Having a timed background picture disappear while on a scale item

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03-26-2010, 09:51 AM
Fade Eadeh

Having a timed background picture disappear while on a scale item

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to have both a picture and scale appear on a screen at the same time, and then have the picture disappear after 2 seconds, but keep the scale up still. Basically, I am working on a study where a participant has to make a decision based on the picture, but only has two seconds to actually view the picture. During those two seconds, they can make a decision, and after the picture disappears, they can still answer the question.

I know that there is a way to do this with two slides, and will likely default to this method, but is there any way to do this?
03-26-2010, 10:37 AM
jarvis24

There is no built in function for this but I can offer a couple of work-arounds. First, you could convert the image to an animated gif file where the image turns to a blank image after the desired time.

Second you could create and embed a simple HTML file that displays the image in the background of the scale item screen (see [I]background[/I] in the users guide for more detail). The trick would be to add an automatic redirect command to the file such that it would proceed to a blank page after [I]n[/I] seconds.

The code to do that in an HTML file might look something like this:

[quote]<head><meta http-equiv="refresh" content="2;url=blank.htm"></head>
<img src="mypic.jpg">
[/quote]

Say you save this as [I]mypic.htm[/I]. Create another blank file called [I]blank.htm[/I] and keep it in the same folder. With this code, the picture would disappear after 2 seconds but would leave the scale response in tact.

In your scale response item, you would enter something like "[I]mypic.htm (t100,l500,w300,h600)[/I]" in the background field. You would adjust the parameters for top, left, width and left according to the size of your image and where you want it to appear.

You could also play with the html file adding code to remove any margins or to make it's background color match that of your MediaLab background.

Would be happy to hear how it goes, or even to see a posted sample--or let me know if you need a hand in creating this.

See also:
[URL]http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=1322[/URL]
[URL]http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=702[/URL]
03-26-2010, 12:09 PM
Fade Eadeh

2 Attachment(s)

Hi Blair,

I followed the animated gif route as it seemed easiest, but it will not display the animated gif in Medialab. Please note that I print screened during a questionnaire to take the background color, and used that as my second picture. The animated gif does work by itself, but does not display properly in ML. Any suggestions?
03-26-2010, 12:48 PM
Fade Eadeh

Figured it out!

Hi Blair and others viewing this,

I realized that with animated gifs, you need to put the file into the backvideo instead of the background. That way, the animation will work properly!
03-30-2010, 01:28 AM
jarvis24

Thanks Fade, for the feedback and for the tip regarding placing the animated gif in the backvideo field!
06-16-2010, 02:07 PM
mighty

Fade thank you for your great tip of animated GIF's placement in the back video rather then background.

This tip has apparently worked for me, cheers!!
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