Can someone explain what the "active/inactive" feature of buttons actually does?

[jessicap64741243]

I'm beyond confused.

here is what I've observed so far:

1. buttons do not have to pause at all

2. if buttons are paused, the buttons can still be clicked during the "inactive" portion [which doesn't make sense to me]

3. buttons that have "inactive"portions will pause the action on the slide's timeline (ex: buttonx goes inactive at 1.5 seconds, I have an image timed to show up at 3 seconds, but it never will if I have that button set to pause before it)

4. slides will advance at the end of the timeline even if a button is set to pause.

I want slides to pause until the user clicks the "next" button on the playbar or the "continue" button I have added to the screen, not advance automatically after however many seconds I have the timeline set to be. Some slides behave like I want, and some advance automatically, and I can't seem to figure out the difference in how I'm setting them up.

[Lilybiri]

Most of your observations are not correct, sorry.

Buttons do need pausing: only that way you can allow a learner to stay on a slide as long as he wants without having to extend that slide duration (and increase the file size). Look at my answer in your other thread.

Buttons cannot be clicked in the inactive part, they are just visible. If you activate the hand cursor, you'll see that it has disappeared in the inactive part.

Pausing can also be used to have objects appear one after the other, again by giving control to the user. Have a look at this example which I created in Captivate 9, slide 'Pills' in the movie:

Replay (slide) Button - Captivate blog

Slides will never advance beyond a pausing point. If you used the Success event of that interactive object to allow the playhead to advance in the inactive part of the interactive object, the playhead will continue until the last frame, then enter the next slide.

Believe me, learning how to use and work with the timeline is very important in Captivate. Too bad they hide that Timeline panel in the newbie UI of CP 8/9. This is an old article, most is still valid however (except the now included Effects timelines within the normal Timeline panel):

Tiny Timeline Tidbits - Captivate blog

[jessicap64741243]

ok so if I have 3 buttons that pause at the same time, and the user clicks 1, will it negate the pauses of the other two?

[Lilybiri]

It depends on the action executed by the Success event of the button he clicked: if the playhead is released it will be in the inactive part of this button and for all other buttons with the same pausing point. If the playhead is not released, all buttons remain active.

[jessicap64741243]

how do I know if the playhead is released?

[Lilybiri]

Here is a tip from my blog: when you are busy with advanced actions to track the playhead:

• insert a text container (shape or caption) on the first slide
• in that text container you set 'frame number = ' and insert the system variable cpInfoCurrentFrame by using the X button in the Properties panel, Character part
• in the Timing panel for that text container you choose For rest of project, and check the option 'Always on top'.

When testing you'll see the frame number moving. When it is moving after you clicked a button, that means the playhead is released. If you are using an advanced action or a shared action, conditional or standard doesn't matter, normally the playhead will never be released unless you add the command 'Continue' at the end, or use the system variable cpCmndGotoFrameAndResume. If you use a simple action (using the Actions part in the Properties panel and choosing a command right from the dropdown list), normally the playhead will be released. If you are on Captivate 9 you can avoid releasing the playhead by unchecking 'Continue Playing the Project'. That option is new, didn't exist for previous versions.

Grab that free table that you can download from this article:

System variables in Captivate 8/9 - Captivate blog