Introduction to HyperCard

HyperCard can be thought of in a number of ways

A Pack of Cards?

Quite often HyperCard is described as a pack of cards. The cards can be linked together and the pack or deck forms an endless loop like the old Rolodex indexing system.

A Database?

Sometimes HyperCard is described as a sort of database for organising information and linking it together.

So many things

By using a lot of different HyperCard Stacks you will discover that it can look like a lot of very different things and once you get to make your own HyperCard stacks you will design them to fit your needs and not some ready made category. HyperCard creation is programming and can be utterly simple or incredibly complex.

HyperCard Structure

HyperCard consists of 5 basic objects each of which can have a script attached.

Stack

Stacks are HyperCard documents comparable to documents you create with other programs, except that stacks are "smarter." They can do many more things than most programs. You decide what your stacks will do and how they work.

A stack is a collection of cards. Cards can also share common elements that appear in the same background. Each Stack contains one or more Backgrounds. Each Stack has a name

Background

Each Background contains one or more Cards. Backgrounds can contain Graphics, Buttons and Fields. Each Background has a number, a unique id number and can also have a name

Card

Each card is a rectangular area that can contain Buttons, Text, Fields and Graphics. Each Card has a number, a unique id number and can also have a name

Field

Fields are specialised containers for text. Each Field has a number, a unique id number and may have a name

Button

Buttons are activated by the mouse and are used for initiating action. A Button may have an Icon and, in the latest versions of HyperCard, can be used as a container for text. Each Button has a number, a unique id number and may have a name

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