place on each text box.  
The links are in the form of a hyperlinked image.

The only thing I can think is to somehow force the "bring to front" order 
command each time a text box is shown.  I have heard that PowerPoint doesn't 
have an auto-run macro for VBA, and doesn't offer the "bring to front" 
command in custom animation options.  Is there anything I can do?

Thanks for any help
-Josh

Hi Ute

Thanks for your reply.  I actually am using motion paths.  (Didn't mean to 
use the term "fly in"...you must be talking about the "fly in" effect.  I 
forgot about that when I wrote this).

I'm stumped.

-Josh



"Ute Simon (MVP)" wrote:

> > It appears the boxes that are made to disappear are still there, not 
> > totally
> > gone, and hence the links on the boxes on the bottom of the pile are 
> > covered
> > by the ones above, and PowerPoint somehow can't make the links work when a
> > text box is covered by another, even when that other box has been made to
> > disappear.  Note that the links are all in the same place on each text 
> > box.
> > The links are in the form of a hyperlinked image.
> 
> Hi Josh,
> 
> I've seen that happen before - but I can't explain it. One thing you could 
> try is a motion path instead of the Fly in Animation. Thus the objects are 
> animated to a "new" spot.
> 
> Best regards,
> Ute
> 
> -- 
> Ute Simon
> Microsoft PowerPoint MVP 
> 

You said you tried copy and paste. Did you try copy and paste to a new 
slide? You might also try HTML round-tripping:

HTML "Round-tripping" to repair corruption
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00526.htm

--David

On 4/12/10 6:15 PM, Dewey wrote:
> Hi Ute
>
> Thanks for your reply.  I actually am using motion paths.  (Didn't mean to
> use the term "fly in"...you must be talking about the "fly in" effect.  I
> forgot about that when I wrote this).
>
> I'm stumped.
>
> -Josh
>
>
>
> "Ute Simon (MVP)" wrote:
>
>>> It appears the boxes that are made to disappear are still there, not
>>> totally
>>> gone, and hence the links on the boxes on the bottom of the pile are
>>> covered
>>> by the ones above, and PowerPoint somehow can't make the links work when a
>>> text box is covered by another, even when that other box has been made to
>>> disappear.  Note that the links are all in the same place on each text
>>> box.
>>> The links are in the form of a hyperlinked image.
>>
>> Hi Josh,
>>
>> I've seen that happen before - but I can't explain it. One thing you could
>> try is a motion path instead of the Fly in Animation. Thus the objects are
>> animated to a "new" spot.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Ute
>>
>> --
>> Ute Simon
>> Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
>>


-- 
David M. Marcovitz
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Associate Professor, Loyola University Maryland

> Thanks for your reply.  I actually am using motion paths.  (Didn't mean to
> use the term "fly in"...you must be talking about the "fly in" effect.  I
> forgot about that when I wrote this).

Hi Josh,

can you rearrange your motion paths so that the text boxes are not in their 
end position in edit mode? So that there are no ghost images to "cover" your 
hyperlink.

Best regards,
Ute 

I have just a couple of thoughts. (Not sure if they'll be helpful, but I 
think they're worth considering!)

> Everything I've described so far works beautifully.  The problem is that
> each text box includes a hyperlink to slides further in the presentation.
> When I first made the slide, all of them worked fine.

This makes me wonder if you've hit the link limit and your links are going 
wonky because of that, not because of their z-order on the slide. 
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00668.htm has more information.

Now, if you spread your linked objects out on the slide so they're not 
overlapping and they still go to the right place, then this is of course not 
the issue!

My other thought is about the hot-spot on the objects. Using PPT 2002 or 
2003, I made a Jeopardy board that has three stacked rectangles for each 
puzzle. From top to bottom, there was a rectangle for the dollar amount, for 
the question, and for the answer. (Well, it was Jeopardy, so the question 
was really the answer, but you get the idea. <g>) When you click the dollar 
amount box, it goes away (using a trigger animation -- Exit Fade, I think 
was the specific one) to reveal the question. When you click the question 
box, it triggers that box to exit and reveal the answer underneath.

Problem was, I'd used a gradient fill on the boxes (one color radial 
gradient), and when you clicked in the center of the box, they wouldn't 
work! You had to really be very careful to hover around the edge of each box 
until you got a hand cursor that you could click to, well, trigger the 
trigger. I can't recall for sure, but I think that changing the fills to 
solid colors took care of that issue.

I wonder if you're seeing something like that?

If you're using PPT 2007, you can check the z-order of your objects using 
the Selection Pane on the Home tab.

-- 
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2010? http://www.echosvoice.com/2010.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://tinyurl.com/36grcd
PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit http://tinyurl.com/32a7nx



"Dewey" <Dewey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message 
news:397983BB-14CD-4A5B-9273-396C671C0701@microsoft.com...
> Hi
>
> I have a unique animation challenge.  I have 10 action buttons in a row on
> the left of a slide that bring up text boxes on the right of the slide. 
> The
> right starts empty, and with each action button clicked, a text box 
> appears,
> grows, and "flies" in from the area near its corresponding action button 
> to
> the right side of the slide using a combination of effects.  I do this by:
>
> Upon the slide loading, using the disappear effect on all 10, as well as
> shrinking them all to 25% size.
> When the corresponding action button for each text box is clicked, the 
> text
> box appears, follows a motion path to the right of the slide, and grows by
> 400% (this makes it normal size after being shrunk to 25% earlier).  At 
> the
> same time ("with previous"), I apply the disappear property to the 9 other
> text boxes to make sure the one flying in has a blank spot to fly into. 
> When
> in edit mode, all text boxes are stacked on top of each other (at their 
> final
> spot on the slide).
>
> Everything I've described so far works beautifully.  The problem is that
> each text box includes a hyperlink to slides further in the presentation.
> When I first made the slide, all of them worked fine.  However, when I 
> began
> editing the text boxes and I think I may have changed their order, I 
> noticed
> all the links stopped working except whichever one was on the text box 
> that
> was on the top of the pile in edit mode.  I've tried copying and pasting 
> the
> boxes that work and using the "bring to front" command to re-order the 
> boxes,
> and I can't seem to get any of the links to work except the one on the top
> or, occasionally, the top most one and the two bottom-most ones (I have no
> idea why this would be).
>
> It appears the boxes that are made to disappear are still there, not 
> totally
> gone, and hence the links on the boxes on the bottom of the pile are 
> covered
> by the ones above, and PowerPoint somehow can't make the links work when a
> text box is covered by another, even when that other box has been made to
> disappear.  Note that the links are all in the same place on each text 
> box.
> The links are in the form of a hyperlinked image.
>
> The only thing I can think is to somehow force the "bring to front" order
> command each time a text box is shown.  I have heard that PowerPoint 
> doesn't
> have an auto-run macro for VBA, and doesn't offer the "bring to front"
> command in custom animation options.  Is there anything I can do?
>
> Thanks for any help
> -Josh 

Hi David.

I initially had very high hopes for round tripping when I tried it on a 
local copy of the file and it seemed to work (very exciting stuff).  Then, I 
saved the file back to the SharePoint where I had it originally stored and it 
stopped working again!  (This is by far the most strange PPT behavior I've 
ever seen).

I'm still searching...

Thanks for the tip about round tripping though.  I'd never heard of it.

-Dewey


"David Marcovitz" wrote:

> You said you tried copy and paste. Did you try copy and paste to a new 
> slide? You might also try HTML round-tripping:
> 
> HTML "Round-tripping" to repair corruption
> http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00526.htm
> 
> --David
> 
> On 4/12/10 6:15 PM, Dewey wrote:
> > Hi Ute
> >
> > Thanks for your reply.  I actually am using motion paths.  (Didn't mean to
> > use the term "fly in"...you must be talking about the "fly in" effect.  I
> > forgot about that when I wrote this).
> >
> > I'm stumped.
> >
> > -Josh
> >
> >
> >
> > "Ute Simon (MVP)" wrote:
> >
> >>> It appears the boxes that are made to disappear are still there, not
> >>> totally
> >>> gone, and hence the links on the boxes on the bottom of the pile are
> >>> covered
> >>> by the ones above, and PowerPoint somehow can't make the links work when a
> >>> text box is covered by another, even when that other box has been made to
> >>> disappear.  Note that the links are all in the same place on each text
> >>> box.
> >>> The links are in the form of a hyperlinked image.
> >>
> >> Hi Josh,
> >>
> >> I've seen that happen before - but I can't explain it. One thing you could
> >> try is a motion path instead of the Fly in Animation. Thus the objects are
> >> animated to a "new" spot.
> >>
> >> Best regards,
> >> Ute
> >>
> >> --
> >> Ute Simon
> >> Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
> >>
> 
> 
> -- 
> David M. Marcovitz
> Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
> http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/
> Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
> Associate Professor, Loyola University Maryland
> .
> 

Hi again Ute.

Thanks for this tip.  I don't want to do this for some reason, since the 
programmer in me wants this to work the way they are arranged now, but in the 
end, this might be the only solution.

Thanks for the idea!

-Dewey

"Ute Simon" wrote:

> > Thanks for your reply.  I actually am using motion paths.  (Didn't mean to
> > use the term "fly in"...you must be talking about the "fly in" effect.  I
> > forgot about that when I wrote this).
> 
> Hi Josh,
> 
> can you rearrange your motion paths so that the text boxes are not in their 
> end position in edit mode? So that there are no ghost images to "cover" your 
> hyperlink.
> 
> Best regards,
> Ute 
> 
> 
> .
> 

OKAY!  I finally came to a resolution.  Ute's idea of positioning the motion 
paths as before, but positioning the text boxes themselves so they reside on 
the slide such that they don't overlap (in edit mode) WORKED.

They all move following the same path, and end up at the same place on the 
slide, but in edit mode they are not overlapping.

I didn't have to keep 100% of each text box from overlapping all the others, 
just the portion in the lower corner that contained the button with the 
image-link.  So I have, in edit mode, a stack of boxes that resemble a deck 
of cards that has been spread slightly.  Fortunately, my link image is in the 
lower right corner, so each link is visible in edit mode.

I'm not sure why PowerPoint (this is 2003 - forgot to mention) has a problem 
with links when overlapped, but it does.  Fortunately, this is a solution 
that retains the functionality I was hoping for.

Thank you to everyone who suggested solutions!  I learned a lot more about 
PowerPoint in the process.  Hopefully this helps someone else down the road.

-Dewey





"Dewey" wrote:

> Hi
> 
> I have a unique animation challenge.  I have 10 action buttons in a row on 
> the left of a slide that bring up text boxes on the right of the slide.  The 
> right starts empty, and with each action button clicked, a text box appears, 
> grows, and "flies" in from the area near its corresponding action button to 
> the right side of the slide using a combination of effects.  I do this by:
> 
> Upon the slide loading, using the disappear effect on all 10, as well as 
> shrinking them all to 25% size.
> When the corresponding action button for each text box is clicked, the text 
> box appears, follows a motion path to the right of the slide, and grows by 
> 400% (this makes it normal size after being shrunk to 25% earlier).  At the 
> same time ("with previous"), I apply the disappear property to the 9 other 
> text boxes to make sure the one flying in has a blank spot to fly into.  When 
> in edit mode, all text boxes are stacked on top of each other (at their final 
> spot on the slide).
> 
> Everything I've described so far works beautifully.  The problem is that 
> each text box includes a hyperlink to slides further in the presentation.  
> When I first made the slide, all of them worked fine.  However, when I began 
> editing the text boxes and I think I may have changed their order, I noticed 
> all the links stopped working except whichever one was on the text box that 
> was on the top of the pile in edit mode.  I've tried copying and pasting the 
> boxes that work and using the "bring to front" command to re-order the boxes, 
> and I can't seem to get any of the links to work except the one on the top 
> or, occasionally, the top most one and the two bottom-most ones (I have no 
> idea why this would be).
> 
> It appears the boxes that are made to disappear are still there, not totally 
> gone, and hence the links on the boxes on the bottom of the pile are covered 
> by the ones above, and PowerPoint somehow can't make the links work when a 
> text box is covered by another, even when that other box has been made to 
> disappear.  Note that the links are all in the same place on each text box.  
> The links are in the form of a hyperlinked image.
> 
> The only thing I can think is to somehow force the "bring to front" order 
> command each time a text box is shown.  I have heard that PowerPoint doesn't 
> have an auto-run macro for VBA, and doesn't offer the "bring to front" 
> command in custom animation options.  Is there anything I can do?
> 
> Thanks for any help
> -Josh