Countdown Timer Widget and Hiding it on second slide visit , but need to lock it down

[mikey62571274]

Hello everyone, first post here and I am a newbie Captivate developer working on my first project.  I have an issue that I need some help with. 

Utilizing the timer widget to countdown and force the amount of time the user needs to spend on each slide:

1.  My client wanted to control the minimum amount of time that the user spends on each slide so I have a timer widget on each slide that has it’s duration set (ranging from 5 seconds to 60 seconds).  User cannot go forward until they spend that duration on each slide.

1. RIGHT/FORWARD Arrow to continue to next slide appears as the countdown timer widget disappears (this happens at .2 seconds before the end of the slide duration).  There is a pause set at .2 on the Right arrow. 

1. Left/BACK Arrow is always “active”
   1. Issue 1 – (SOLVED) if user goes back 1 slide, the user needs to sit through the timer count down again.  I add a variable and an advanced action to mark the slide as visited which will hide the timer widget and show the RIGHT/FORWARD arrow.

1. Issue 2 - (NEED SOLUTION) If user goes back and then forward they wouldn’t have to “wait” for the timer to count down.  I need to account for them going back and then forward quick and they would get around the time they have to spend on each slide. 

I have to implement this on almost 400 “slides” over 8 modules that are already mostly done.  I need to backtrack and implement and my deadline is next week.  Looking for a solution to handle the back/forth/timer issue and the easier to implement.  It looks like any sort of Master slide setup is out. Should I be doing a frame count check and making sure they can't go ahead until they spend the duration in the timer widget, but I am not sure I can interact wiht the widget in that way to update it's duration.  Seems like all this would be possible with JS.  Any help is appreciated.

Mike

[TLCMediaDesign]

What determines the time on the timer from 5 - 60 seconds? Is it the length of the slide?

[Lilybiri]

No, David, time has to be entered in the Properties dialog box of the Timer interaction. I would not use that timer, but the timing system variables and a shared action. I presume that you would use JS/

Problem with the interaction is that it could work fine for longer times, but  for seconds it is not at all correct: it takes about 1sec before it starts.