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A
Anonymous
July 25, 2011
Answered

Using advanced actions/variables to display a summary list

  • July 25, 2011
  • 1 reply
  • 664 views

I'm using Captivate 5 to develop a tool that guides people through an application process and tells them the likelihood of that application being successful or not.

What I'd like is to have a caption at the end that displays a summary list of the reasons the application might be delayed or declined.

For example, one of the questions might be: Have you ever travelled overseas?  The user then selects yes or no.

On the last slide it needs to display this under a heading (e.g. Your application is likely to be delayed for the following reasons) along with any other reasons that are picked up as the user works through the process.

At the moment there are 13 questions, so 13 possible reasons.

Is there a way to use advanced actions and variables to get these to display in a list?

I have assigned a variable to each response, and an action that adds 1 to the variable if the response is chosen.  I then thought of adding another variable, called Reasons that would then display the reasons using an advanced action (e.g. if variable = 1 than assign Reasons with a variable containing the summary text).

This doesn't work, because it will only display the last answer that triggered an action, not a list.

I also thought to use actions to show/hide captions, but I think that will make gaps appear in the list if some reasons aren't displayed.

Does anyone have any other suggestions that might work?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

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Correct answer

Thanks Lilybiri,

I'm using MCQ because it allows advanced actions based on the answer, and True/False doesn't.  Some of the answers require branching off based on previous answers and it seemed easier to me to do that through advanced actions at the answer level, rather than the slide level.

One thing I might try is having all the summary variables in one caption at the last slide, and see if I can use advanced actions to only show those that have a corresponding variable with a value of 1.  I don't know if it will work though, but it's the only other way I can think of that might work.

If there is no easy option then I will have to just use hide/show commands on text captions, but I think that won't look as good.

Thanks

Alistar


The option of displaying all the variables in one text caption, and having them display if they had a value of 1, didn't work..

I'm thinking now that the only option is to display all the captions and use an action to show or hide the options that don't apply, based on the answers given throughout the questionnaire.  Advanced actions and variables don't seem to be able to be used in the way I was hoping - that is, variables are only displayed if certain options are chosen (like a summary page on a web form).

1 reply

Lilybiri
Lilybiri
Legend
July 25, 2011

Hello,

Did you use regular question slides? Perhaps I overlooked this, but couldn't deduct it from your question. Or are you using a TEB or a TextArea widget?

For regular question slides there is a Quizzing system variable cpQuizInfoAnswerChoice that is populated after each answer with the chosen answer. Since it is reused for each question it is necessary to store this answer in a user variable. That way you can collect all the answers in individual variables. One issue: it will be the number or character from the answer that will be stored, so you'll have to 'translate' it to the real answer, but that can be done with a conditional action.

If using TEB or TextArea (because answers are free) it is even easier because the associated variable stores the answer (text) completely.

Does this make sense? Waiting for your answer on my questions..

Lilybiri

A
Anonymous
July 25, 2011

Hi Lilybiri (and thanks for helping with yet another of my problems!)

I am using standard question slides - in this case multiple choice slides, with yes/no options.  What I have done is assign variables to each answer, to add 1 to the variable for yes, or leave at 0 for no.  I thought this would then allow me to use Advanced Actions to display a list at the end of the questions, showing a summary of the "yes" answers, by displaying a variable that contains a summary of the answer (so if questionvariable = 1, summaryvariable=value of variable, else summaryvariable is hidden).

I want a list that is populated based on the answers, rather than a list that is hidden and displays certain answers based on the variables, so that there are no gaps in the list where answers are still hidden - so if answers 3 and 5 are shown, they appear at the top of this list, instead of 3rd and 5th, with spaces around them.

Hope this makes sense...

Thanks

Alistar

Lilybiri
Lilybiri
Legend
July 26, 2011

Hi Alistar,

Seems not that easy... hope to find some time to reflect on this question because I do not see immediately a way to achieve this. You cannot control the coordinates of text captions by advanced actions, or perhaps using some effects that are based on relative coordinates... Just talking to myself.


BTW If all are Yes/No questions, why to you use MCQ and not True/false?

Lilybiri

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