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The Jayster
The Jayster
Inspiring
August 28, 2015
Answered

Captivate 9: Smart object states are not allowed on master slides??

  • August 28, 2015
  • 4 replies
  • 6972 views

If anyone can tell me I'm wrong (the 'question' I'm posting I suppose) then please do - and tell me what I'm not seeing in this program. Thx!

I have a large module series just completed for a high profile pharma product sales force - all built in my former Captivate 8.whatever software. It was required I build a custom and fully branded interface (as it usually is) and not use the gawd-awful looking, school teacher friendly, built in stuff. All of the shell/interface controls are on master slides (as they should be) - and they are smart objects that use images in their button states. Worked great! A master slide for no next, one for quizzing, one for no previous... you get it. In addition - I have complex animations that require certain artwork come into the content area from an offstage position - so the master slide elements HAVE to be selected as always on top (another reason for placing the controls on the master slides. Some of my animations are Edge Animate - so those are fine - but the Captivate timeline based stuff cannot be 'masked' obviously.

Guess what?? Captivate 9 not only busted all of the controlls (and all custom advanced actions btw) - which needed to be rebuilt using their new "states" method - but for some bizarre reason Adobe brilliantly REMOVED states capabilities completely, from any objects that are placed on master slides... WHY!? Now - the projects I opened in it (which where conveniently converted to C9 now) do not have any visual user feedback for my custom shell controls (no rollover states). Am I the only human that builds custom controls and requires them to be in the most logical location... the master slides?? I'm at a loss with this absurd oversight - especially when it was already possible in Captivate 8. Really bad call people.

Hopefully - someone can tell me I'm an idiot and I'm not seeing a simple button somewhere....

      This topic has been closed for replies.
      Correct answer Lilybiri

      No, just over and pressed state which is a slightly shrinked version of

      normal.

      4 replies

      K
      kayleenh71
      Inspiring
      November 2, 2017

      This issue was originally posted more than 2 years ago, but apparently it has still not been fixed. Please, Adobe, let us use shape buttons WITH STATES on the master slide!!!

      Lilybiri
      Lilybiri
      Legend
      November 2, 2017

      Please log a feature request, I repeated it already several times, just crossing my fingers.

      K
      kayleenh71
      Inspiring
      November 2, 2017

      Thank you for the response. How exactly do I log a feature request? I am very new to using Captivate and these forums.

      Allen_Partridge
      Adobe Employee
      Allen_Partridge
      Adobe Employee
      August 23, 2016

      Hi Jason,

      I feel your pain. I'm glad you expressed it. I'm surprised I haven't heard it more. I believe that the plan is still to reintroduce this as well as several other functions into the new states model. I will point the engineering and PM team to this thread to let them know the difficulties that the limitations of smart shape states that you are dealing with. 

      If others share this concern, I hope you'll plus 1, thumbs up, or otherwise add your agreement to Jason's thread here. It will help the product team get a sense of how important the expansion of interactive buttons (smart shapes) with object states is to your projects.

      Allen

        Lilybiri
        Lilybiri
        Legend
        August 24, 2016

        Allen, this bug was reported very early (soon after release 9.0.0 last year) by several people to the team. It still is not solved, and many clients were complaining about it, because upgraded project lost their states in CP9. It is not the only loss of functionality, especially since the change of UI with CP8 (loss of focus has been ranted about many times as well on these forums, also ignored).

        States are now possible for Transparent buttons, which are often used on Question slides where shape buttons still are not possible (too bad, asking for it since CP6). But states will not appear on Question slides for transparent buttons.

          W
          Wizarro
          Participant
          August 23, 2016

          I am struggling with this as well. I'm relatively new to captivate, so I assumed it was just something I was doing wrong.

          I have been playing with a workaround, though: using image buttons timed for the rest of the project, similar to what Lilibiri suggests. Was running into a weird problem with that as well, but I may have sorted that out...

          I've got the basic buttons you would expect (next, prev, etc.) and they all sit on top of a blue rectangle that runs across the bottom of the interface. The blue rectangle is semi transparent and all of it is set to "Place Object on top" so that it all hovers on top of the content. That's all good, but on first few few slides, the blue bar was appearing on top of some (though not all) of the buttons. They were clickable, but partly obscured by the blue rectangle, and they didn't change state when hovered over. Weird thing was that by the fourth slide, all the buttons sat on top of the blue bar as I would expect.

          There are a couple of other elements that I also have timed to for the rest of the project, and after "sandwiching" them between the blue bar and the nav buttons, everything seems to be working as I want it. Doesn't seem like that should make a difference, but as I said, I'm relatively new to this, so maybe I'm missing something.

          Considering the slide master limitations, would be interested to see how anyone else is setting up custom nav.

          Frustrating to say the least!!!

          TLCMediaDesign
          TLCMediaDesign
          Inspiring
          August 24, 2016

          I've found that if you have any objects on the first slide above an object that uses "Place object on top" and displayed for the rest of the project then it will be buggy.

          Make sure those items that have placed on top are on the top of the stacking order on the first slide.

          Lilybiri
          Lilybiri
          Legend
          August 28, 2015

          This is a major bug, I agree, losing the CP8/9 states for shape buttons on master slides (my favourites) and getting back to the old CP6 situation with 2 states.

          The Jayster
          The JaysterAuthor
          Inspiring
          August 28, 2015

          Do they allow 2 states tho - as you mentioned - like normal and rollover? I'd even be content for the moment with 2... but I'm not seeing any state options at all for objects on master slides.

          The Jayster
          The JaysterAuthor
          Inspiring
          August 28, 2015

          perhaps that is normal and down? (if so.... laaaaaaame) Not very useful for visual feedback - that's for sure.

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