TIP 247: Creating Interactive Slideshows

Name: SlideShowKit

Developer: Mind Palette

Source: www.mindpalette.com/actions

Cost: $15 US

There are several ways to create interesting slideshows, but many of them require browser plug-ins, which can complicate the issue. Nate Baldwin of the Mind Palette group has written dozens of amazing actions. One of our favorites is his SlideShowKit action set. This powerful action is actually eight actions combined together to perform some impressive slide-show effects, without the need for any plug-ins or special viewer software (Figure 247).

Figure 247. Just one example of what can be achieved with the SlideShowKit actions.

The SlideShowKit actions are very flexible and can be configured in a variety of ways:

• Adding unlimited slideshows (user triggered or automatic) to your page, each with unlimited images.

• Toggling Play/Pause button option for autoplaying slideshows.

• Adding a link for each image in your slideshow to either open a new page or a popup window.

• Automatically generate a dynamic form selection menu for easy navigation through images.

• Automatically generate a count sequence as the slideshow progresses (1 of 20, 2 of 20, and so on).

• Assign a text caption or description that is automatically displayed with the corresponding image.

The actions come with a very detailed PDF manual explaining all the options, and there's a demo page at www.mindpalette.com/actions/natebaldwin/slideshow_kit/Examples. If you have questions about any of the Mind Palette actions, they have great support forums at www.mindpalette.com/forum.