Textbox inactive after hide layer

Hello there,

I am a complete newbie and am trying out Articulate.I think this might be the first of many questions.

What I am trying to do is to create a set of textboxes with words in French (normal state), the words in French and English (selected state); this was the easy bit and I have achieved it. 

Now for the difficult bit: for some of the words I want to be able to display some English synonyms. I have a created a small "S" textbox on a new layer which appears 2 seconds after the selected state appears, clicking on the "S" reveals a list of synonyms over the original textbox. Clicking on the synonyms, returns the synonym box to transparent and hides the second layer. However, the original textbox is inactive (it is in its Normal state and cannot be reselected.

Am I making my life more difficult than it need be, am I missing the point, is there a better/easier/less time-consuming way to achieve what I am trying to do?

All help and comments will be gratefully received,

Simon