Balloon-Like Labels

Date:    Mon, 10 Jul 1995 21:24:34 -0400
From:    "KELVIN W. M. SCOTT" <SCOTTKE@HUGSE1.HARVARD.EDU>
Subject: Re: Balloon-Like Labels

As it happens, XObjects may not be necessary in this case. If you are MIAW-tolerant Lingo user, Director can directly access the window resources that I suppose are responsible for creating the common Apple help balloon.

This is a simple process; all that you need to do is set your windowType of your MIAW between 2016 and 2033. Magic! You will have instant speech balloons. (The variations 2016 to 2033 will determine the direction of the speech arrow).

I have no familiarity with the Xobjects that may accomplish this same end, but I wonder whether they posses some of the benefits of the approach mentioned above. The benefit of using the procedure that I have described is that it allows each of your help balloons to contain any and or all of the elements that we often find in a standard Director movie (you know, animation, user-manipulated objects, touchy-lovely graphics, and the like). The savvy lingo scriptor could come up with routines that would automatically locate the window on the stage when the appropriate rollover occurs.

So, perhaps this helps, perhaps it does not. In any case it certainly reinforces my growing impression that Director will do somersaults as long as the right carrot is dangled.