Active/Inactive Text Entry Box Sections

[jimfish12]

I went through Captivate training over a year ago and have only used it a time or two since then. However, when I went though my training, the instructor did not discuss the purpose of the 'active' versus the 'inactive' sections of the text entry box.

So, what purpose does the two sections serve? And, even better, can anyone give me a real world example of how the active and inactive sections would be utilized?

Thank in advance. This is my first post for the Adobe forum, so please excuse any neophyte errors.

Jim

[Newsgroup_User]

Hello Jim

Welcome to the Captivate community! The active and inactive sections of
the Text Entry Boxes (TEBs) is something that I believe causes many
users to scratch their heads.

If you double-click on the TEB object on the Timeline and select the
Options tab you'll notice that in the "Timing section" there is an
option called "Pause after." This is really all that the term "Inactive"
is referring to.

Why would you want to pause a TEB? Well, with the interactive
simulations I create, I might want to include a text caption (with a
fade in transition) or a separate graphic. If, I didn't have the ability
to specify when the TEB pause effect occurred then I might end up with a
text caption that starts to fade in and then stops half way through
the transition effect.

Regards,
Mark

jimfish12 wrote:
> I went through Captivate training over a year ago and have only used it a time
> or two since then. However, when I went though my training, the instructor did
> not discuss the purpose of the 'active' versus the 'inactive' sections of the
> text entry box.
>
> So, what purpose does the two sections serve? And, even better, can anyone
> give me a real world example of how the active and inactive sections would be
> utilized?
>
> Thank in advance. This is my first post for the Adobe forum, so please excuse
> any neophyte errors.
>
> Jim
>

[jimfish12]

Thank you for your response!

Jim

[GeekyGirlRex]

OK, I read the explanation 3 times and I am SO not getting this concept. Can anybody give me another example?

TIA

[Captiv8r]

Hi geekygURL

I'll try! Think of it this way. You know that objects such as Text Captions fade in and out of view. Perhaps one shows on the Timeline as appearing immdiately and fading out of view totally at 3 seconds. So the entire time for the object is 3 seconds. When the playhead plays and moves across the Timeline, it travels from beginning to end, right?

Okay, now we insert a Text Entry Box that is timed also for 3 seconds. But it has a pause occurring at 1.5 seconds. From the time it appears until it pauses, it is "Active". That is, the playhead moves across the Text Entry Box until it reaches the pause point. During the Active period, the user may type into the box and it will accept input. But once something triggers the playhead to move past the Active part and into the Inactive part, the Text Entry Box cannot be interacted with. So if perhaps your user clicked the play button on the playback control, the playhead would move into that area. At that point, nothing could be typed into the Text Entry Box because it is now "Inactive", meaning the playhead is moving across the Inactive section of the object.

Does that make more sense or only muddy already murky waters further?

Hopefully it makes more sense, but one never knows... Rick

[Captiv8r]

Hi again geekygURL

In case it will help, I've uploaded a small demo you may be interested in. You may view it by clicking here.

Cheers... Rick

[GeekyGirlRex]

Rick -- thanks for the explanation and the demo. The both helped quite a bit, but I know that I won't completely "get" it until I have a reason to use it...so I am off to go give it a whirl.