Blending written instructions with Captivate simulation.

[Guest]

Hi there. My Captivate project is a simulation of business processes using SAP transactions which can be very complex. I would like to include written instructions from an MS Word documet that could be visible on the screen as a "side panel" so the user can scroll through the instructions while they perform the tasks in Captivate. Is there some method to embed the Word document in my Captivate project so the user can have it open with Captivate as a guide to the Captivate simulation? I have a 30-day trial of FlashPaper2 which may work but it isn't really what I had in mind. I'm not familiar enough with RoboHelp to know if it could help me but we don't own it and it's probably overkill for what I want to accomplish. Can you suggest anything?

Thank you.

I am Ken Metcalf at kenneth.metcalf@igt.com

[jbradley88]

Hi Ken and welcome to the forums!

If it's important that the user have the whole document available, then Flash Paper is probably your best option. You can import it as an animation and use the "Show for rest of project option". Not sure if/how you can get it to scroll, though. Scrolling is not a native feature of any objects in Captivate that I'm aware of.

You may also want to investigate using the "rollover slidelet" feature of Captivate 3, which lets users roll their mouse over an area (a "Tell Me More" button, for example) and show something separate from the content of the current slide, which in your case would be the relevant instructions for the task they're performing.

Since scrolling is likely to be an issue with any approach, you may find that you need to show only segments from your MSWord document rather than the whole thing, but it would at least be better than nothing.

[CatBandit · Accepted solution]

Hi Ken!
jbradley99 (and yourself) is correct, in my opinion, about FlashPaper (FP) probably being the best solution for the task. The question she posed regarding the lack of scrolling ability with FP is moot, because any time FlashPaper is inserted into a Captivate project at a size less-than-sufficient to display the entire content, Flash Paper automatically creates a scrollbar, and the ability to use that scrollbar, or any of FPs other tools, remains available to the user for the entire project (when "Display for Rest of Project" is selected).

As a matter of fact, try out several "sizing" configurations when you insert FP ... the width is more important than the height of the FP placeholder, because if you allow too little room (horizontally), the user may not see the magnification and other tools that are a part of FlashPaper 2.0.

Good luck!
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