Advanced action breaks when clicking "updating action"

[FrancoisK]

Hello there fellow Captivate users.

I am running into an issue with my advanced action breaking, and thus my slide is not working, so hoping someone can help me!

I am running Captivate 11.8.3.8 on Windows 10.

I have a slide with 8 click objects, 8 indicator arrows working with those objects, and one text multistate object which interact with an advanced action:

I renamed all of them so that I can find the objects and build the advanced action, which does the following:

- Change the state of the text object to one of its 8 states

- Change the state of the current click object to selected

- Reset the state of the other 7 click objects to normal

- Show the indicator arrow of the current click object

- Hide the other 7 indicators

BUT when I save the advanced action, the names of Indicators 6, 7 and 8 change to 2, 3 and 4!

(I was even sometimes struggling to find number 8 from the list available, and had to type out the name in order to get to it, not sure if this is a bug or just the limited space of the drop down and my action being so long - possibly the second, since I could easily see it in the second tab).

This same action is renamed and applied to each of the click objects, and the relevant changes made so that each click object reveals its arrow and changes the state of the text object.

The interesting thing is, the higher up in the number sequence I go, it resets one less number when I click "update action" - and so for number 8, it looks the way it should:

I previewed the project, and it does not work the way it should, it is broken, with the last 3 indicators not hidden when clicking on numbers 1-5.

I tried splitting the action, by adding points 6-8 in a second tab, but it still resets the names!?

If someone can please tell me what I am doing wrong, I would appreciate it very much!

Thanks in advance

[Lilybiri]

I am just installing the update to 11.8.3, but I never use this version to create anything professional, it has always been too buggy. I will see if I can detect a problem with the advanced actions, which are not mentioned in the release notes and completely ignored since they have been dumped in the new version. This is very saddening.

I suspect a conflict with labeling indeede. Are you sure not to have used the same label for an item and a variable?  I suspect the 'Selected' state is a custom state (also impossible in the new version 12)? It is a pity that they never reacted to another long-time standing feature request to enable changing state for a group of objects.

However you can hide a group. I would start by grouping the items you need to hide, and the long list of Hiding commands can be replaced by 2:

   Hide Group

   Show one item

For sure I would replace the advanced action by a shared action to avoid choking Captivate which the so-called Captivate Classic is doing more often than previous versions. 

Can I see a screenshot of the Timeline and Advanced interaction panel (F9)? Be sure to expand the columns Success and Failure and show the object actions.

[FrancoisK]

Thank you for the speedy reply!

Yes, "selected" is a custom state. I have not used variables in this action.

I know about shared actions but have not invested the time to understand properly and implement them; will do that in future.

I have not yet finalised the timings of the timeline, but here is its current layout:

and here is the Advanced interaction panel content:

[Lilybiri · Accepted solution]

Which interactive object is pausing the slide? I see that those objects are not available from the start.

Could you try my suggestion to group the objects IndicatePointer... and replace the long list with Hides by the two commands? Do you not prepare to force them to view everything because I don't see any variables being toggled?

[FrancoisK]

Thank you for reviewing the information.

The two objects pausing the slide are the back and next buttons.

I will try your suggestion, thank you, I just first need to find out about grouping and how that works within advanced actions.

I'm afraid I don't understand your section about the variables, do you mean that I am not forcing them to view everything before moving on, because I do not have a variable toggling the next button, so they can skip any time they want?

[Lilybiri]

My bad, I missed the pausing points for those two buttons which are on the top of the stack.

I may have missed some commands in the advanced actions, because the screenshots do not show all lines.  I am very used to screen advanced and shared actions. If you want forced view, I expect Boolean variables for each of the to be clicked items and a second conditional action to check the values of those variables (or a counter, which I prefer a lot but needs third decision).

Grouping items; select them on the stage and use CTRL-G or the right-click menu, Group.

You can change the generic label of that group, and it will appear in the dropdown list like all the individual items, easy-peasy.

Maybe this blog post could clarify more:

Tip 3: Show/Hide or Multistate object? (Advanced/Shared actions) - Captivate blog (lilybiri.com)

[FrancoisK]

Thank you, appreciate the inputs and I will go have a look, especially as to how it will work if I want to show/hide different objects within the group for each of the objects clicked.

With regards to the variables, I just wanted each object to show a different state of the multi state text object, along with showing its relevant point indicator/arrow, so no variables and values were used.

[Lilybiri]

Sequence of the actions is very important. If you first hide the group, then show the unique object it has the same result as your sequence of hiding all the other objects and showing one. But you get a much shorter list of actions in the Advanced or shared action.

You don't need to force a view, but with your setup the learner could simply skip the slide using the Next button which appears from the first frame of that slide. You have added a lot of Effects, they should at least e viewed, correct?

[FrancoisK]

Hello Again,

Grouping, hiding group and showing the relevant pointer fixed the issue, thank you very much.

Still a mystery as to why some of the items in the action would automatically rename when saved, but at least now the slide work - I appreciate the inputs!

[Lilybiri]

It is indeed sometimes a mystery why simplifying actions solves problems. DId you try the shared actions? I have fixed a lot of mystery choking by replacing duplicate advanced actions by instances of a shared action.