Conditional Actions, Branching and Text-to-Speech Audio

[Tricia0923]

I hope I can explain this.... First, I am using Captivate 8

I have a slide that is used as a starting point as a branched learning scenario.

What happens is there are 5 options to choose from on this slide.

A opens a series of slides

B opens a different series

C,D, E etc...

I have also used Cap's text-to-speech feature to add audio to each slide, including the option slide.

Here's my difficulty,

1. I don't want the audio to play each time the learner is taken back to the slide, just the initial time they visit

2. At the end of all options being chosen a different audio needs to play that corresponds to moving past this section.

Thanks, any suggestions would be appreciated!

Tricia

[Lilybiri]

There are several possible scenarios. It depends on more information that you provided:

• Do you need CC for all audio? Because that would mean you can only use slide audio. In that case I would use micronavigation to navigate back to a later frame on the menu slide, after the audio clip. Probably will write a new blog post about that scenario ASAP (if I had 36hrs:day ). It will be in my cookbook about advanced/shared actions.
• If you don't need CC, you can use either an audio object, that you hide by an On Enter Conditional action on second visit, or by the button action to return to the menu slide.
• Or you can use the command 'Play Audio' that is triggered only on first visit by a On Enter Conditional action for the menu slide.

I have been writing about audio objects quite a while ago:

Audio Objects: Control them! - Captivate blog

[Tricia0923]

Hi Lily,

I don't need CC. I do return to several slides, all of which have audio that auto plays but I can't have that, so it's important I figure out how to turn it off.

The audio is also timed to appear on most of the slides, but when I return I want it to not play the audio which is on the slide and all the text to appear.

I tried adding the audio to a text caption and then hiding it, but that didn't stop it. The On Enter on the slide already has an advanced action that shows check marks when the user completes one part of the scenario. When I tried hiding the text caption the audio was on after creating a variable and 2 advanced actions, one conditional and the other standard it didn't work.

I think I should try the micronavigation, I've never used it so I'll have to find out how it works.

Thanks a bunch!

Tricia

[Lilybiri]

It should be possible with an audio object or with the command 'Play Audio' in that case. The micronavigation way is more tricky: Micro-Navigation in Adobe Captivate - Captivate blog

I use it when CC is needed. Have the button appear as late as possible, put the pausing point of the button that triggers the navigation to another slide after the end of the audio clip. Create a user variable that will store the frame from where the navigation starts. And jump back to that frame.

With the Play Command you should create a user variable that tracks the number of visits, start with default value of 0. That number can be incremented when you jump out of the menu slide. Then you'll need a conditional advanced or shared action to be triggered On Enter for the menu slide:

IF v_visit is greater or equal to 1

     Continue

ELSE

     Play Audio ....

Same can be done with an Audio object that you only show in the ELSE part, and Hide in the first part. I offered you a link to an article about audio objects.

[Tricia0923]

Thanks so much for the suggestions, Lily.

I will see what I can do!

Appreciate your help!

Tricia

[Tricia0923]

Hi,

I still can't get this to work.

I can't use the On Enter because there is already an Advanced Action assigned to it.

If I add the xpression v_startframe + 4589 (the frame count I got from adding the infocurrentframe variable) to the action I've already created, then the rest of the actions don't work.

I have assigned the slide audio to an object instead (text caption) and given it a name, but hiding the object doesn't stop the audio unless I'm doing that wrong too...

It would seem the easiest thing to do would be to tell Captivate to go to the last frame on the slide that I need to go back to, but I can't figure out how to do that and get it to

work.

[Lilybiri]

Please, Tricia, I recommended you not to go the micronavigation way. This was not what I explained neither; I never spoke about navigation to an absolute frame number, but to return to a remembered frame number stored in a user variable. Never go to the last frame in a slide, you have to return to a frame before a pausing point or you'll just get to the next slide and that is NOT what you want. Do you understand the Timeline well?

You are not that well versed in advanced actions, I suspect, when I read this 'there is already an Advanced Action assigned to it....' An advanced action can have as many commands as you want, why wouldn't you be able to add that condition to play/not play the audio to it? Post a screenshot of your 'Advanced action' On Enter, and I'll try to explain how to edit that advanced action.

[Tricia0923]

Hi Lily,

Thanks here is the screenshot of the Finish of the conditional action on enter...

[Lilybiri]

Why cannot you add a decision about playing the audio clip, the way I explained before? If you want to add also 'increment v_visit with 1', you'll need to add another decision 'Always' after the one that checks its value. That special decision will use the condition 'IF 1 is equal to 1', because that is always resulting in True.

I'm also wondering about the other decisions 'SubCheckE', why don't you put those on the button that navigates the user back to the menu slide? If you do that you can use a shared action, will save you a lot of time.

[Tricia0923]

Hi Lily,

I'm going to try and see what I can do by adding another decision block to this conditional action.

I also have to do something about returning to slides that have timed text captions - after the first visit, I do not want the audio to play again and I do not want the user to have to wait to view the entire slide.

Thanks for all your great suggestions and help...

Tricia

[Tricia0923]

It's working!

All of it so far - how awesome!

It was simple too - just add a decision block to my current Advanced Action to control the audio variable with show hide text caption

THANK YOU!!

[Lilybiri]

I marked this thread as 'Assumed answered', because I suspect you did get the needed information. I don't want to mark any of my answers as Correct, because want to avoid self-promotion.