Skip to main content
Inspiring
June 13, 2017
Question

Timeline - Jagged Scrolling

  • June 13, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 333 views

Why doesn't the timeline have smooth scrolling? When scrolling the timeline, it only actually moves about 1 second along the timeline, resulting in a jagged/jumpy scroll and bad user experience. Is smooth scrolling so resource intensive that it would be impossible to include? Does anyone have any information on this?

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Lilybiri
Legend
June 13, 2017

What do you mean? Timeline is only used during editing, where you can move the playhead. But you talk about 'scrolling', horizontally along the time axis I presume? Normal Captivate slides are never very long, or do you have very long slides?

Inspiring
June 13, 2017

Yes, I am talking about scrolling horizontally along the time axis. I have slides that can reach up to 3-5 minutes because of long audio recordings that play in the background. I try to add a lot of animations within the slide at each of the talking points that require the timeline to be fully, or very zoomed in. Trying to navigate my way around both up/down and left/right is always a jarring and frustrating experience.

Lilybiri
Legend
June 13, 2017

That must be the reason, since slide transitions can be totally invisible to the user, it is recommended not to have slides that long at all. I never create slides longer than about 30-45secs, and only when there is VO. Management is so much smoother with smaller slides. Sorry, cannot help you, suspect you are using Captivate in a way that is was not meant to be used. Narration can be spread over several slides and you'll see that development is a lot easier. For vertical scrolling: try to use groups whenever possible, but when you limit slide duration you'll automatically end up with less objects on the slide as well. Have a look at my sequence of articles about the timeline, here is one link:

Captivate's Timelines (master slide/normal slide cptx) demystified - Captivate blog