How do I make a text caption disappear in Captivate 7?

[digitalnoob]

Hi,

I want to make a text caption disappear.

I don't want to use a rollover or slidelet because their hotspot area (even transparent) covers the button which stops the up, over, and down rollover states from showing (I want the different state colors to show). To make sure the 3 button state colors show, I used an advanced action with the button  to 'Show' the text caption.

It looks great but the text caption doesn't disappear when I click anywhere.

I would like the text caption to disappear when the user clicks the mouse again.

Could you please tell me how to do that?

thanks!

[Lilybiri]

What do you use as 'interactive object' and command to show that text caption: a button, a click box, a shape button? And you want to hide it with the same button, and play head not advancing?

Create a user variable to track if the caption is visible, I will label it v_visib, with default value of 0 (which will mean that text caption is invisible).

Then create a conditional advanced action to be triggered by the interactive object:

Lilybiri

[digitalnoob]

Hi,

thanks so much for your fast reply.

I am using a button for the interaction. Clicking it brings up the text caption (while still allowing the buttons' colors for the different states to show).

For the screenshot you show in your reply, is that 'Action' attached to the button or to the text caption?

Normally, I would think the Advanced action is attached to a button, but you put a variable (v_visib) for the text caption.

thanks

[digitalnoob]

Here is what I tried:

1. Named the text entry box ‘v_visib’ – am I supposed to do that?

2. Clicked on button

3. Selected  'Execute Advanced Action'

4. Clicked on the folder under 'Execute Advanced Action' (next to 'Script'). The Advanced Actions menu appears

5. Clicked on 'Conditional actions' for the Action Type

6. Under ‘Actions,’ I selected ‘Show’ – I am not sure what I am supposed to show here—is it the textbox? If so, why did you name it SmartShape_1? I thought it is ‘v_visib’

7. Under ‘Actions,’ I selected ‘Assign’ but I could not locate ‘v-visib’ in the drop down menu.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Message was edited by: digitalnoob

[Lilybiri · Accepted solution]

You cannot trigger an advanced action with a text caption, only with an interactive object, only those have an Action accordion:

http://blog.lilybiri.com/events-and-advanced-actions

I wrote 'create a user variable with a default value of 0'. That is not the label of a Text Entry Box. You can create a variable from Project, Variables or from the Advanced actions dialog box, that has a button 'Variables'.

http://blog.lilybiri.com/curious-about-variables-in-captivate-4-5

I used a smartshape as text container, it is indeed that text container (can also be a text caption) that you want to show/hide, right?

Don't forget to create also the Else part.

What you are doing is this:

If the text container is not visible, the value of the variable will be 0. In that case the text container must be made visible (Show) AND the variable must be changed to 1. That is the first part of the condition

If the container is visible, the value of the variable will not be 0 but 1. In that case the text container must be hidden AND the variable must be changed back to 0.

Lilybiri

[digitalnoob]

thanks so much---I'll try it out!

[digitalnoob]

IT WORKS!

After completing the Advanced Action, I realized I had to click on the correct script from the 'Script' dropdown in the Action accordion.

That's fantastic.

Next step--I want to figure out how to hide the text caption when clicking anywhere on the screen, not having to click the same button again as a toggle.

thanks!

////////////////////////////

For  "is equal to 0"---how did you get the 0(zero)? Did you select 'literal' and then type in '0'?

Did you save it as a Shared Action or as an Action?

Weird---nothing has changed---when I click the button, the text box shows just like it did before. When I click the button again, the textbox doesn't hide---same as before

Is there some way I can get the text box to disappear when the user clicks anywhere?

thanks!

Message was edited by: digitalnoob

[Lilybiri]

Hello,

No toggle? Anywhere on the screen means that you need a click box that covers up all of the slide, and a standard action that just hides. But... you have already a button that is active, the click box when it covers up that button will take away its functionality. And you want to be able to repeat the action Show/Hide. So you have to put the button on top of the click box in the timeline. Create two oneline standard advanced actions (no need for a variable now): first for button to show the text, second for click box to hide the text. Be sure to keep the attempts to Infinite for both objects and to instruct the user to click anywhere on the slide (except on the button) to hide text.

Lilybiri

[digitalnoob]

thanks very much

that's awesome