Captivate 4 - Advanced Actions - Pause/Play buttons

[IHeartCaptivate]

Hi - So I have created a 2 buttons - a pause and play - so my users can pause/play my captivate video (audio and actual slide). I have created my 2 variables for the buttons and I have created my advanced action. I'm assigning my pause to 'rdcmndPause', hide pause, show play. And I'm assigning play to 'rdcmndResume', hide play, show pause. It's not working. The pause/play buttons appear and disappear like they should - but my project isn't pausing or playing. Any thoughts?

[www_cpguru_com]

I just tried to do this in CP4 and I can easily get the rdcmndResume to work, but the rdcmndPause wil not work no matter what I try.

According to the information about using the variables you should be able to set rdcmndPause to 1 and then the movie should pause.  I tried to make a Flash file that sets the rdcmndPause = 1 when it's imported into Captivate. That works just fine and the project is paused as it should be.

I think that this is a bug in Captivate 4 with the rdcmndPause variable when setting it through Advanced Actions.

/Michael

---

Click here to visit the www.captivate4.com blog

[Captiv8r]

Hi all

I thought the fact pause didn't work was a bug myself and a few months back submitted as same to Adobe. According to the Captivate dev team it is *NOT* a bug and it works just fine. I don't remember the specifics, but it had something to do with the fact that it was an action and actions always continue (or something like that).

I disagree and feel it should work as one would expect, so it looks as though I'm not alone.

Perhaps it will help if others report it as a bug too!

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcerStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[Captiv8r]

Hi again

I forgot to add that you *can* make this work if you want to delve into the misty and mysterious world of JavaScript. That's how I made mine work. I don't have the script handy at the moment. If I did I'd post here. I'm about to leave for a bit. If I remember, I'll look it up when I return and post.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcerStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[IHeartCaptivate]

I appreciate all the quick responses! I'm glad that it's not just me that is having the problem. Unfortunately I have not one iota of knowledge in the JavaScript or Flash world (working on changing that). So Rick - I would greatly appreciate if you wanna pass that script on to me!

[www_cpguru_com]

Aaah.. Well that makes sense (or wait.. no it doesn't actually )

I'm totally with you on this one Rick. I fail to see the point of even having the variable available in Advanced Actions if you can't do anything with it ;o)

I found this on the forum so you have a good memory.

Hi ,

'rdcmndPause' behavior is little different when they are used with
interactive objects (button, TEB, click box or interactive widget). Any
interactive object has a user defined action (like Open URL etc). After user
defined action is carried out, movie is resumed by default. This is to
ensure that you don't have to write 'rdcmndResume=1' explicitly for each
button click. So, even if you set 'rdcmndPause=1' in the script, the deafult
action resumes the movie. To stop the movie, you need to have this variable
set by non-interctaive objects, like a static Widget. You can create a
simple widget to set this variable. You can also look at the
'PerpetualButtons.swf' widget and may be your case will be handled by that
widget itself.

Thanks,
Ashish

Source: http://forums.adobe.com/message/1026400#1026400

/Michael

---

Click here to visit the www.captivate4.com blog

[Guest]

Ahh! A solution. Use a non action widget. Thank you.

I am only evaluating Captivate 4, but to find on my first day that I can not easily pause a presentation at a slide blew me away. Thankfully the widget put an anchor on the show.

Adobe need to change something here. If you put an action in to pause on a button that's what you mean.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

gerardgreen wrote:

Ahh! A solution. Use a non action widget. Thank you.

I am only evaluating Captivate 4, but to find on my first day that I can not easily pause a presentation at a slide blew me away. Thankfully the widget put an anchor on the show.

Adobe need to change something here. If you put an action in to pause on a button that's what you mean.

Captivate works just fine for many folks. Just because you aren't understanding it doesn't mean something is broke and Adobe needs to fix it.

Pausing a presentation is a simple action. You use a Button, Click Box or Text Entry Box object. Or, some of the Widgets.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcerStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[pra_mmartin]

I created in Flash (AS2) the attached Pause/Play button, using the rdcmndResume and rdcmndPause' parameters.  The buttons work great.  As an added bonus, the Flash buttons can fade in and out unlike Captivate buttons.

One caution - I intended the button to "Display for: the rest of the slide".  If you want the button to "Display for: the rest of the project", use "_parent._parent.rdcmndPause = 1;" instead of "_parent._parent._parent.rdcmndPause = 1;" and "_parent._parent.rdcmndResume = 1;" instead of "_parent._parent._parent.rdcmndResume = 1;"

[IHeartCaptivate]

Ok - so new problem. I have a project that already has some AS3 in it, so I need a Pause/Play button in AS3. I got it to switch in my Flash file but I can't get it to stop the captivate file. I know my variables are rdcmndPause, and rdcmndPlay and I know that somewhere I need to have parent/root. But I don't know where to put it or if I should really even be adding it. this is what I have for my code so far...pointers anyone?

PauseButton.visible = true;
PlayButton.visible = false;
var rdcmndPause = 0;
var rdcmndResume = 0;

PlayButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,hidePlay);
PauseButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,hidePause);

function hidePlay (event:MouseEvent):void {
PauseButton.visible = true;
PlayButton.visible = false;
rdcmndPause = 1;
rdcmndResume = 0;
}

function hidePause (event:MouseEvent):void {
PauseButton.visible = false;
PlayButton.visible = true;
rdcmndResume = 1;
rdcmndPause = 0;
}

[Paul_D · Accepted solution]

I'm not very good with AS3 but try this, removed some of your code and added a bit 😉  worked OK for me

PauseButton.visible = true;

PlayButton.visible = false;

PlayButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,hidePlay);

PauseButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,hidePause);

function hidePlay (event:MouseEvent):void {

PauseButton.visible = true;

PlayButton.visible = false;

MovieClip(this.parent.parent).rdcmndResume = 1;

}

function hidePause (event:MouseEvent):void {

PauseButton.visible = false;

PlayButton.visible = true;

MovieClip(this.parent.parent).rdcmndPause = 1;

}

[IHeartCaptivate]

Paul - you rock! That totally worked! Thank you thank you thank you!

[piotr_peszko]

Play/Pause buttons works very good

with :

on (release) {
    _parent._parent._parent.rdcmndResume = 1;

}

but when I try to do similar with MovieClip it is not working

onClipEvent (load) {
   
        _parent._parent._parent.rdcmndResume = 1;
}

Why is that ?

[Guest]

Has anyone difinitively figured out how  to make a pause/play button? I'm using Captivate 4. Obviously the rdcmdpause function does not work. I really need someone to go step by step. I have wasted so much time on this, I'm thinking that captivate may not be the way to go.

[Captiv8r]

Welcome to our community

I'm assuming that since you are replying to a thread that is more than a year old that you have read the thread entirely. Assuming that you have, you will know that the only way to achieve this (in ANY version of Captivate to date - Including the latest version) is to create either a Flash object you insert or an official Captivate Widget (versions 4 and 5 only) to accomplish this goal.

If you would like to see the functionality eventually appear in Captivate you (and others that want to see this) need to submit a Wish Form to alert the development team to the need. (Link to the Wish Form is in my sig.)

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Begin learning Captivate 5 moments from now! $29.95 Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcererStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[www_cpguru_com]

As Rick said the "easiest" approach would be to create a Widget to handle this. However it kinda depends on where you want that "Play/Pause" button to appear.

Are you publishing to AS2 or AS3 from Captivate 4? Where are you putting your button? In the Playbar or on the Captivate stage?

/Michael

---

Visit my Captivate blog with tips & tricks, tutorials and Widgets.

[Guest]

Thank you for your comments. Knowing that what I am attempting (in the manner I am attempting it) is impossible, is a GREAT help. I'll stop wasting my time. I now know a little more about captivate widgets. I have previewed version 5 and found widgets that are exactly what I need (if I were using captivate 5). Several widgets that have customizable navigation bars where I can add or subtract the functionality needed would work great. In my world, an upgrade is not likely soon. Are there similar widgets for Captivate 4?

The ultimate goal here is to keep from using a skin. When using a skin it squeezes everything on my slide, or should I say stage? Right now I'm set to publish to AS2. Many of my potential students have very low tech systems which may not have the latest flash upgrade. Should I be using AS3? I would just be putting these buttons on the stage where they would appear for the entire project.

What do you think?

Mike C.

Senior Appraiser Analyst/Trainer

Michael.A.Culbertson@State.or.us

503-945-8335

[www_cpguru_com]

You can create and use Widgets for Adobe Captivate 4 in AS2 as well Mike.

If you go to your Captivate Installation directory and find the "Gallery" folder and "Widgets" then you should be able to find some AS2 Widget Source files. Take a look at the "Flash Button" widget. This is a relatively simple widget and you can basically just use the code framework to make your own button widget.

If your end users have low-end systems then it's probably safer to stay with AS2 and publish towards Flash Player 8.

/Michael

---

Visit my Captivate blog with tips & tricks, tutorials and Widgets.