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lucasl99
Participant
April 16, 2020
Answered

Click box(es) on slide advancing project at end of timeline

  • April 16, 2020
  • 6 replies
  • 788 views

Hello,

I have a number of click boxes that trigger advanced actions on a slide.  They work fine, but if I click them after the playhead reaches the end of the project, the slide advances even though I have on the master slide a smartshape that pauses the playhead at the end of the timeline.  I also have a hyperlink to a website, that, when clicked, does not advance the slide when the playhead reaches the end of the timeline, so that works fine.  The previous slide has a number of click boxes to show/hide different textboxes, and is set up the same way, and works fine.  It seems that the playhead is being released when the click box is clicked at the end of the timeline, even though I think this should not be the case.  Even if I set them to simply 'Show' or 'Hide', without using an advanced action, the slide advances.  Any ideas?  Thank you.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer RodWard

Thank you for the detailed response, Rod.  

If I am understanding correctly from what you said, my click box that is set to pause at the end of the timeline, even when it is not clicked (which I am trying to ensure that as it is very small and in the lower right corner), will let the slide advance when an interactive button is clicked and the playhead is at the end of the timeline?  I have not run into this before and it seems that this method has worked to stop the playhead at the end of the timeline and the slide from advancing, unless an interactive object (next or back button, for example) is clicked to take them to a different slide or interactive objects (smartshape buttons, buttons, click boxes) on the slide to show/hide objects via advanced actions, etc.  

 

Anyways, for my situation I figured out a work-around for the slide not advancing when I click on an interactive object.  At the end of a Standard Advanced Action on two smartshape buttons, I just used the Expression:

cpCmndGoToFrame = cpInfoCurrentFrame - 1.

Essentially now, even if the playhead reaches the end of the timeline, and the click box pauses it like it should, if either one of my shape buttons is clicked, it backs the timeline up 1 frame and stops again at the end.  I'm not sure if this is the best workaround, but it works.  I would appreciate any ideas you have as well.  

Here is a screenshot of the slide in the project.  The two smartshape buttons are around the blue underlined text.  They trigger the object groups below to show/hide when clicked.  The click box to pause the slide at the end of the timeline is on the lower right hand side.

 

And the timeline for the slide:

 

And one of the advanced actions for a smartshape button:

 

If I still am misunderstanding the timeline, and if there is a way around doing it this way, please let me know.  Thank You


If all you want for your click box is that it pauses the timeline and does nothing else, you can just set its action to No Action in the Actions drop down menu.

 

You should not need to have your other interactive objects rewinding the timeline as you are currently doing.

6 replies

Lilybiri
Lilybiri
Legend
April 16, 2020

Why not make the click box timeline a tiny bit shorter? If you have a pausing point at the same time on two interactive objects (shape button on master slide, click box) and they trigger a simple action, the playhead is released when any of them is clicked

. Did you uncheck the feature 'Continue playing the project) for the click box?

I rarely use click boxes, nor Show/hide workflows anymore/ Click boxes are forbidden in Fluid Boxes projects, and Show/Hide replacing by multistate objects and Change State saves lot of time.

A Hyperlink has no pausing point, so it depends on the triggered action...

 

BTW mention the version you are using, as you can read under Help, About Captivate.

L
lucasl99Author
Participant
April 17, 2020

I am using Captivate 2019.  I am using advance actions on the click boxes to open a group of objects, and have a click box set to Show in the group to hide the group after the learner reads about it (I don't think that matters, but don't know).  I have experimented with the Pause on the slide when it opens, and pausing in the advanced action after the click box is clicked.  However, even in the actions in the advanced action, when Pause is the last command, the playhead keeps moving. 

 

I am thinking this is something VERY simple I am not doing, as I have searched about Pausing for click boxes and buttons and shape buttons extensively to see why they are pushing the slide forward when the timeline has ended.  They act correctly until the timeline reaches the end, but then push it forward thereafter.  So I am thinking there is something with the click boxes I can't find that they push to the next slide. 


I think this is the only time I have set the advanced action to open a group of objects, so am wondering as well if this has anything to do with the project keeping moving to the next slide.  I tried ungrouping the objects and doing a MUCH longer advanced action to show them, but this didn't change anything. 

 

I deleted the shape buttons on the master slide/es, and now have put again a click box to stop the slide from advancing with a short timeline (.2 seconds) at the end of the timeline, which works.  I set the two click boxes that trigger two different advanced actions (show a group of objects for each) in the timeline a bit shorter, with no effect. 

 

The click boxes, as you know in 2019, only have "Pause project until user clicks" so I made sure these were unchecked, but had already done that previously.  I also had previously tried shape buttons on the slide instead of click boxes, and they had the same problem.  Here are the settings for one of the click boxes.

 

Here is the timeline for the slide: (the top click box is to stop the slide from progressing and works fine)

Here is the group of objects for the advanced action to show the group (if this even matters):

I don't use Fluid Boxes, but this is not a responsive project, and am exporting in html5 with Scalable HTML content and this is fine for our purposes.

 

Is there some type of global setting in preferences that may have a function for this?  I also have about 100 advanced actions; is there a point when you can have too much?  I am also wondering if the project could be corrupted, but have also copy/pasted the slides in a new project and they are working the same.  Apologies for the long comment... Thanks for your time.

 

RodWard
Community Expert
RodWardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 18, 2020

The 'simple thing' you haven't done is to get a basic understanding of how Captivate works before diving into creating courses.  Don't worry, it's something everybody that comes to this forum is accustomed to seeing.  

 

You need to understand how the Captivate timeline works.  It will continue playing from slide to slide until some object on a slide (e.g. your Click Box) pauses it.  But then if the user clicks anywhere on that slide, then that allows the timeline to move past the pause point of that object (i.e. your Click Box) and continue playing.

 

By deselecting the option on the Click boxes for Pause project until user clicks what you have done is prevent those particular click boxes from pausing anything.  From the little I can see in your screenshots, there appears to be only one click box that is going to pause the timeline right at the end of the slide.  As soon as any click happens, the timeline will therefore continue. 

 

This is not a bug, it's just the way Captivate works.  You need to understand its workings to use it properly.  I would recommend you start watching any Youtube tutorials you can find about the Captivate timeline.  Paul Wilson has lots of them.  Lilybiri's blog is also full of great information.

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