Components appearing in tab order without name of object

[JeelyK]

I'm working on a responsive project in Captivate 9 and it needs to be 508 compliant. I'm trying to set the tab order for each of my slides, however when I go to do that there will sometimes be components listed without the name of the object, so I have no idea what object is in that spot. Any ideas on how to fix this??

Thanks,

Keely

[Lilybiri]

Can you show a screenshot of the timeline as well?

[JeelyK]

Yep! (Sorry for late reply).

[Lilybiri]

Strange, you have 5 objects on the slide, but the Tab order shows only 4?

Are you on 9.0.2.437?

[JeelyK]

Looks like I am on version 9.0.0.223 - guessing I should update to the latest version?

[Lilybiri]

Sure! You missed 3 patches. Don't forget to look at the release notes:

Release notes for Adobe Captivate 9.0.2

[JeelyK]

Unfortunately I'll have to wait until tomorrow to update, but after it's up to date I will see if it fixes this issue!

Thanks!

[JeelyK]

So I have updated my Captivate to the latest version, it is now 9.0.2.437, though I am still having this same exact issue as the screenshots I have shown above. Not sure what components 1 and 2 are supposed to be, and like you said, I have 5 things on my timeline, but only 4 of them are showing up in tab order. The objects on my slide are two text captions, an image, and two smart shape buttons.

Any idea on what could be causing this? I've checked the tab order on some of my other projects and it seems that the text captions never appear in the tab order for me, are text caption boxes tabbable? Sometimes I will have text captions and images on a slide and nothing will appear in the tab order (I've already made sure they aren't on the master slide view).

[Lilybiri]

I have no explanation, should have more time to double-check but that is not possible today. Just one tip: since shapes appear, why don't you use shapes as text containers to replace the text captions?

[JeelyK]

No rush  here, thanks for the help. I didn't think of using shapes as text containers, that should be a good workaround for now,

thank you!

[Lilybiri]

I'm using shapes whenever possible, find them easier to 'style' than the 'old' text captions and buttons.

[JeelyK]

Just an update on what's happening, I've been using smart shapes instead of text boxes and they work fine as displaying the text, however I noticed they still weren't showing up in my tab order (even though my smart shape buttons are), so I changed the smartshape "text boxes" to buttons and then they began appearing in my tab order. I can use this as a workaround for now, just keeping them as buttons with no actions attached, though I find it strange that they won't show up unless they are being used as a  button.

[Justenuf2bdangerous]

Keely -

Smart shapes aren't interactive unless you select "use as a button" so they won't show up in your tab order unless you make them buttons. Using smart shapes as buttons with "no action" selected will allow you to control the read order and tab order in your slide - so if you have a graphic design that has information that reads in an order other than left to right and slightly up (standard screen reader scan style), this is a good way to ensure your visually impaired users get the information in the order you desire. Just remember, text in smart shapes doesn't get read unless it is placed in the alt text box in the accessibility tab for the shape.

As far as the mystery items in your tab order - I didn't see any click boxes or other interactives listed on your timeline, so there's really no explanation for the mystery contents in positions one and two. Have you tried simply moving your two buttons up on the tab order to see if the two blanks just disappear?

[JeelyK]

Thanks for the tips Justenuf, very helpful. I'll try moving the mystery items around and see what happens with them!

[mannym8924487]

Perhaps the masterslide has a smartshape or any interactive object.