I am evaluating Axure to see if we want to use it for our design projects.  So far everything I have tried requires a convoluted solution.

A text field that changes appearance when the mouse moves over it.  No rollover style.  Tried creating a dynamic panel with the text field in it and two states with different colored backgrounds.  Used OnFocus in State1 pointing to State2 with the color change and OnLostFocus in State2 pointing to State1 without the color.  Works inconsistently and more frustrating is the fact that the text I entered in State2 does not appear in State1’s view.

I searched the forum but did not find a solution to this specific issue.

I am just starting and it looks like Axure is very powerful but not easy to get the effects for the application I need.  Is there any kind of user’s guide with detail examples of how to emulate the windows behavior I would like to prototype?

Thanks.

Hi Barry,

There is a series of tutorials at www.axure.com/expert.aspx for basic and advanced features. It sounds like you are getting into some of the more advanced effects pretty quickly.

I've attached a sample of how to create this effect in Axure RP.

The first text field in the sample involves a dynamic panel with two states, one for the normal text field, and one for the highlighted field. The OnFocus of the normal field sets the state to the second state. The OnLostFocus of the highlighted field sets the state back to the first state. The OnKeyUp on the highlighted state uses the action to "Set Variable and Widget Values equal to Values" action to keep both text fields in sync.

The main issue with this is that when the normal field gets focus, we switch to show the highlighted field which does not have focus so you have to click it again.

The second text field in the sample shows how to respond to the mouse moving over it and then off of it. This involved using image map regions and the mouse enter event.

We are working on ways to simplify designing the more common patterns. Hopefully though, learning to use the dynamic panels, events, and actions will provide some flexibility for designing less common patterns.

Victor,

 Thanks for the quick response.

 I took a quick look at the HighlightTextField you sent and it has the effects I wanted.

 I will definitely go to the link you sent as well.

You're right about the advanced things I need to do.  The next is having twisties that open pushing down everything below.  I am trying to create a search form that works like Windows Explorer's search.  And then have the search results have summary levels that can be opened and closed using the tree structure. Hopefully the link will have something.  If not, if you have any examples of these that would jump start my efforts, please send them allong.

 Thanks again.

For moving regions up and down, you can look at this blog post:
http://axure.com/cs/blogs/axure/archive/2008/01/07/Anchors_2C00_-Moving-Panels_2C00_-and-Focus-Events.aspx

and this thread may be helpful:
http://axure.com/cs/forums/thread/2878.aspx

For some general ideas on how to demonstrate some more advanced interactions:
http://axure.com/cs/blogs/axure/archive/2007/06/29/RIA-_2800_Rich-Internet-Application_2900_-Prototyping.aspx