HyperCard could have become something bigger if Apple hadn\u2019t abandoned it, which is a whole other story\u200b<\/a>. The point of this article, though, is to let you know about a spiritual successor that enables all kinds of modern uses despite its old-school aesthetic\u2014on whatever kind of device you\u2019re using.<\/p>\n This tip originally appeared in the free <\/em>Cool Tools newsletter<\/em><\/strong><\/a> from <\/em>The Intelligence<\/em><\/a>. Get the next issue <\/em>in your inbox<\/em><\/a> and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures!<\/em><\/p>\n To bring back the glory of HyperCard on modern devices, check out \u200b<\/strong>Decker\u200b<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u279c Decker is a desktop app for creating interactive documents, presentations, and games.<\/p>\n \u231a It takes five or 10 minutes <\/strong>to learn the basics well enough to start putting a presentation together.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcb8 And it\u2019s available for free or under a pay-what-you-can model\u200b<\/strong><\/a>. You can also try a web-based version without installing anything.<\/p>\n \u2705 Let\u2019s start with the download first:<\/p>\n \u261d\ufe0f Decker is safe to use, gets regular updates, and has an active community of users\u200b<\/a>\u2014but because the app isn\u2019t notarized, it runs afoul of the Windows and Mac safety filters. In Windows, hit \u201cRun Anyway\u201d when prompted. For the Mac version, head to System Settings > Privacy & Security, then select \u201cOpen Anyway\u201d next to the message about Decker being blocked. You\u2019ll only have to do this once.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udd8c\ufe0f With all that out of the way, you can start making things. While the app has a \u201cGuided Tour\u201d that demonstrates its main features, I suggest doing the following:<\/p>\n Now, you should have two pages, each with a button for flipping back and forth between them. This is the essence of Decker: creating documents with interactive buttons for jumping around to different pages.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udca1 From there, you can try some different things to dress up your pages:<\/p>\n Decker also includes its own scripting language called \u201cLil,\u201d which can add even more layers of interactivity to your documents. For instance, you can have a button that adds to a counter, which then loads another card when the counter exceeds a certain level. It\u2019s even possible to create entire games in Decker this way\u200b<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you want to dive deeper into Decker\u2019s capabilities, I suggest loading some of the files in the \u201cExamples\u201d folder or on the Decker website\u200b<\/a>. Like any other Decker document, you can edit these examples to see how they work.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve finished making a document, head to File > Save As to export it. The default file format is .deck, but you can also change the extension to .html, which lets you load the document in any web browser. Yes, that means you can make any document public by uploading the .html file to your personal website, if you have one.<\/p>\n Much like the original HyperCard, it\u2019s surprising how much you can do with this little program. Who knows? You might even end up \u200bbuilding the next Myst\u200b<\/a>.<\/p>\n Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free <\/em>Cool Tools newsletter<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u2014starting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app that\u2019ll tune up your days in truly delightful ways.<\/em><\/p>\nInteractive documents, retro-style<\/h2>\n
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