Working with keyboard commands
While menus provide a simple and intuitive way to navigate within a presentation, experienced users will expect keyboard commands that provide fast access to frequently used commands. The Keys tab in the Interactive palette enables you to create keyboard commands that do any of the following things:
- Trigger an event associated with a button click.
- Trigger an event associated with a menu option.
- Run a particular script automatically when a keyboard command is pressed.
To create a keyboard command:
- Click the Keys tab in the Interactive palette.
- Choose an option from the Page list:
- Choose All to create keyboard commands that execute scripts no matter what page the end user is on.
- Choose a master page name to make all of the buttons and menus on that master page available in the list on the right, and to create keyboard commands that execute scripts only when the end user is on a page that is based on this master page.
- Choose a page number to make all of the buttons and menus on that page available in the list on the right, and to create keyboard commands that execute scripts only when the end user is on that page.
- To control which objects display in the list on the right, choose an option from the Show drop-down menu. For example, if you want to create a keyboard command that triggers an event associated with a button click, you can choose Buttons to display only buttons in the list.
- Indicate a target for the keyboard command, as follows:
- Enter a key combination in the Key Alias field. You can use any single keyboard key in conjunction with any combination of the Command, Shift, Option, and Control keys (Mac OS) or Ctrl, Shift, and Alt keys (Windows) to create a valid keyboard command — with the exception of commands that are already reserved for common tasks, such as Command+Q/Alt+F4, which is reserved for quitting the presentation.
The Keys tab of the Interactive palette enables you to create keyboard commands and associate them with scripts.
and then choose the script name from the Note: You cannot use certain keyboard commands in your Interactive layouts, because some keyboard commands are reserved for default tasks or are unavailable (they do not exist) on the Mac OS or Windows keyboard.
Note: Each new Interactive layout automatically contains a keyboard command named “GoToNext” (right arrow key) and a keyboard command named “GoToPrevious” (left arrow key). These keyboard commands are linked to scripts that display the next and previous page. They are provided to make navigation easier, and may be safely deleted if you don’t want to use them.
Parent topic: Creating interactive building blocks