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Orb_man
Known Participant
February 8, 2017
Question

[Captivate 9] Formatting answers

  • February 8, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 598 views

I need a quiz that uses random questions from a pool. After a bit of struggle (apparently importing a 100 questions from a GIFT format is a challenge for Captivate) I've managed to get a question pool ready. I also edited a master slide for a multiple answer questions (the only type I will be using in this project). Next, I added 5 Random Question slides.

Now, the result in a preview is somewhat disappointing:

First of all - the progress indicator decided to get a line break for no reason whatsoever. Just because it wants to. And I have absolutely no way to change that - I can't (for some obscure reason, known only to the developers probably) make it's bounding box bigger to allow more space and avoid a line break. Just NO. Lovely.

And then comes the issue of answer formatting - (the <p> tag is not the point here - it's plaintext imported from HTML-based source) - as you can see an answer that doesn't fit into one line does not cause the next answer to move down and is cut in half. Seriously? That's what a "state-of-the-art" software does? Can't handle a simple non-standard layout? Seriously - the issues I come across when working with this program start to be a real pain in the ...back.

So, any hint on how to fix that would be highly appreciated.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 8, 2017

    Still full of vitriol I see...

    You CAN change the size of the Progress Indicator.  Simply select one on a question slide (or Master Slide), then go to Properties > Options > Transform and set the positioning, width and height of that one to what you want.  Then from the little drop-down menu in the top-right corner of that same Transform section, select Apply to All Items of this Type.

    Yes if you put too much type in one of the answer captions and it wraps to the next line the best option is to make that caption a little bigger so that everything fits better.  Your screenshot would seem to indicate you have more than enough width available on the slide to accommodate a wider answer text caption, so I don't see what the issue is really.  You also have more than enough height available to move the other captions down if there becomes a need to make room.  However, if you have set the Shuffle option to ON for these questions then you need to allow for the fact that ideally they should all be the same height with even gaps in between.

    Seriously, most of these issues are resulting from unfamiliarity with Captivate.  But if this app truly DOES fall SO far short of your expectations every time you use it, please feel free to explore the possibilities available with other authoring apps.  Nobody in this community is forcing you to use Captivate against your will.  And if your boss or client is doing that, please complain to them. We have no power to do anything about your dilemma.

    Seriously.

    O
    Orb_manAuthor
    Known Participant
    February 8, 2017

    The indicator has a bounding box without handles, and after selecting it the dimension fields appeared to be locked (grayed out). I really wouldn't write that I can't edit it if I didn't explore available options. Now, I tried what you wrote, and to my surprise the fields are not grayed out anymore. So thanks for hinting it - I clearly have no clue why that happened.

    As to answers: The space you can see on the right hand side is a margin. I'm really not a fan of filling every available place with text. Editing answers' bounding boxes would be a solution, where it not for the fact that I have a pool of random questions (approx. 400), and I'd have to edit each one of them manually. The master only shows me the area for answers and a non-editable box with two captions:

    Is there a way to make the Master Slide let me edit single answer in any way?

    Now - as to my opinion on the software - I used to work with PS and AI and I had a great time with those applications. When I compare the workflow of Captivate with Adobe's "flagships" it seems like it's some forgotten long-time-no-see cousin and the family doesn't care about it too much. So, I am not comparing it to other e-learning tools (I know they have a lot of drawbacks), I just expected its quality to match what Adobe shows in other products.

    Lilybiri
    Lilybiri
    Legend
    February 8, 2017

    I just want to tell you that I don't like answering your questions at all. Yesterday I have tried, but now I am happy that Rod took over.  As a trainer for several Adobe applications, not only for Captivate, I know very well that you Photoshop, Audtion, Illustrator, InDesign can never be learned on one day. Captivate users seem to expect that that will be the case, which is nonsense as well. The expect Captivate to have all aspects of a desktop publishing app, a graphical vector application, a graphical bitmap application, an audio editor, a video editor and on top of that provide the possibility to add all interactivity that is expected from a good eLearning authoring tool. Consistency in UI, nor work flow exists for the BIG applications neither: CTRL-D means something totally different in PS, AI and CP. The user base of Captivate is small compared with the one for Acrobat, Photoshop etc...

    If you have to compare, you should do with other eLearning authoring tools, not with PS or AI/ID. To me Captivate is still the best because of its integration with PS, AU, Phonegap, Illustrator but that is not the case for you apparently.

    BTW the answer containers are inside an answer area that has to be resized first of all. 

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