Blend Button [Toolbars]

Blend:

Inserts Image Blend script
Prompts for Images

How to use it: This option is remarkably similar to the previously discussed Transition button. However, unlike the transition option, this only has one effect - it blends, that's it.

What happens when you use this is it will prompt you for two images. When you preview the document, the first image will slowly blend onto the screen. After a short pause, the second image will blend on.

The blend effect itself is just that the image gradually appears, in a smooth transition. As with the Transition button there are many possible uses for this. Far too many for me to anticipate and code all of them, thus I have attempted to find the one option that would be of the most use to the most people.

Customizing:

As with the Transition script there is a lot you can do to customize this one.

First and foremost, at the top of the script, you will notice two nearly identical lines that begin with an <img> tag:

The first customizable item on these lines is the duration=5, this works identically to the duration in the Transition script, it determines the number of seconds that the effect itself will last. In this case, 5 seconds.

Next, you will see a variation on this: LEFT: 10; POSITION: absolute; TOP: 10; in each line. This section determines the location that the image will occupy in the finished document. You will need to alter the position of the second image - especially if you are attempting something similar to my example above. It might take a bit of trial and error, but the results are worth it.

Finally for this section, the second line can be totally altered so that the item that blends onto the screen is not a graphic at all, but is text. If you wish to do that, change the second <img> line to read:

Again, similar to the Transition script, once you look at the script itself you will notice a couple of lines that look like this:

setTimeout('blendnext()', 10000);

This is another short delay. The value of 10000 represents the time in milliseconds before the named function is called. In this case, the value of 10000 translates to 10 seconds. Please note, that this delay runs concurrently with the duration that is set for the blend itself. Thus in the default script, the short pause you see will only appear to last 5 seconds.

Please see the section on Customizing Scripts to learn how to make these changed permanent if you are so inclined.

As I've noted time and again, both this and the Transition script are capable of producing some truly spectacular results - particularly when used in combination. Of course, the complexity of the scripts grow by an order of magnitude as each new element is added. Fortunately, you don't need to learn much scripting in order to do this. To add more elements and use these in combination all you need to do is study the existing functions and copy the relevant portions. Just be sure to change the object / function names and you shouldn't have a problem.