Chapter 15 - Working with Anchors

Similar to linking, Anchors offer the capabilities for a presentation to link to another presentation within the player program or to an external web site in a browser. Anchors are different from links because they can be contained within a clip and can occur over a period of time.

These areas can also have a start and end time so they can occur over the playback of a media clip.

The Anchor Draw tool on the Tools Palette allows you to draw a hot-spot within a clip that contains a link to another presentation or web site. To Draw an Anchor, you must first select the Clip to contain the Anchor. The Clip must be assigned to a Region so the Anchor borders can be defined. Drawing an Anchor is similar to drawing a Region. The boundaries of the Anchor are restricted to the boundaries of the Region in which the clip is contained. There is no limit to the amount of Anchors that can be added to a clip or a presentation.

An Anchor is an area defined within the boundaries of the clip. You can create an Anchor within a clip by first selecting the clip in which it will be contained from the clip list in the Clip Library. Next select the Anchor Draw tool from the Tools Palette and draw your Anchor within the clip. Open the Anchor Window, using either the Show Anchors option under the View menu or by clicking the Anchors icon on the Tools Palette. You will now see you Anchor listed in the Anchor list and the associated vales listed in the fields below.

In addition to the Anchor Draw tool, there is an Anchor Select tool on the Tools Palette. This tool works similarly to the Region Select Tool. The size and location of the Anchor can be modified the same way as a Region. The Anchor Selector in the Presentation window is Red, whereas the Region Selector is Green.

Example: the process of drawing Anchors is achieved in this way - draw a Region, add a clip to that Region, select the clip from the clip list in the Clip Library, choose the Anchor Draw Tool from the Tools Palette and draw the Anchor within the clip. (Regions can contain multiple clips; therefore the clip in which you wish to add the Anchor must be selected from the clip list in the Clip Library prior to drawing the Anchor.) Next, open the Anchors Window and define the attributes of the Anchor. In order to place an Anchor at a specific time point in a video clip, draw the Anchor where you want it to appear and insert Start and End attributes in the Anchors Window and click Apply (or press Enter on your keyboard).

Anchor Attributes

Using the fields in the Anchor Window, you can adjust the location of the Anchor using the Top, Left, Height and Width fields. The Begin and End fields determine when the Anchor will be active. The URL field works the same as linking in the Clip Library Window. A clip can contain multiple Anchors, allowing for the creation of moving hot-spots that can become active at different times in the presentation. The location co-ordinates of Anchors are determined based on the height and width of the Region in which the clip is contained. Although it is possible to draw and move Anchors to locations outside of the Region, the Anchor will not work properly in the Player if they are positioned this way.

Anchor ID

The ID used to identify the Anchor. Fluition assigns a generic name to the Anchor automatically. The ID can be changed to a name of choice by modifying the name in the Anchor ID field and clicking Apply.

URL

The URL field controls the link that the Anchor will activate. This can be a Web page (http://), another SMIL presentation ( yourfile.SMIL), an email link (mailto:info@fluition.com), a video file (.rm), etc.

Note: File names (.SMIL, .smil) are case sensitive.

Clip

The Clip field displays the clip the Anchor has been assigned to. The Clip drop-down menu will display the all the clips in your presentation. You can change the clip your Anchor is assigned to by choosing a different clip from the Clip drop-down menu and clicking Apply.

Show

The Show field drop-down menu contains 3 options, "Replace", "Pause" and "New".

When linking to a new SMIL (.SMIL) presentation you can use the "Replace" tag to cause the Player to replace the existing SMIL presentation with the new SMIL presentation. Some Players will do this for you automatically if you do not assign a "Replace" tag.

When linking to a Web page or an email link you can use the "Pause" tag to cause you presentation to Pause while the viewer looks at a web page or writes an email.

Using the "New" tag will cause a new instance of the Player to be launched when the link is clicked as opposed to the "Replace" tag, which will replace the presentation in the same Player.

Note: Some Players may not support one or more of these tags while still supporting the Anchor.

Left

The Left attribute of an Anchor indicates the location of the Anchor in relation to the number of pixels from the left edge of the Region in which the Anchor is located.

Top

The Top attribute of an Anchor indicates the location of the Anchor in relation to the number of pixels from the top of the Region in which the Anchor is located.

Width

The Width of the Anchor is measured in pixels and can be changed in the Width field of the Anchors Window and clicking Apply.

Height

The Height of the Anchor is measured in pixels and can be changed in the Height field of the Anchors Window and clicking Apply.

Start / End

The Start and End fields affect when the Anchor will start and/or end in relation to the clip's time line.

Example: Assigning a 5 second In time value (00:00:05) to an Anchor will cause that Anchor to become active 5 seconds into the clip. Assigning a 1 minute 20 second Out time value (00:01:20) to an Anchor will cause that Anchor to become inactive 1 minute 20 seconds into the clip.

Background Images and Anchors

Important Note: Anchors cannot be drawn in a Background Image that has been inserted in to your presentation using the Presentation Layout Window. To draw Anchors in a Background Image, draw a Region the same size as your presentation, set your Top and Left axis points to 0, add you image using the Clip Library and assign a Freeze tag to your image to have it displayed throughout your presentation. Now draw your Anchors as you would for your other media.