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ReneeY
Participating Frequently
July 15, 2014
Question

Text on screen is invisible

  • July 15, 2014
  • 7 replies
  • 3982 views

The text in my Captivate 8 project (almost every slide, almost every text box or shape with text) is invisible. They are also invisible on publish and preview. The layers are NOT hidden either in the timeline OR in the properties window. When I hover over the invisible text on the stage, the cursor changes to the hand pointer, and if i click on it, it reappears. Clicking and dragging over the area makes some text visible, but not others.

I can go through the entire project and click on every single text box, but if I save and close, they are invisible again on re-open.

Some of the text boxes are visible in the Filmstrip, and others aren't, even after I've clicked on them all to make them visible. Sometimes when I open the project, text boxes that previously didn't show are now visible, and some that previously were visible are invisible. It seems random on which text is affected upon each open.

I have tried the clear preferences .bat, I've tried having a coworker open the file on his machine (same result), copying the slides into a brand new project, saving the file with a different name, and contacting Adobe chat.

I don't know what else to do to salvage all my work.

Anyone else have this issue? Any suggestions?

This topic has been closed for replies.

7 replies

gayathrihari
Participant
August 8, 2018

Hi

We are facing a similar challenge. My team and I are creating simulations that need to run on both Windows desktops/laptops and the iOS. We have the 10.0.1.285 Captivate version and we are using Windows 7 OS and iOS versions 11.4.1 and 11.2.6. When published, the output works fine on the Windows OS but when viewing on the iOS, the text entered into the text entry fields appears white and cannot be seen. Although, when we navigate to the next screen, text turns black. We have checked everything possible, Master slides, text and background colors etc. but nothing works.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

RodWard
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 9, 2018

Are you using a default Theme supplied with Captivate 2017 or has the theme been customised in any way?  Was this project initiated in Cp 2017 or upgraded from another earlier version?

gayathrihari
Participant
August 9, 2018

We are not using a default theme. We created one specifically for this project. This project was created in captivate 2017 although the theme was created in an earlier version of 2017, 10.0.1.192. Do you think that could that be the reason for the white text?

Participant
July 10, 2018

Same here - Captivate 2017 - 10.0.0.192

Any ideas?!

Participant
July 11, 2018

We fixed the file with following workaround: Uninstalled Captivate. Installed Captivate Version 10.0.0.192 again. Copied every Slide from the collapsed file in a new one. Then the problem was solved, but don't ask me, what was wrong in the old file. Maybe some advanced action scripts which we used?!

Participant
April 24, 2018

And now in Captivate 2017, it happened to me

ReneeY
ReneeYAuthor
Participating Frequently
August 22, 2014

Well, it's happened again to another file. This time, if I click on any of the missing text, I get a fatal error and Captivate crashes. The file, all backups, and the versions in the cache are now all corrupt.

Again, I've shared this with Adobe support, and I'm not getting anywhere with them. I'm desperate to figure out what causes this issue so I don't keep losing days and weeks of work!

Is anyone else having this problem?!

RodWard
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 23, 2014

Are you running Captivate using the "Run As Administrator" option?

Participant
November 13, 2015

Rod & Renee, I am having the exact same issues as Renee has described using Captivate 8.  Did anyone ever figure out a permanent solution?  Thanks

ReneeY
ReneeYAuthor
Participating Frequently
July 15, 2014

Thanks. That's what I meant by "I have tried the clear preferences .bat"

I have this file saved as a shortcut on my desktop due to the number of issues I've had with interface bugs, mostly the Style/Actions/Options bar disappearing randomly. The chat rep suggested to run it when I contacted them about other issues.

I was desperately hoping it was just a problem with my machine, but it's the actual file. Again, my coworker sees (er, doesn't see) the same invisible text boxes when he opens the file on his machine.

thanks for helping.

Renee

RodWard
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 16, 2014

Can I suggest you clean out your Project Cache?  There should be a button called Clear Cache in your Preferences > General section.

Make sure you've closed down and backed up all Captivate project CPTX files before you do this.

It could be that your cache folder has become too congested and this is fouling things up.  I've seen a similar issue before.

ReneeY
ReneeYAuthor
Participating Frequently
July 16, 2014

Thanks. That's a handy thing to know. I just cleared that cache and I'm crossing my fingers that I have fewer issues in the future.

Renee

Lilybiri
Legend
July 15, 2014

Can you check the master slides? Did you customize them? Possibly you have covered the master slide with a background image that is set to be always on top, thus covering all objects on each slide.

Captiv8r
Legend
July 15, 2014

Hi there

I have a really silly question. You haven't possibly configured the same color for the text as what the background has, have you?

Just for grins, select across it and change the color. See if it "sticks". If so, update the style.

Cheers... Rick

ReneeY
ReneeYAuthor
Participating Frequently
July 15, 2014

The text is dark gray and the background of every slide (and every master) is white. There is nothing on top of the shapes. The master is behind.

Again, when I simply click on an affected text box, it is no longer invisible (I don't mean double-clicking to edit the text, just a simple click to select the box).

Every text box that I click on will remain visible until I save and close the project and then re-open. I must then go through and click on every text box on every slide again.


I appreciate the responses and know you're both just asking the obvious, but I'm by no means a newb. I am beyond certain that this is a bug.


I'm asking if anyone knows of a way to fix it so I don't have to start over and re-create all my text boxes. Or perhaps someone knows what might have caused it to happen so I can avoid this bug in the future?


So far, it's only ever affected this one project. I have many saved styles and a dozen or more master slides in template I've used for several other courses. I'm afraid to start another course using this template in case it's something in there that caused this problem.

I was working in this file for a few days before the bug started happening, but I haven't been able to pinpoint any particular slide or object that might have caused it. I tried deleting slides and library assets one by one to see if just maybe the text would magically reappear, but no dice.


Captiv8r
Legend
July 15, 2014

Draw up a chair, folks, it's story time!

Years ago in version 1 or 2 of Captivate, we discovered a way to manipulate colors and render things transparent. It came to light that #C0C0C0 would render as transparent.

So my pondering is this. What if you adjusted the font color ever so slightly? Perhaps just darkening the gray a touch? Would that make a difference? My thought here is that maybe Captivate is somehow interpreting whatever color you have these set to as being transparent.

Heck, you could even do a File > Save As and save a copy and experiment on the copy.

Definitely report as a bug via http://www.adobe.com/go/wish

Cheers... Rick