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Inspiring
November 6, 2015
Question

Does anyone know the logic behind the menu listings in Captivate?

  • November 6, 2015
  • 2 replies
  • 233 views

This is a small issue compared to real bugs that Captivate sometimes has, but it is annoying. Why aren't the menu items alphabetized, particularly those under the Window menu? Whenever I want to open a panel/inspector (or whatever you want to call it), I always have to hunt through the Window menu. For that matter, what is the reasoning behind not alphabetizing objects in the advanced actions drop down lists?

Maybe if I understood the logic for not alphabetizing I would be able to work more efficiently. Any explanations?

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    2 replies

    Captiv8r
    Legend
    November 6, 2015

    Hi Jay

    Rest assured there are many of us out there that are as perplexed as you. I too struggle constantly with locating items and long for the menu items to be presented in alphabetical order. I suppose we just have to learn to accept it without knowing the reasoning behind it. Who knows, perhaps it's like the RoboHelp UI in one of the dialogs where when we questioned certain changes we were strongly chastised for even questioning it by the designer, "Because he has 15 years of UI design experience and he knows best".

    Cheers... Rick

    Lilybiri
    Legend
    November 6, 2015

    Agree about the menu, but I rarely use menus, just unhappy not everything has a shortcut key. Why the Software slide is missing in the Insert menu that has no objects, but is limited to slide types is more annoying I think. Since I always start by setting up workspaces in Captivate, I don't need Window menu a lot. The whole UI could use some improvements, but will not rant again.

    As for the dropdown lists in Advanced actions and Parameters, I used to complain about it but now you don't need alphabetic order at all. Why don't you use the Filtering feature that is around since Captivate 6 (hope my memory is still working)? If you have a consistent labeling system, just type a sequence of characters and the list will be filtered to have only objects with that sequence. Works perfect for me. Here is a screenshot with an example, it doesn't matter where the sequence of characters is; it is just a coincidence that they are all at the end of the names, indicating they appear on Slide 3:

    Inspiring
    November 8, 2015

    I knew about the filtering system. Doesn't always work for me for some reason. Not everyone wants to memorize all the keyboard shortcuts. To my mind, why not have both filtering and keyboard shortcuts and alphabetizing. In most Adobe programs there are choices and multiple ways to do things. Captivate could benefit from some of that.