Adding interactivity to a QuarkXPress layout is easy. You just need to understand the following three concepts.

• Objects: An object is a text box, a picture box, or a line that has been given a name using the Interactive palette. You can think of an object as “something the end user interacts with.” Examples are a Text Box object and an Animation object.
• User Events: A user event is something the end user does with the mouse. You can think of a user event as “the way the end user interacts with an object.” Examples are Click Down and Mouse Enter.
• Actions: An action is what happens when the end user triggers one of an object’s user events. You can think of an action as “what an object does when an end user interacts with it.” Examples are Play Animation and Display Next Page.

For example, let’s assume you select a picture box, turn it into a Button object, select the Click Up user event for that Button object, and assign the Display Next Page action to that user event. When an end user runs the SWF presentation and clicks the picture box, the presentation jumps to the next page.

The process of creating an Interactive layout is simple. You just draw the objects in the layout using the same QuarkXPress tools and features you use in Print layouts, including text and picture boxes, style sheets, and so forth. Then you select these “building block” objects and make them interactive with three simple steps: