Buttons are not keeping assigned object states

Report · Oct 12, 2016

Hello, I'm working on a Responsive Project. I have made a number of objects and have checked the "Use as Button" checkbox. Under the "Actions" tab I have selected "On Success: - Changes State of - I picked an object - I picked a state of that object". This has been working perfectly and the buttons all worked. However, now all the buttons are clearing my selection of what object and state I selected. I'm guessing the state is being cleared because it's losing what object I selected. I have no idea why, it just started to clear the selected objects from the actions tab.

I re-assign all the buttons to the objects and states, saved the project, then I clicked on the slide again the object selection is all cleared again.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Report · Oct 12, 2016

I am a bit confused by this question. The option 'Use as button' exists only for shapes, not for any other object, and turns that shape into a button. That means that this shape button has 3 InBuilt states: normal, rollover and down. Those states are the same as for normal buttons, yoy cannot apply them like a custom state, they will appear on hovering (rollover) and when pressing down (down). When you applied the command 'Change state....' with those shape buttons, were you pointing to other objects which had states? Maybe you could post some screenshots to show which 'objects' you are talking about, and which 'states'? It would also be informative to tell which version you are using (exact version number, please).

Report · Oct 12, 2016

Hello, thanks you for your response! I'm attaching from screen shots. I'm working with Captivate 9 on Windows 10.

So, I had to make some slides with some tabs and pop-up text. In the master page I created placeholder objects for both the boxes for the tab and the text area.

Once placed in my project, double clicked on the placeholder for added the text. For the text I created a multiple states. For the top boxes I selected to use as button and selected one of the states.

see attached video: Captivate_Problem - YouTube

Screen shot 1 - shows the first tab's settings. The white text box is using the default "normal"state for the text that is in the first tab/button. This way the user can navigate back to the text for tab 1.

Screen shot 2 - Is showing the two states for the text object box

Screen shot 3 - is showing the settings for the 2nd tab button with the selection to go to the 2nd state of the white text box.

In addition: Screen shot 4 - is showing hyperlinked pop-up boxes. I had the default state of these pops up to be 0 opacity so they do not show until you click on the hyperlink. These I made into buttons so when you clicked them they change state back to normal to disappear.

Each state of the white text box has a hyperlink.

It was all working well. I'm about 12 slides in and it was all looking good. Then Screenshot 5 keeps happening:

I'm new to Captivate so, I'm having a lost of trouble figuring out why I had it working so well . . . to now it always clears the highlighted dialog box. Is there a better way to create a slide with tabs like effects?

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks again for the response!

Stephanie

Report · Oct 13, 2016

Can I see the timeline? You have two shape buttons, Tab1__Slide5 and Tab2__Slide 5. Do they pause the slide? I see that you left the option 'Continue Playing Project' checked, which means that the playhead will continue after clicking such a shape button. Do you not want to leave the slide paused?

I have been using similar scenarios, but started with the container (Tab_Text_Slide5) being an shape with Alpha 0% and no stroke(for Normal), then having two different states for the filled versions (Tab1 and Tab2), formatted as you want. Since the option 'Retain State on Slide Revisit' is unchecked, when coming back to the slide the Normal state will always show up, which means the container is invisible.

There are many examples of lightboxes with other work flows on my blog.

Report · Oct 14, 2016

Sorry, I was in meeting yesterday, thank you for your response!

Sorry, I should have opened the timeline. Screen shot 6. I have to admit, I have not used pause in the slides. I just set the slide time for a long amount. I figured the student has time and it's faster in setting up the projects (I'm still a little clunky in the workflow).

I think I did make the pop-up boxes that way you described. See Screen Shot 7.

These are linked to the Hyperlinks I have in the text. These look to be working fine and keep the settings. It's the others that clear the field for some reason.

I just booked makes your blog. I will be reading it!

Have you run into settings getting reset?

Stephanie

Report · Oct 14, 2016

I hope you don't mind telling you that '...just set the slide time for long amount' is not good practice. It is much better to keep the default time of 3 seconds, if you do not have slide audio, and have the slide paused by all those buttons at the same moment. That is the big advantage of those interactive objects. Since you are on CP9, unchecking the option 'Continue Playing the Project' will keep the playhead at that pausing point (default = 1.5secs). The user can spend as much time as he wants to watch your popups, which is not the case when you just make the slide duration longer. You'll have a lot less frames as well (file size). Once he decides to continue to the next slide, he can use the buttons on the playbar or you can offer a custom Next button. That Next button can be a shape button on the master slide(s), so that you don't have to copy/paste it to each slide.

I never had settings getting reset, something must go awry. Did you read what I told about the states: have 3 states instead of 2, keep the Normal state as the 'invisible' state.

Report · Oct 14, 2016

I don't mind, I'll take all the help I can get! Any tips or suggestions are welcome.

I'll set up a new document and use pause and see if I can get that to work.

I did read about the three states. I used to and only had it "Change the state of" to get it to change back and forth. I'll will try what you suggested and see if I can get it to work!

I was wondering if the file was getting complex and maybe that was why it was bogging down? But, was not sure.

Thanks again, I'm going to make the changes now and see how it goes! I was also thinking if the states keeps getting reset that maybe I'll have it "jump to slide" and make slides for each tab. Not ideal, but, it would avoid the "states" if that is what is creating the issue?

Stephanie

Report · Oct 14, 2016

States work OK if they are set up correctly. You don't need mutliple slides.

Report · Oct 14, 2016

I figured, but, if I can't find out why the state fields are being cleared, I have to find a workaround until I can find out why. My worry is that because the "jump to" is an action that it might have the same problem. But, I'll keep that the very last resort. With luck, the new document with all the changes you suggested will work!