difference between user click and master slide go to

[richard_r1]

So am on a roll of newbie questions:

Captivate 8

there is a slide from powerpoint project and a click box

Properties --> Actions

The slide says On Exit = no action

the click box says On Exit = go to next slide

Example of video on slide I have removed the click box and changed slide On Exit = go to next or jump to other (as needed)

Example of normal (non-video) slide that goes to other slide in sequence On Exit = jump to slide Y

Which of the commander here?

Do both the slide AND the click box have to say jump to slide Y for it to work?

Does one contradict the other?  For example click box says Go to while slide = No Action

To pause the slides I have reduced the click boxes to the bottom right-hand and put the activity at the end of the timeline. I am using the Captivate Skin to progress. If I put the click box at the beginning of the timeline for only 0.2 second will the Skin Play still work if it is > than 0.3 seconds

I think this is two questions.

one is the hierarchy of property actions of slides and click boxes

the other is the placement of click boxes and their pause function in the timeline

thanks

[Lilybiri]

Did you learn to use Captivate or are you a total newbie?

When you used Captivate to convert a PPT, you have chosen to have it be controlled by the user who needs to click on each slide to advance to the next slide. That is the reason why the click box was inserted at the end of the timeline, it covers the whole slide, has as functionality to pause the slide until the user decides to click on the slide. The Success action for that click box is 'Go to Next Slide'.

Do not use the On Exit event, that is a bad idea, and totally unnecessary. It is not to be trusted (see article: Events and (advanced) Actions - Captivate blog), and this event occurs after the last frame of the slide. If you want the slide to advance automatically to the next slide, why didn't you choose this when importing the PPT? If you want to change it now, just delete the click box. When the playhead gets at the last frame of this slide it will automatically go to the Next slide.

There is no contradiction but it has no sense whatsoever what you are doing: either you want to give the user control and also in PPT this happens by clicking on the slide. If you reduce the size of the click box, just clicking on the slide will not be functional anymore. It is at the end of the timeline for imported PPT-slides, don't understand why you say that you have to move it at all?

Each event will trigger the action linked with that event. If the events are occurring not at the same moment, both triggered actions will be executed in sequence. Try to understand the timeline, please! You are talking here about two events (Success event for the click box and On Exit event for the slide), but the real question is: what do you want, automatically advancing or control to the user? If you give the answer to that question, I could help.

The playbar is just like a control panel for a VCR or similar. It can pause, it can play but it is always acting linear: you cannot jump to another slide with the playbar.

Last question: please edit your title, because I don't see any reference to a master slide in the question itself? PPT imported slides are always based on the Blank master slide which has no actions nor objects.

[richard_r1]

thanks for this

like most things being relative I class myself a complete newbie. Am self-taught with help from here and from my trusty e-learning uncovered captivate 8 book. I was actually booked onto a course to learn to use captivate but the provider cancelled at the last minute - so I just got stuck-in...

It is using clicks - or not - that causes me the most trouble. 

The project I am on is an induction. Generally I wish people to have the ability to pause and read - and then click to the next slide in their own time.

But there are some slides with links to video slides (blank slides with video inserted in C8). In these examples, like ask the CEO a question - click on the question - opens a slide where the CEO answers the question. The project then loops back to the questions page to ask another - or click the play button and move to the next section. In these video slides I have removed the click box and added the action to the slide 'on exit - go to next' or 'on exit - jump to (loop) back.

So here - I think - I want both control for the user and the slide pauses until there is a click - or the event of a video slide the video plays then goes to next or loops as needed.

I would like to be able to disable the click next on the presentation, meaning the user may ONLY progress by using the Playbar. I have begun to create new projects with my own buttons rather than the C8 skin playbar, I think this will give me that control.

The problem I had with the playbar was when video slides should loop back to the previous (or other) slide. When clicking on the playbar it forced the next slide and broke the loop. (There are 8 countries to click-on and unless I controlled the loops people could click to learn about Australia and then suddenly find them selves in Belgium (always a pleasure of course) but not ideal playback.

The answer is as you describe to invest some time thinking about each slide and the logic of what is required of it. There is so much to C8 it is tricky to know you are doing the right or best thing.

appreciate help here though

[Lilybiri]

I never use a playbar for several reasons. First reason: it is only useful for a totally linear project without any branching. The progress bar is just confusing if you have branching in projects and good eLearning courses will branch. It is pretty easy to provide custom buttons. I strongly recommend to use shape buttons because those are the only interactive objects that can be placed on a master slide, can be timed for the rest of the project and also can be used on question/score slides. If you provide a playbar with a progress bar, the user can just scrub the playbar in a couple of seconds to the end of the course.

Belgium is great to live in (my country) if you like food, beer, chocolate Another tip: please read my post about events, never use the On Exit event as you explain again. It is much better, trustworthy to use the On Enter event of the next slide, which will always launch the action you want to happen.

[richard_r1]

I am definitely going to use my own buttons next time - mainly to place them in a more 'mobile' position for thumb use - towards the bottom right.

And my wife and I love Belgium. I am lucky enough to have to work sometimes in Brussels (shame my French is so bad) and we often plan a quick trip north. This year Gent. Is a great country, the people are fantastic!

[Lilybiri]

Hmmm, majority in Belgium (63%) speaks Dutch. So do I. Less than 1/3rd are French speaking.

I always take visitors to Gent (live half-way between Gent and Brussels, which means very close to both), one of the most beautiful cities, prefer it to Brugge (Bruges) and have sometimes troubles convincing American friends  that Gent is a better choice.

You can find a lot about buttons on my blog. Too bad you are not yet on CP9, here is an article about one shared actions that can be used for many different shape buttons:

1 action = 5 Toggle Buttons - Captivate blog

It can be adapted to CP8, by replacing the states change by a show/hide technique. There are some explanations in

Toggle Shape buttons - Captivate 6 - Captivate blog

[richard_r1]

Love Brugse Zot

much prefer the north too

OK - so am budgeted to  upgrade Premier Elements to Pro OR C8 to C9

am researching which will be better for me (I would like to have soundbooth in Premier pro but otherwise is ok) I might go for C9 if I can get some clear difference = advantage

thanks for the links - I am creating some 'branded' buttons to use - so plan to use these instead of the skin and will practice from your rather excellent and comprehensive blog - is appreciated

allerbeste

[Lilybiri]

I published 4 posts about Captivate 9 already, find it really worthwhile to upgrade.

As for Soundbooth? I didn't even know it still is supported, because in CC it has been replaced since several versions by Audition. Why not try Audacity which is free?