Hide the mouse in some slides.

Report · May 05, 2009

Hello, folks!

Here I am, again, with news about my trip with Captivate options. First of all, my chief agreed that the best way is to left the 'lesson' only with demonstrations of drawing, and after the lesson, put the student to practice with the software.

For the ones that don´t understand what I´m talking about, read this.

Now, I finished (well, editing/retouching phase) my first lesson, and have some issues to correct:

I recorded some assessment slides, to put the student to click in some options in the screen, and the mouse is appearing in all the time. There is some way to really hide the mouse, in the presentation? I don´t want that the mouse appear when the student is the one that have to click in some box, or type something... I just want that the mouse appear in the moments when I´m showing something in the screen... This is possible?
In some slides, my text caption boxes are 'fading" (become very opaque at the end of the timeline), while waits for the student to click in the clickbox? I don´t know what exactly is happening...

Well, for now, is this. I will come with more, when I go to finish the lesson.

Report · May 05, 2009

Well, forget that pair of doubts!

Some moments of navigation in the menus (and in searh sites) give me the answer of what I have done wrong: the text caption boxes are with "fade in and fade out' effect, and I found the menu option to hidden the mouse.

And some more doubts appear!!!

I want to generate a full screen (without title bar) lesson, to give the student a more vivid feeling of interaction. Well, I put the output option full screen, and the title bar really disappear... but.. there playback controls (that are stretched at the bottom of the screen) are not appearing... there is a way to corret this?

There is a way to hide the playback controls in some slides?

And, my last, at the moment: the logo of our enterprise is a .wmf with a transparent background! Well, in the edition, it appear really transparent, but if I publish my project, a white square appears, enveloping my logo?

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Report · May 07, 2009

I'm not able to answer all you questions. Hiding the playbar can be done by using the system variable cpCmndShowPlaybar. Create an action to assign the value=0 when entering the slide where you want to hide the playbar. Changing the value to 1 will bring back the playbar.

You can hide the playbar for the whole of the project if you create your own buttons on slides where you want the user to advance to another slide by clicking the button.

If there is an object 'mouse' on the timeline, you can delete it just as any other object.

For images I mostly convert them to PNG24 (even the vectorbased ones) because this format seems to give the best results.

Perhaps these ideas can help you?

Report · May 07, 2009

Hi there

Just one clarification on something Lilybiri said

Lilybiri wrote:
...If there is an object 'mouse' on the timeline, you can delete it just as any other object....

Mouse movement is simply an attribute of each slide. You togge it off or on. So even though you are deleting it from the Timeline, you are really just turning it off for that slide. You may just as easily turn it back on. It's a non-destructive action.

Cheers... Rick

Report · May 08, 2009

Thanks for the clarification, Rick, my phrasing was not very accurate (English is not my native language). Turning off something on the timeline is an action I often use when editing CP4-files.

Lilybiri

Report · May 08, 2009

Hi there

Not a problem. I appreciate your help and hope you never felt I was picking at you on it. Certainly your action is valid but I thought it might lead some to believe that it was a destructive action.

Happy Friday! Rick

Report · May 08, 2009

No way I'm feeling picked at. This forum, and especially you and Captiv8r have been so much help when I started using CP sometime ago. It has become my favorite software, and I like to help people who are discovering this very useful program, especially the latest version with its many new or improved features. Thanks for everything,

Lilybiri

Report · May 08, 2009

Heya

Just a heads up to let you know that Captiv8r and RoboWizard are similar to Bruce Wayne and Batman.

IOW, I have two forum identities. The reason is because of the older incarnation of the forums. I could only receive a particular forum's messages to one address. I participate in Captivate and RoboHelp forums so I needed two addresses.

Cheers... Rick

Report · May 09, 2009

I had some thoughts about this 'double personality', but now I am sure. Thanks again. Maybe sometime we will meet on the Robohelp forum? By the way, what about the e-Learning Suite? No dedicated forum available for the moment, I think.

Report · May 08, 2009

Thanks for the helpful hand! Seeking in the forum I find the answers for almost all my doubts... now I´m achieving my goals...

I will try export my logo to the format png24, and see if this will work.

Some more doubts appear in my way: I make my captions in screen resolution 1440x900, and the whole lesson need to be created in 800x600. I adjust the dimensions of the slides, but the quality of the captions became very poor. There is a way to adjust the dimensions without the loss of quality, or I will need to redo all the captions?

Report · May 09, 2009

If we do some maths, you'll see that the proportion 1440/900=1.6, while 800/600=1.33.

It seems to me (I'm an engineer) logical that you are having problems while changing between those two resolutions. You are talking only about the text captions, but what about the images? Did you let the 'Maintain aspect ratio' activated? Than you will not be able to resize to 800x600, but it will be 800x500 if you choose the horizontal resolution to be 800px.

You could choose not to have the Text Captions rescaled by deactivating 'Rescale captions, highlight boxes...' but you will have to check the captions and eventually have the fonts resized (and hoping that the 'Apply to all' functions well).

Report · May 11, 2009

I´m sorry, Lilybiri. My lack of domain of english was my great problem here.

It´s not the captions that have resolution problems (this, I have corrected). What is giving me more trouble are exactly the images. The quality became very poor when I change the resolution.

What will be my best solution here:

Make all the screen captures in 800x600, what will give some scroll bars, and some really bad desktop images;

Or there is a way to mantain the image quality without make my screen captures in 800x600?

P.S.: what give me more trouble is the fact that my workstation have a widescreen monitor, and the students PCs have normal 16:9 monitors...

Report · May 11, 2009

I think you will have to capture at a resolution with the same width-heigth ratio as the resolution used by your students. It can be a higher resolution than theirs and you can rescale (down) afterwards. Did you leave the 'Maintain aspect ration' activated for rescaling? What was your original capture resolution on your system, and what has it to be after rescaling?

A more elaborate method would be to rescale the background imagese in bitmap software such as Photoshop, but I hope you could avoid this.

Do not mind your English, it is not my native language either.

Lilybiri

Report · May 11, 2009

Well, this so was my problem! I don´t use the same width-height ratio, when I do the rescaling, and I 'unmark' the 'Mantain aspect ratio" button.

So, if I understand correctly, I can make my screen captures using a bigger resolution that use the same aspect ration that my students, like 1024x768, or 1240x1024, and rescale afterwards, to avoid the scroll bars problem? Hmmmm....

I´m falling in love with this program.

Report · May 11, 2009

Indeed, please keep this button 'Maintain Aspect Ratio' activated.

Captivate is indeed wonderful software for e-learning. If you ever tried to achieve a training in Flash, similar to what you can achieve in CP (as I did a long time ago...) you have to fall in love with this program. I hope to have been of some help.

Lilybiri

Report · May 11, 2009

Thanks, Lilybiri.

I make the corrections here, and all work very well.

Now, another question to my great pool:

I create a personal playback control with the buttons that we will need here:

a next button;
a previous button;
an exit button;
a sound on/off button;
a box to insert text.

I make it in Flash, and create all as movie clips. I think that I don´t need to create it really as "buttons". I only need to create a click box with the commands upon the right areas, and all will work.

My questions are:

there is an action in Captivate to turn on or off the narration?
How I put my 'exit' button to work?
I don´t want that the student exits the lesson clickin 'Esc', only using my 'exit' button? How I achieve this?

Thanks in advance

Report · May 15, 2009

Any idea?

Report · May 15, 2009

Hi there

If your lesson is exited using ESC, that infers you are using the EXE format. If that's the case, just configure the lesson so that it closes when finished playing. Then use a regular button that simply visits the last slide. You may even wish to duplicate the last slide and time the new one really super short. Perhaps .1 seconds. Then when the user clicks the button they visit the last slide. It plays for .1 seconds then closes the movie.

Cheers... Rick

Report · May 15, 2009

Interesting. Thanks, Rick.

Errr... where I go to configure my .exe to close only when finish playing?

I just find (after a good research in the Captivate help) the variables that exit the lesson, and that mute/unmute the audio.

I only don´t know how to make these variables function within my screen.

I create the menus (that aren´t interactives, I put transparent buttons and clickboxes that control the lesson... but the exit, and the audio control are making me crazy.

Report · May 15, 2009

Hi again

Click Edit > Preferences... > Project node > Start and End node. Click the drop-down labeled Action.

Cheers... Rick

Report · May 15, 2009

Well, I tried the option "Close project', and the opton 'Stop Project'.

No one work for me. The lesson insist in finish when I click "Esc'

I´m forgetting something?

Report · May 17, 2009

I'm sorry not to be able to help you on this question, never use the EXE-publishing myself. I hope that someone else can help you out. Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread about it because this question is shown as answered.

Report · May 18, 2009

Well, and if I use a .swf file? That problem will be fixed?

I want that the students view the lessons in the school PC (that´s the reason that I´m using .exe format).And I want that the lesson screen be 'fullscreen', to give it a better feel of "using the software".

And, in the end, I will have to organize all the files (lessons and quizz) in a Flash menu.

Report · May 19, 2009

Hi Rick.

I still have problems with the "ending" of my lesson. I follow all the sugested steps: configure the lesson to close when the project finish, uncheck the "fade out the last slide" option, make a transparent button that visit the last slide, and put it to play 0,1 sec.

My problems.

If I click on my button, it give me a blank white screen, and that screen don´t go away, only if I click 'esc';

And the lesson insist in exit when I click 'esc', no matter all my configurations.

Report · May 19, 2009

Hi there

Are you able to duplicate this in a small two or three slide project? If so, please zip it up and send it to me at rstone75 (at) kc (dot) rr (dot) com. I'll be happy to take a look at it to see why it is failing. If it works for you in the small project before sending, examine all properties between the working and non-working projects and you may discover why it's not working.

Cheers... Rick

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Hide the mouse in some slides.

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