Buttons behaving badly?

[shawninvancouver]

I am puzzled by the way buttons (or roll-over slidelets) work in Captivate 4.

I have instructions slides with a back and a forward (slide) button at the bottom of the slide. I ONLY want those two buttons to control movement from slide to slide.

Within certain slide, I have employed buttons or slidelets (using only the default Captivate tools) to control opening of multiple text boxes (sometimes using the text caption function). In other words, I may have four buttons on a single slide that activate opening of four text caption boxes.

The *problem* is that upon clicking any button, it will show the intended text caption box BUT the slide show will also advance to the next slide. It does this despite the ONLY action being set to SHOW.

Additionally, the actions available seem rather limited. For instance, there doesn't seem to be hover over actions for buttons. For example, I want the text to disappear when the student pulls the cursor off the button (that way, clearing the area for the next action/button press/text caption box). It seems that all that's available is a timer for how long the text caption box should appear.

Thank you once again!

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

You have Button objects in Captivate and you have Rollover Slidelet objects in Captivate. Each has a different purpose.

With Buttons, you program each one with an action and when the user clicks, the action is carried out. While it's the default nature of a Button object to pause the slide until the user clicks, clicking the Button will also release the pause and allow the playhead to continue.

With Rollover Slidelets, you have sort of a "Slide within a slide" (hence the term "slidelet"). These may appear when moused over and will disappear when mousing off. OR, you may configure them to remain on the slide for their timed duration when you click. It all depends on what you want it to do.

The bottom line here is that you really need to think through what you want to accomplish. Then choose the objects and construct the slides so they behave as you want.

Cheers... Rick

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[shawninvancouver]

Hello and thanks for your quick reply.

Perhaps I didn't explain myself properly. Essentially, and for what it's worth, I am attempting to duplicate functionality I had in Lectora or RWD uPerform.

That is....

Using Buttons:

Slide example 1

-----------

But1   But2   But3      [ text caption box (3 boxes over top each other)]

                                                      <back>     <forward>

-----------

When the student presses button 1 (But1), text caption box 1 is displayed. And so on for all three boxes.

I want to give the student the ability to select through each of the three boxes indefinately. Only the <forward> button should carry on to the next slide. I would be shocked if this were not possible in Captivate.

What I am trying to achieve with Rollover Slidelets:

Slide example 2

-----------

* Some brief text in point form

* More brief text             [ The other part of the Slidelet with text]

* More brief text             [  on the point form    ................         ]

                                              <back>     <forward>

-----------

In the above example (slide example 2), when the student rolls over the brief text, it should cause a text box to the right to appear with further details.

As with the first example, I am acheiving part of my desired results EXCEPT, the slide time slider keeps moving forward when selecting buttons or moving mouse over a Rollover Slidelet. I don't want that! Again, I only want the <forward> button to activate the next slide.

I really hope you are not telling me this desired effect is not possible in Captivate.

Thanks once again!

[Captiv8r]

Hi again

No, I think it's possible to achieve, but you probably just need to tweak your Slidelet a bit.

When you insert a Rollover Slidelet, you actually end up with TWO objects on your slide. One is the area the user mouses over. The other is the area where the Slidelet displays. Double-click the Rollover area.

Ensure you choose the option "Stick Slidelet".

Make that small change and see if things improve. I bet they do!

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcerStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[shawninvancouver]

Captiv8r: Thanks again for your quick reply.

Unfortunately, I did try this before.... but I tried it again and the same thing happens.

To be precise, if I move the mouse over the Rollover Slidelet, the slide timer stops. Once I move the mouse off the Rollover Slidelet, the slide timer continues to move forward to the next slide.

The slide timer only begins moving as soon as the mouse touches one of the Rollover Slidelets.