Adding and Configuring Media Actions
Learn to use Slide Actions to create finer control over slide playback
Table of Contents
What Are Media Actions?
Media Actions provide a way to add explicit control over playback of video and audio layers [?]
Layers are containers for visual, audio or layout items and are added to slides. For example, text, button, image, audio, video, group and row are all types of layers.
Layers are added to slides via the module editor..
Media actions can be used to either:
- Start and stop playback.
- Mute and unmute sound.
To add a Media Action select any layer, go to the Layer Options tab, and click the Actions sub-section button:
The Actions dialogue box will open:
On the right side of the dialogue box scroll down a little and you will see the Media Actions section, containing the seven different available media actions:
Click one of those actions to apply it to the layer. The applied action will then appear in the list of actions on the left side of the box, while the options for that action will appear on the right side:
To delete an action, click the small trash can icon to the right of the action’s name:
The seven available media action types are:
The behavior of each of these media action types can be customized by configuring its options. Let’s now step through the available options for each action type, and learn how to use them.
Note: Changes to action configuration are immediately auto-saved. Manual saving is not required.
Common Action Options
There are five options you will find common to almost all seven media actions types, and that perform the same function in each case. Rather than go over these options multiple times, we’ll cover all of them at once as we look at each action type.
Interaction
Use the Interaction option to specify how the user will need to interact with the layer in order to trigger the action:
There are three possible settings.
Click triggers when the layer is left clicked with the mouse, or tapped on a touch screen.
Mouse Enter triggers when the mouse first hovers over the layer.
Mouse Leave triggers when the mouse stops hovering over the layer.
Action Type
The Action Type option shows the currently selected action type:
This option also acts as a shortcut to switch action types. Click the option and you’ll be taken to the list of actions, from where you can choose a different type.
Target Layer
Use the Target Layer option to choose a layer the action should affect:
This option is available of every Media Action type except Toggle Mute All Media.
Action Delay
With Action Delay you can optionally add a delay, in milliseconds(ms
), between when the action is triggered and when it takes effect:
Trigger Repeat Delay
With Trigger Repeat Delay you can optionally add a period of time, in milliseconds(ms
), that must elapse before an action can be triggered again:
Individual Actions
Now that we’ve covered the configuration options common to all Media Action types, let’s move on to the functionality of each individual action type.
Start Media
The Start Media action will start playback on the target layer, if it’s not already playing:
Stop Media
The Stop Media action will stop playback on the target layer, if it’s currently playing:
Toggle Media
The Toggle Media action will start playback on the target layer if it’s not currently playing, and stop playback if it is already playing:
Mute Media
The Mute Media action will mute audio on the target layer:
Unmute Media
The Unmute Media action will unmute audio on the target layer:
Toggle Mute Media
The Toggle Mute Media action will mute audio on the target layer if it’s currently unmuted, and unmute audio if its currently muted:
Toggle Mute All Media
The Toggle Mute All Media action will mute audio on all media layers if they’re currently unmuted, and unmute audio on all media layers if they’re currently muted: