Presenter Training Interactions

[namedujour]

I've just gotten Presenter 8, and am poking around YouTube for training videos. One of them showed me how to insert training interactions in my PowerPoint presentation without defining what interactions are, or why I would want them. The online help didn't give any information either.

So I inserted an interaction, and the text was not editable. It was just as if I'd inserted an image.It has buttons with labels, but no apparent way to link them to anything. I could delete the whole image (or interaction), but that was it. I was able to make changes by going to Manage Interactions, but was still wondered what the interaction did, and why I would use it.

Could someone please shed some light on this for me? What do these do, and how do I make them work?Thanks!

[Guest]

Interactions are just a new way of showing information, such as bulleted lists or outline.

To edit the text, double click the text field before you click OK on the Insert Interaction screen.   

Hope that helps!

[namedujour]

The Adobe instructions use the word "interactions" to define itself (twice):

Learning interactions are static widgets (SWF files) that help you quickly set up standard user interactions, for example, interactions using accordions or tabs.

To insert learning interactions:

1.   Click Adobe Presenter, and in the Insert group, click Interaction > Insert.
2.   Click the type of interaction you want to insert in the Select Interaction dialog box, and then click Insert.
3.   Choose a theme from the Themes list.
4.   Click Custom to customize the selected theme.

   Note: Buttons have three states: Up, Over, and Active. Up is the state when users have not clicked the button. Over is the state when users hover their mouse over the buttons. Active state is when users click the button.

5.   Double-click the button text and the button content area to type your text. In addition to text, you can also insert pictures and audio files in the button content area.
6.   Click the ‘+’ icon to add more buttons.
7.   Click OK.

It talks about the three states, Up, Over, and Active, but doesn't tell you how to implement them in the interaction. It also moves into "themes"  - it goes into more detail about the theme than about the interaction, so I'm confused. Even the word "interaction" suggests that these things are supposed to DO something - we're supposed to "interact" with them.

And really all they are are just background images you pop into a slide? Okay then. Thanks!