Advanced actions in Captivate 5

[elissag]

I am working on a CBT that has several slides with advanced actions. When a highlighted area is clicked, a corresponding caption is shown. When another highlighted area is clicked, the first caption is hidden and the new corresponding caption is shown. There are several of these slides in a row. Currently, when a user clicks to go the a previous slide, some of the captions are visible. I would like to have the captions hide when a user returns to a previous slide. I tried using a conditional action using the rdcmndPrevious as an IF, set it to perform actions if all conditions are true, set the comparison operator to equal 1 (as a literal), and then the ACTIONS are to hide the captions that are on the previous slide. However, it's not working and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

[Lilybiri]

Hello,

This is normally my work flow: if a slide can be visited more than once, I will always use an advanced action that is triggered on entering that slide (Action accordion for the Slide). In that advanced action I will 'reset' everything: hiding all captions that will have to show up later, eventually resetting variables that are used on that slide etc. Mostly I label those actions like this: Enter_Slide with slide=label used for that slide.

Lilybiri

[elissag]

Okay, I'm not new to Captivate, but am relatively new to advanced actions, so forgive my next question. How do you trigger the Enter_Slide action? The CBT is set up so that the user has to click a next arrow to advance. Would you attach the action to the next arrow on the previous slide?

Thanks again.

[Lilybiri]

In the Properties Panel of the slide, you have an Action accordion. There is an on Enter event and an On Exit event (be careful with the second one, only executed when the last frame of the slide is really visited). There you can trigger the advanced action:

Perhaps the presentation I gave at DevLearn as an introduction to Advanced actions (events, triggers....) could help you. Here is the link:

Presentation DevLearn

Lilybiri

BTW I shouldn't use the system variable rdcmndPreviousSlide to check if it is set to 1 in this case. Just hide everything on entering the slide.

[elissag]

I noticed the Enter event a few minutes after I posted my reply. So now, the captions are hidden, but no longer appear when the highlighted area is clicked. I must have missed a step, and I'll probably figure it out as soon as I post this!

[elissag]

For instance, this is the advanced action that shows one caption and hides the rest. This no longer works when I create the Enter action.

[Lilybiri]

Is this triggered as a success action for a click box over the highlighted area? And are all the captions on the slide (since you are using Captivate 5, not 5.5)? Can you post a screenshot of the timeline?

Lilybiri

[elissag]

Yes, it's set up so that a click box over the area triggers the caption to show. And here's a timeline of one of the slides that I'm working on:

Thanks!

[Lilybiri]

I do not see the text captions nor the image you are showing/hiding with the action triggered by which click box (see 3)? Why do you have such a long timeline? Everything is paused at 10secs, do not see what is the reason for the rest of the timeline?

Normally the On Enter action shouldn't interfere with an action triggered by a click box. But I suspect all screenshots are not for the same slide. Be careful with labeling as well. Every label has to be unique.

Lilybiri

[AndyKingInOC]

not sure what your slides look like, but I'd also suggest ensuring the click boxes are layered above the highlight objects.  I've had challenges similar to what you're describing that went away when I properly layered everything.

[Lilybiri]

Hi Andy, didn't have that kind of experience yet, but tend to put all interactive objects on top of the Timeline mostly.

Lieve

[AndyKingInOC]

i've noticed it's intermittent.  sometimes it's fine, sometimes it hiccups.  maybe that was in CP5.  After encountering it more than once I incorporated the step into my workflow and always ensure clickboxes, buttons, rollovers, etc are on 'top' of everything else.

elissag -

Does the action you're running On Slide Enter look something like:

Hide subject_caption

Hide urgency_caption

Hide emerg_caption

Hide Emerg_dialog_box

Hide urgency_dropdown_image

?

I'd also suggest putting a 'continue' at the end of it as well.

Also, I presume 'button_177' is your Next button?  I'd suggest moving the button pause up to say 4/4.5 seconds and end the slide at 5 seconds.