Responsive course: Mobile layout

[cong05072012]

First time building a responsive course and I noticed it's painstakingly difficult to place the elements because preview does not really show how it will look like on the device.1.

Several questions please:
1. Why does the font appear differently when I view it from the LMS? Like bold-faced fonts are just regular fonts. At the very least, it should work on the desktop but it's not.
2. Is there a way to lock these elements in place? I laid it on Captivate but it still a mess on the device itself.
3. Is there a way to adjust the dimensions (like in a regular course) using the height and the width instead of manually resizing, say, a shape?

Thanks!

[RodWard]

The questions I would be asking is: Do you REALLY need this course to be responsive?  Are you REALLY sure it's worth trying to support mobile phone screens?

Going responsive has a lot of downsides (longer development timeframe, technical issues, etc) that often mean you would be far better off just creating a normal CPTX project and targeting desktop and tablet screens only by just setting the project dimension at a size either would work well with (e.g. 1024 x 768). 

[cong05072012]

Hello Rod. Unfortunately, the answer is yes. The bosses decided we should try rolling out mobile learning.

[RodWard]

OK.  But that doesn't necessarily mean that it would be practical to deliver all of your learning on mobile phone screens.  Ever tried navigating a desktop software simulation Try Me lesson on a cellphone screen?  It's torture.

I come back to my original allegation:  Most learning is practical for desktops and tablets.  A lot of learning is NOT practical for mobile phones.  Unless your course content IS practical AND necessary for mobile PHONE delivery, you don't need to do responsive.

However, if your bosses happen to be of the opinion that mobile phones are a must, AND they are happy to release the extra budget required to accommodate building responsive courses in order to cover that, then fine.  It's their money, right? 

But be careful what you promise them, because I'm seeing very few Captivate developers overall that are opting to build responsive.  (Only about 5% according to the poll running on my website with hundreds of developers so far voting.)  I think the reason for the lack of popularity is that responsive is proving more costly, more troublesome, limits your options as to what you can do creatively, and (in most cases) adds no great benefit.

[cong05072012]

Thank you Rod. And while I am inclined to agree (with you), I would like to know if it is actually possible to at least lock the elements in place so they don't go flying around the screen. Can I at least do that?

[RodWard]

You will need to play with the positioning options until you find a combination that achieves what you want.

Are you using the Position Properties tab?  If not, open that from the Windows menu, and make sure you are seeing all the options by dropping down the Advanced area.  It's actually quite complex.

[cong05072012]

That's what I was looking for actually. I don't see it under the Properties tab, although it is there when I open a regular course. I'll give that a whirl.

But wait, so you're saying there's no way to lock elements in place? I mean I tried locking it (size and position) but it does not work. Do you know of any other way to do so?

[Lilybiri]

Position Properties panel is a separate panel, just like Timing Properties. It is not IN the Properties panel itself.