Display System Time in Project

[Mythwyn]

I've just started looking at AutoPlay 5 last week to see if it's worth the upgrade. I've having some issues with changed or missing features. I HATE LOCKED ASPECT RATIO!!

Now that I got that outta the way, In AutoPlay 4 I was able to simply set actions to "Get System Time" and then have a Text Object (any ratio i wanted) display the result on a button click.

AutoPlay 4 actions:
<Action name="Get Date Time">
<Variable>%CurrentTime%</Variable>
Then
<ObjectName>StartTime1</ObjectName>
<Text>Start: %CurrentTime%</Text>

Basically I have two Text Objects, 1 showing the start time when all other actions where started and a second showing when the actions completed. Also have a seperate Text Object that changed the displayed text allong the way in a %.

Now trying to duplicate a project in AutoPlay 5
I can't simply create a "Text Object" and call the variable.
At least I'm not able to figure out how via help or the knowledge base here.

Can anyone point me to how this can be accomplised in 5?
Got about 2 1/2 weeks on the Pro demo left. Thanks

Would also love to know if there is a way to disable Aspect Ratios for text lables, it's incredably crippling for my needs.

I see alot of nice new features in 5, but if simple actions like above now require making custom scripts or something then the bad outweighs the good and i'll stick to 4.

[Corey]

Hi.

1. Right click on the object and disengage "Keep Aspect" (CTRL + K)...

2. System.GetTime and System.GetDate are both easy to use and well documented in the help files...

3. Label.SetText is the action you use to set the text of a label object...

Hoipe that helps. We reccomend you take a few minutes and read through some of the docs, as version 5.0 was a major upgrade and has tons of powerful new features.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Mythwyn]

From the help section AutoPlay 5

Note: Label objects will always maintain their aspect ratio. The Keep Aspect item on the right click context menu will always be enabled.

I have taken more then a few minutes reading through the documentation. Read the above more then 5 times before posting. Wondered if anyone found a "hack".

I've figured out how the system stores variables, not undocumented... but not well documented either.

I've been struggling through a simple project for 9 hours in what took 1 hour in version 4 out of the box, with less referance to the help section. I do appreciate powerfull features, but not at the cost of ease of use. Never even visited the forum before now.

Button tool is great... although the framing is needlessly oversized which keeps buttons from going out to the edge of the page without warnings at build time and makes for concerns of over-lapping other objects.

Transitions are cool but are fluff not function.

Drive, zip and new system actions amoung needed features are welcomed.

It just appears that the new features come with a higher learning curve and another $100 dollors per version number. Standard is to crippled to concider and Pro is getting costly. I have to hope that the remainder of the 30 days shows me something to renew the joy that made me buy v4.

[Corey]

Text in AMS 5.0 is not vector, same as vers. 4. so there is no stretching it, if you use a paragraph object you can set the bounding box without aspect ratio. Labels were designed to be used as simple text labels without a great deal of advanced functionality, the paragraph object is more flexible...

I'd be happy to expand on the documentation of anything you need, just indicate where you find the documentation fails to explain something to you appropriately and I'll post something more in depth for you. I know learning new platforms can be maddening at times but please try to remain patient, we're truly doing our best in every way and we're happy to assist you in the process.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Mythwyn]

I've been at it this whole time, I've been able figure out most of what i need to duplicate my v4 projects and i'm getting a handle on new features.

In general my problems are in documentation, that is to say, i'm only finding half of the answers I need. The help file is telling me about the features, but the examples are'nt going far enough.

Example: I want my first page of a project to display the OS info.
In my case XP Home or Pro and if SP1 is installed. I'm get from the info how to get the variables and to store them, in this case System,GetOSVersionInfo. I know it's being stored as a table, what the documentation is not making clear is how I get that info to display on my project page, paragraph, label, hotspot, ect...

I think v4 did a better job of this, most of the time it had sample code that could just be modified. Being experienced with v4 this seems more complex then it should be, I know it a complete rework of the features, and I'm begining to appreciate the new way of doing things. In general if the examples where a little more start to finish, I could be happy with v5. I've gotton 80% of my project worked out, but it's been frustraiting getting this far.
Not the first time, JASC did it to me with PSP 8, messed up drawing a simple line. LOL

I'm off to hunt the forum for a howto.... appreciate the responses, looks like i'm not the only one without a life.

[Nowind]

I found a solution to this:

In 'Global Functions':
result_variable = System.GetDate(1);

In 'Page Properties':
Paragraph.SetText("Object Name", result_variable);

I would like to show the date on each page, is there a way to do this without using a new paragraph on each page?