How can I make slides NOT advance automatically in Captivate 6?

[Guest]

I placed a smart caption on the Master Slide. However, it can be clicked, ignoring the time frame for the slide. Is there a way to stop advanced automation, use the smart caption but still hold the participant to stay on that slide until it has played completely?

I also have another question about the assessment slide as well but I will post another comment if I can't answer that question.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Not sure what you mean with Smart Caption. There are Text Captions and there are Smart Shapes.

Typically, if you want a slide to pause, you insert a Click Box or a Button object and playback will stop until some action is performed by the viewer.

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

Sorry, let me clarify. I placed a Smart Shape on the master slide. I used this forum to do that. http://forums.adobe.com/message/4907729#4907729

[Shekhar_Dhiman]

Hi there,

Welcome to adobe Community.

You can use the Pause project until user clicks option. Select the smartshape and on the right side properties pane you will see this under Options

Hope this helps!

Thanks!

[Guest]

Thanks! I have done that but it allows you to override the time allotted for the slide to play out completely.

[Shekhar_Dhiman]

I am sorry but I did not completely understand what exactly you are trying to say.

When you insert a smart shape on a master slide and use it as a button and choose that option and apply that master slide to your project then the project content plays and then the slide pauses.

Thanks!

[Guest]

Thanks Shekhar. I went and did this. Captivate does pause the presentation from continuing without the participant clicking. Once they click it moves on. This is great. What I now need to do is either delay the appearance of that  buttom or override them from just clicking through the presentation.

When you place it on the master, I don't see where you can adjust it to appear 2 seconds before the end of the timing of the slide.

Thanks again.

[Shekhar_Dhiman]

Hi Bill,

Thank you for explaining the issue in detail. In that case you can insert a SmartShape Placeholder on the Master Slide by going to Insert > Placeholder Objects > Smart Shape.

This way the smartshape will be there on the Master Slide but you can configure it according to every slide. You can make it appear after any number of seconds.

Thanks!

[Guest]

This looks great, but my adobe Cp 6 does not show "Pause project until user clicks".  Does anyone know why not?  Thanks in advance.

[Sreekanth_S]

Have you placed the smartshape button on the normal slide or the master slide? You get this option when your smartshape button is on the master slide.

Sreekanth

[Guest]

Excellent!  Thank you!

[Autofire]

Thanks for many useful tips Sreekanth,

Now I have also run into problems trying to prevents slides from advancing.

I have a slide with a complex drag and drop "game" and the user should be allowed to try and drag and drop things back and forth between the different drop targets until he clicks submit and the result is calculated.

However, if I try to move the same drop source around 3-4 times, the slide automatically starts advancing to the next slide.

I have tried to create a click box that pauses the project, I have tried with a button - but nothing seems to work

It is so frustrating that such a simple thing should be so complicated.

[Autofire]

After working on this for a few hours I realized the solution. When assigning variables I needed to execute an advanced action so that I can put a pause after each action.

[sapphiregraphics1]

I didn't think there was a "pause" option under advanced actions.

[RodWard]

You can use Advanced Actions to pause the timeline, but for a given number of seconds.

[sapphiregraphics1]

How do you do that? (Use advanced actions to pause the timeline for a set number of seconds, I mean.)

[RodWard]

Sorry, my apology.  There should have been a NOT in that sentence above.  (Typing without caffiene in the bloodstream is not recommended.)

So it SHOULD have read: "You can use Advanced Actions to pause the timeline, but NOT for a given number of seconds."

You can use the Pause action to stop the timeline, but Advanced Actions are event-based.  Which means they need something to kick them in the ribs to execute and do their stuff.  Usually this is something like the entry or exit of a slide, or the user doing something like clicking on a button.

You might be better off investigating using JavaScript for this.  It seems to be the answer to everything nowadays.

[MichelleatROV]

I have the exact same problem and exact same complaint.  Did you ever get this to work successfully?  If so, would you mind saying exactly how you did it?

[Sreekanth_S]

Have you tried the solutions provided in this thread?

Sreekanth

[MichelleatROV]

Sorry I didn't reply.  It worked.  Thank you so much for your help.

[Fixed_Anton]

Tried everything posted in this thread except implementing javascript since im bad with it.

Nothing helps so far.

Thing is on many slides i tipically have lots of active buttons or shapes and even if im using advanced scripts including pauses or special invisible objects etc. etc... project still advancing at some point.

As Autofire said: "It is so frustrating that such a simple thing should be so complicated."

I wish Captivate had a simple menu option Do/Do not advance automatically.

[Lilybiri]

Please start a new thread, and explain more in detail. Which version are you using? You talk about 'advanced scripts', I think you mean advanced or shared actions? Interactive objects like buttons or shape buttons can trigger simple and advanced/shared actions and that makes a big difference: Why choose Standard over Simple action? - Captivate blog

It is not complicated if you understand the design. Since you are using advanced/shared actions you should already have acquired knowledge about the basics of Captivate's design.

Screenshot of the timeline and the actions you are using could help to understand.

[Fixed_Anton]

Okay, ill try to sum up most of problems i've stumbled upon in an hour or so, and create a new thread.

My goal is to create a learning course that look like the original (which is made using program other than Captivate) and got same functionality. We're currently deciding if we can replace our program with Captivate or maybe use them both.

Thank you for your time, Lilybiri!

[Lilybiri]

Thanks for listening to my advice. Captivate is pretty powerful, once you understand its behaviors but that is the case for every software application. My blog has a lot of tutorials about more advanced features.