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Custom "next" and "previous" buttons disappear when TOC is used

Community Beginner ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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In my Captivate 2019 project I have custom "next" and "previous" buttons. They are programmed to pause the timeline, so learners can take their time reading the content before clicking "next".

 

I have a TOC with navigation enabled. I'd like learners to be able to navigate back and forth between slides through the TOC if they want to. However, when I click a slide through the TOC, the buttons disappear and the timeline does not stop.

 

I attached a video to show what is happening. I had to censor the content of the slides, but I am sure you can still notice the custom next and previous button disappearing, and the timeline continuing.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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There are many ways of setting up those custom navigation buttons and you didn't specify your workflow:

  • Buttons on the main master slide
  • Buttons on daughter master slides
  • Buttons on one of the first slides timed for the rest of the project
  • Buttons on each slide

If you have buttons on the main or other master slides set to pause, they will always pause at the end of each slide, whateveer its duration. But that is not the case for the other solutions.

I suspect you talk about a default TOC. The equivalent of clicking a slide to navigate to is the same as with Jump to Slide command (or using cpCmndGotoSlide variable). How did you set up the TOC?

Your video is not providing relevant information, please clarify.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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Hi Lilybiri,

I am sorry for the missing information. The buttons were set up as follows:

  1. Created an image button
  2. Added action under properties "Go to next slide" or "Go to slide previously visited"
  3. Copy and pasted those buttons to all slides

The TOC is a default TOC, I went to Project > Table of Contents to create it, and allowed "Self-Paced Learning" and "Enable Navigation" under the settings.

I hope this helps.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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OK, that is a very cumbersome workflow, certainly not the best one.

I suspect there is a problem linked to the pausing point of the buttons, since it is possible that all slides do not have the same duration. You clearly told that you need those buttons to pause the slide, but did you edit the pausing point? Are all buttons displayed for the rest of the slide? It would be a lot better to put those buttons on the main master slide or on used master slides, so that they will pause each slide at its last frame. 

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Explorer ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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Another suggestion to accommodate the delay of the buttons appearing on videos where you have slides is to place the buttons on your first slide, group them, and have them display for the rest of the project. On the slides that you want the buttons to display for the duration of the timeline, you could add an On Enter action to show the grouped buttons. On the slides that you don't want the buttons to appear, you could copy the buttons to that slide and have them display for the duration, but have them appear at a certain point on the timeline, then add an On Enter action to hide the grouped buttons on the slide. This configuration isn't as straight-forward as what Lilybiri has suggested, but it does offer flexibility.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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That's a fair assessment. This is my first Captivate project, so there's still a lot of learning and optimization to do.

 

I editted the pausing points, and they work when I go through the slides normally. The errors only happen when I click on a slide through the TOC.

 

All buttons are displayed for the rest of the slide, and have a pause prompt at the very end (3 second mark for most slides, edited for longer slides).

 

It doesn't really explain why the buttons are not appearing in slides when they are accessed via TOC...

 

I have no idea how to use master slides, but I will look into it and see if it helps. Thank you for your support 🙂

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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Do not push the pausing point till the end of the slide, not a good idea at all.

There is no logical reason why the buttons would disappear or not appear when you jump to that slide, have never heard about such a behavior and I am daily on the forum here since over a decade. Since you are using an image as a button, I suspect that you are on version 11.5. But there have been patches.

Can you check the exact version you are using? You find the version number under Help, About Captivate.

You are probably using a TOC which is not in overlay?

 

Master slides are part of the Theme. It would be good to learn about Themes. Have a look at:

Theme Resources - eLearning (adobe.com)

That blog has a free pdf with links to most of the blogs I wrote about Themes. 

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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The version is: 1.15.1.499

 

That's correct, the TOC is selected as "Separate" instead of "Overlay"

 

Thank you, I will check out the attached blog post and other related posts. I recognize I have a lot to learn and I appreciate learning from an expert! 🙂

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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Hi Lilybiri! I solved the problem with your guidance. 

 

In short, the buttons that were not appearing all had conditions tied to them - they had other actions tied up to them: "Only show next button once other button has been clicked" or "Show button after X seconds".

 

For some reason that was not being triggered correctly when skipping through slides.

 

I removed all variables and conditions, and the buttons are now working.

 

At this point, I will play around with master slides to hopefully build a better solution 🙂

 

Thank you for all your help today. I learned a lot.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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Glad you could solve it. It is difficult to detect that type of solutions without seeing the project of course. 

If a lot is happening on a slide, to allow smooth free navigation you'll need often a 'reset' action to be triggered with the On Enter slide event. 

Using a custom theme for each project is part of my default workflow and it can save you a lot of time!

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Explorer ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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I watched your video. Did you place the custom next and previous buttons on the first slide and configure them to display for the rest of the project, or how did you set them up?

Also, I'm not sure if this is still an issue in the latest versions of Captivate, but I've always been in the habit of periodically deleting the contents of the project cache folder before opening and publishing a project in Captivate, as the compile process would occasionally fail to update some screen elements after changing them. It may be an idea to clear your cache and just try to publish the project again.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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Hi! Thank you, I will try that.

 

The buttons were set up to display until the end of the slide, and copied and pasted on every slide.

 

There are a handful of slides that are videos, so those are set up to appear with a delay, so the buttons don't interfere with the video. Those are not the ones with the issue, though.

 

Thanks for your input! I will try to clear the cache and try again.

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