Hide in advanced action doesn't work after effect triggered

[arashmaz]

I have a fairly simple advanced action that does the following:

Hide Banner

Applies motion effect to SmartShape 3 right to left

Hides: SmartShape3

SmartShape 3 is essentially half a rounded rectangle that acts like a banner with text in. At the start of the slide it's hidden and sitting almost off the stage. When you click a button it does the following:

Show Banner

Show: SmartShape3

Applies motion effect left to right to SmartShape

This gives the illusion that it's sliding in from the left. The reason I had it sat a bit on the stage at the start is the effect is slow so this makes it speed up as it has less distance to travel.

The idea is the action above in blue is triggered and the banner slides in from the left onto the stage. Another button is pressed and the action in red is triggered sliding it off the stage. But once the motion effect has been run it doesn't seem to hide, leave the tip of the rounded rectangle still visible on the stage.

I tried adjusting the pause lines in the buttons that trigger these actions pushing them further down the timeline, but it doesn't have any impact. I actually expected it to start the motion path and then hide the shape so quickly you wouldn't actually see much of the effect as when Advanced Actions run they're super quick.

Am I missing something or is it just a limitation with effects being using in Advanced Actions?

[Lilybiri · Accepted solution]

You have some misunderstanding about actions. All commands in an advanced action are executed in sequence but immediately. Effects also have a duration, you don't tell which duration you applied.  Can you post a screenshot of the timeline? Did you check the length of the motion path, is it sufficient? You have to do that by using the same effect time-based. BTW I often apply such an effect using micronavigation instead of Apply effect. In my last blog post, you see an example:

More is in a... hyperlink - Dropdown Menu - Captivate blog

[arashmaz]

Hi Lilybiri

There's no where in the advanced actions panel when applying a motion path to set the duration. There's no parameters for that particular effect. Even if you could adjust the timing, it seems to play for a set duration anyway. The reason I know is I created one that lasted half a second and saved it as a custom motion path.

When I applied it in the advanced action it was taking more than double the time I had specified for that effect. It seems to disregard whatever time you specify in for the custom motion path and default to a set amount of time.

You can only set which motion path in advanced actions and no other parameters (I'm using Captivate 8).

Also, if I set the start and finish points for the banner's motion path so it moves completely off the screen because it seems to disregard any timings you set for the effect it means it takes far too long for it to play the effect when in an advanced action.

I understand that the advance actions execute sequentially and immediately, but if that's the case why doesn't it execute the hide action if I stick a motion path before it?

I'll check out your blog post as it might provide a more suitable alternative. I'll also see if I can provide some screen shots later to illustrate further.

[arashmaz]

Hi Lilybiri...

I think your blog post is a better way of achieving what I want so thank you for providing that solution.

[Lilybiri]

Are you on an older version than 9? Because in 9 it is possible to set the duration of each effect. However it is not possible to set coordinates for a motion path and you have a motion effect. For older versions you need to create a custom effect before applying it by an advanced action if you want to change parameters from the default settings. There will be limitations however, depending on the version: you cannot always decrease the duration below a certain amount of seconds.

Since you seem to be on an older version, you are also not able to use the new command "Delay next...  " which could maybe have solved your problem. However, although I have several examples of using (custom) effects applied by advanced actions, in several cases I prefer using micro-navigation.

Here is an example where I'm using advanced actions to apply effects:

Reset Effects in Captivate 6 - Captivate blog

[arashmaz]

Yeah I'm using Captivate 8 - so when you click on the parameters it says there's none to change.

[Lilybiri]

Indeed, it is a new feature in Captivate 9: