Shift+Click And Drag Select

Question

In demonstration mode I can show how to select a range of
cells in Excel by dragging with the mouse.
I can achieve the same outcome by using Shift+Click on the
start and end cells to select the range, although the viewer would
not see the Shift key being held down of course.
I am at a loss to see how to get (and require) a user to do
the same things in a Trainng or Assessment simulation before being
able to continue with the next step.
Can anyone advise please?
Phil_McC

Answer 1

Hi again,
I think I have something that will help you. It's in flash
though so don't know if you're going to be able to use it.
Basically it draws a rectangle that follows your mouse and then
leaves the final rectangle in place if your user hits the target
area. I must confess to heavily borrowing from the Flash help and
then tweaking.
I've just published this as player 7 and tested in Captivate
2 and it works like a charm.
This is what you do.
1 - export the Captivate slide you wish to do the drag select
on into Flash
2 - get rid of everything apart from the screen shot of your
excel. You can add everything else in afterwards.
3 - put the background on the bottom layer of your stack and
lock it.
4 - Create a movie clip for the cell to be dragged out. You
should be able to draw a rectangle the same size as a cell then F8
it into a movie clip.
5 - Create another one that's going to be the target.
6 - Place these both on the stage in the correct location in
a layer above your background.
7 - Copy the code below into the topmost layer (usually
called actions). You'll need to adjust the start positions and
final rectangle positions (in the rectangle function and xpos and
ypos) to what you want.
8 - test the movie and it works :)
9 - publish as a player 7 swf.
10 - Import into the relevant place in Captivate - test and
play.
Now the code:
/*THIS CODE REDRAWS THE RECTANGLE AS THE MOUSE MOVES.
1 - Creates a function for the final rectangle
2 - Creates the mouse listener for the drawing
3 - Draws the rectangle dynamically while mouse pressed
4 - If drawing ends on the target area then the dynamically
created rectangle is hidden and the full rectangle is displayed
5 - If drawing doesn't end on target area, rectangle is
hidden and the user can try again.
function rectangle() {
this.createEmptyMovieClip("rect_mc", 5);
rect_mc.beginFill(0x333333, 30);
rect_mc.lineStyle(2, 0x333333, 25);
rect_mc.moveTo(100, 120); //starting point
rect_mc.lineTo(400, 120); //top line
rect_mc.lineTo(400, 120); //right side line
rect_mc.lineTo(400, 320); //bottom line
rect_mc.lineTo(100, 320); //left side line.
rect_mc.endFill();
var xpos = 100;
var ypos = 120;
this.createEmptyMovieClip("new_mc", 5);
var mouseListener:Object = new Object();
mouseListener.onMouseDown = function() {
this.isDrawing = true;
this.orig_x = xpos;
this.orig_y = ypos;
this.curPos_mc = new_mc.createEmptyMovieClip("",
new_mc.getNextHighestDepth());
mouseListener.onMouseMove = function() {
if (this.isDrawing) {
this.curPos_mc.clear();
this.curPos_mc.beginFill(0x333333, 30);
this.curPos_mc.lineStyle(2, 0x333333, 25);
this.curPos_mc.moveTo(this.orig_x, this.orig_y);
this.curPos_mc.lineTo(_xmouse, this.orig_y);
this.curPos_mc.lineTo(_xmouse, _ymouse);
this.curPos_mc.lineTo(this.orig_x, _ymouse);
this.curPos_mc.lineTo(this.orig_x, this.orig_y);
this.curPos_mc.endFill();
updateAfterEvent();
mouseListener.onMouseUp = function() {
this.isDrawing = false;
this.curPos_mc.hitArea = target_mc;
if (this.curPos_mc.hitTest(target_mc)) {
this.curPos_mc._visible = false;
rectangle();
} else {
this.curPos_mc._visible = false;
Mouse.addListener(mouseListener);
Let me know if you have any issues or want the .fla or .cp
file with this.
Cheers
JiminiCricket