• One of the most powerful features of HyperCard is clicking a button which will go to a card. Even a novice can make such a button. This feature requires no programming, yet can allow you to create useful stacks. This feature can also be called "linking," but that word is way too scary for us novices. "Linking" brings thoughts of relational databases and high powered programmers. However, we can "link" a button to a card with very little effort in HyperCard.
Starting on the Home card, click on the left arrow and click on Authoring. Click on the right arrow to go back Home.
Click and hold the mouse down on the word "Edit", which is in the menu bar above to your left. We are activating the Edit menu. Drag the mouse down within the menu until the words "New Card" are highlited. Am I going too fast for you? Let up the mouse. We should have created a new card in your Home stack. We should now be on a blank white card.
We will now use another menu, "Objects". We learned to use menus in the preceding paragraph. So, click and hold on the word "Objects" in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Drag the mouse down to the words
"New button" and release. A new button should now be in the middle of the card.
A couple of miraculous things have happened. One thing is that we are now in the Button tool instead of the Browse tool. We can confirm this by clicking on the "Tools" menu, and you will notice that the button in the middle of the first row is highlited, not the image of the hand (the Browse tool). Let up the mouse. The other great thing that has happened is that there are dots moving all around the new button we just created! These are affectionately known as "marching ants." When these "marching ants" are around a button, it tells you that this button is the one we can work on. You can only work on one button at a time, so only one button will have the "marching ants" at any given time.
Now, click and hold on the word "Objects" in the menu bar again. Notice that the words "Button Info" have been darkened and are no longer gray. This means that "Button Info" is active, so let’s drag the mouse down until the words "Button Info" are highlited. Let up the mouse.
A dialog box appears on your screen, giving you information about your button. If you start typing, you can give your button a name. There is a button on the dialog box which says "LinkTo...". I want you to click on this button. A small window appears which says: "This Card" ; "This Stack" ; "Cancel". At this point in the "linking" process, we want to go to the card which we want the button to take us to when we click on it. If this is confusing, it should clear up in the next couple of steps.
From the "Go" menu, choose "Home". This will take us to the "Home" card. Click on "This Card" in the small window. You will be returned to the card with your "new button" on it. From the "Tools" menu in the menu bar, drag onto the image of the hand and let up the mouse. This will put you in the Browse tool, and the marching ants around your button should disappear. You have successfully linked this button with your Home card. Now, every time you click this button, you will go to your Home card! Try it.
This linking of a button to a card has many possibilities. For instance, the button we just named could be called "Home", and every time we click on it, we go to our Home card. In the same way, we could make a button called "giraffe", which goes to a card which has a picture and information of a giraffe. Linking with buttons creates a concept of
"navigation", which allows users to quickly go where they want to in your stack.
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