Creating a process list that builds from previous selections.

[mstick215]

Hello everyone,

Let me start by saying, "Marketing has this great idea...". 

They would like to create an event that builds upon the users decision making process. The goal is to help the user see they need the training we want to sell them. The rules are they do not want the user to receive immediate feedback, they are to receive an overview and the end. The process has 14 steps. I was provided a Visio chart (below) that displays the questions or steps across the top row and the various choices listed in each column. Should the user select an incorrect answer (say step 4), they will be moved to that answers slide (Step or slide 4) located on the top row. This means that some could have 14 selections to the right and others 13 or lower. The variations are numerous. They would like it so the user sees the choices they have made as they progress through the event.

I was thinking of a format like this (below): Left side has 3 buttons and the right side has place holders - whose name changes on each slide as we cannot reuse names.

Using Captivate 9.

My question is how do I take the users selection in question 1 and display it as the first selection on every following slide and so on? Is there a way to 'freeze' the content in a placeholder to future slides? I do not want to create a slide for each answer as that gets crazy fast. Is there an advanced action or Java Script that can resolve this?

Thank you for any ideas!

Mike

[RodWard · Accepted solution]

You do this by creating lots of user variables and storing text in these variables according to the selections made by the user at each step.

Yes there will be lots of variables, but Captivate can handle hundreds of variables.

Your branching can be handled mostly by Standard Advanced Actions, but where the choices offered at a step are dependent on previous selections, you will need to be using Conditional Advanced Actions.

[mstick215]

Hello Rod and Liv,

Thanks for the response. I went back through your book Rod for the Text variables refresher. (Looking forward to seeing some future chapters!)

Question off of what Liv discussed. Is there a way to lock in the decision from a previous slide? For instance, the user has 3 options (slide 1), chooses one and the variable text shows up in the "My Process" area on the following slide (slide 2). Works great. I have  the graphic set to display for rest of project, which it does. However it does not retain the varible text on future slides. Any ideas to lock that text to the smart object?

As usual, your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Mike

[RodWard]

Yes, I've seen this too.  It seems that these Rest of Project objects get reloaded on each slide where they appear.

You might need to use the On Slide Enter event of each slide to write the value to the same object again and again.

[Lilybiri]

Long time ago I created something like that, to end up with a full table of choices. I didn't use tons of variables, but used 'timed for the rest of the project' a lot and reused variables. With the present version of Captivate, this could even be easier (thinking about shared actions). Maybe I don't understand the question fully, and bit busy at this moment or I would set up an example. Think about timing for the rest of the project, can be done for all objects, even if they are on a totally different slide.