Fill in the blank issue

Hello,

What you are experiencing is one of Captivate's design flaws. Its not the width of the answers that determines the drop-down length, but the length of the "Marked Blank" that will determine how your answers will be displayed.

You are very correct in that the first answer will also dictate the size of the drop-box generated - because the first possible answer is directly connected to the selection of text in your FIB as a "Mark Blank" to be used as a placeholder for question.  Hence the size/width of the drop-down will match the first answer's character length established when marking it as a marked blank answer place holder. If you where to delete the first answer, you will notice that your "Marked Blank" area will change as well.

Planning the first answer (or length of the "Marked Blank" area) will then dictate the size/width of the FIB drop-down answer selection and view of selected answer. When planning for the width of your drop-down area take the longest possible answer from your list and add 4 spaces at the end so that your answer will be fully visible. The adding of 4 extra spaces will help compensate for the drop-down's structure taking character spacing for its structure and drop-down icon. 

Example of exact answer length for a FIB window width for "Correct Answer":

Example of exact answer length for a FIB window width for "Correct Answer" + 4 spaces:

Yes, I know its stupid work around...but you are just experiencing good ole Captivate at its purest form.

This size of the drop-down boxes can be dynamically controlled via JavaScript, but that is way beyond the scope of this forum. I've used the workaround for years and seems to work just fine...I generally will look for another method of a quiz question when possible.

Great job on your excellent deduction about the first answer's affect on the FIB drop-down answer selected view.

Hope this sheds some light on your question of "Any idea why that is?" about FIB drop-downs.

That is one of the reasons I rarely use the default FIB type of question.

"Select" will only appear when the terms are long enough.

To have more space, start by putting the longest word as first word. Add some spaces after that word. Stupid workaround, but it works.

Are you using the dropdown widget or some other method?