How do I jump to a specific slide number?

Report · Mar 29, 2024

I inherited a bunch of Captivate presentations that contain over 100 slides. While editing, I frequently have to jump between specific slide numbers (slide number 5, 60, 71, etc.). I can't find a "Go To Slide #" in any of the Captivate menus. Is there really no way to jump to a specific slide number?

Report · Mar 29, 2024

You need to look for 'Jump to Slide' if you need a simple action. However, there are more possibilities if you are not using the most recent version 12 when you need to combine with more actions in an advanced or shared action. You don't need the menu at all, you need to go to the Actions tab of the interactive object or of the slide.

Report · Mar 29, 2024

Thank you for your response but isn't that for when *watching* the presentation?

I'm asking about how to jump to a specific slide when *editing* the presentation. For example, when creating a Keynote presentation I can use Control + Alt + G to jump to any slide number.

Report · Mar 29, 2024

Can you explain what you want exactly? Both 'Go to Next Slide' and 'Jump to slide' are actions which will indeed be done on runtime. From your last comment it looks like you are looking for something else? Want navigation in the editing environment, in the Filmstrip? PgDwn and PgUp allow to navigate to the previous/next slide. To navigate to any slide, I would use the Advanced Interaction panel (F9) which is dynamically linked to the filmstrip. You can navigate quickly to a slide in that panel. More information about that panel (which is not available in the most recent version 12):

https://blog.lilybiri.com/advanced-interaction-panel-q-and-a

You can keep it floating (even in the Newbie UI) and minimize to the title to keep it around as navigation help.

Report · Mar 29, 2024

Captivate is not a presentation but an eLearning authoring tool. Do not compare both.

So, you probably are on Mac. Which exact version of Captivate will you be using for editing those old courses?

Report · Mar 29, 2024

Captivate is not a presentation but an eLearning authoring tool.

I'm an engineer on the Word team at MS. I can assure you I understand what type of tool Captivate is. 😉

I'm not comparing the tool types... I'm expecting Captivate to support the most basic of search functions that exist in professional apps: Word: Goto Page, Excel: Goto Sheet, PowerPoint: Goto Slide, Acrobat: Goto page, Keynote: Goto Slide, etc.

I have Captivate presentations that contains hundreds of slides. My required edits could be easily automated if Captivate only supported an Edit->Goto Slide Number like a normal application. I ended up just writing a C++ plugin that binds cntrl+alt+g to a simple message box that accepts a number and then moves to the correct slide. The weird "slide number" UI at the top of the classic window doesn't work 90% of the time.

Report · Mar 29, 2024

Hundreds of slides for an eLearning course? Weird. I would indeed type the wanted slide in the progress indicator on top never had issues with that.

You say that it doesn't work in 90%? Are you sure that the Captivate version you are using, or/and the projects are not corrupted? Please use the troubleshooting workflows: Clear the cache, and Clean the Preferences.

https://blog.lilybiri.com/tips-for-troubleshooting

It may be linked at that big number of slides. Or are those only software simulations? Than it is possible to have such an amount of slides, but not in a normal eLearning course. With that amount of slides I would expect grouped slides, and the collapsing of the groups to make direct navigation in the FIlmstrip easier.

Captivate has a Search functionality (CTRL-F), but for all types of objects you can have in a project, cannot be compared with much less complicated tools.

I have been answering thousands of answers about Captivate and you are the first user complaining about not being able to navigate to a slide, which normally will be identified by a label, not by a number.

Did you at least try the workaround I offered by using the Advanced Interaction panel, where each slide is identified on one line? If you click on a slide in that panel the slide will appear immediately on the stage. If you click on one of the objects on a slide, the slide will appear, that object will be selected and its Properties panel (and linked panels) will show up. Lot more powerful than a simple go to slide functionality because you get much more information about the slide in that panel.

In this screenshot I kept only one expanded line for slide 3. All other slide lines are collapsed.

Report · Mar 29, 2024

They are software simulations; some of which are comprised of hundreds of SLIDES. You know, the basic buliding block of the tool. I've been creating these types of applications for 20 years (Word is used by orders of magnitude more people than Captivate so you can spare me the "I've never been asked this question before" crap). For example, at MS we ensure that Word is able to be fully automated (all UI actions have a keyboard shortcut that can be assigned). I can use Word without ever touching my mouse.

Using the F9 UI simply moves the scrolling requirement to a different window.

You say that slides at referred to by labels but do you know what EVERY slide is assocaited with? A slide number. If a teammate says, "Hey, change the title on slide 51" I don't care what that "label" is. I should just hit control+g (or similar), type 51, and then hit Enter.

Like I said, I ended up building the funtionality into Captivate myself. I'll automate these edits and then never touch this tool again.

Report · Mar 30, 2024

When you move a slide all slide numbers will change.... same when you add a slide somewhere. Only slide labels are consistent, and I also have created tons of simulations, but also other eLearning projects with Captivate.

CTRL-G is used, similar to other Adobe applications, to group objects. CTRL-ALT-G to group slides. Grouping is much more important in Adobe applications than in MS applications (I have taught several apps from both brands).

Report · Mar 30, 2024

@Lilybiri wrote:
CTRL-G is used, similar to other Adobe applications

Who cares about the specific key combo!? It can be any combo (even user-selectable like many apps).

And I don't NEED to move the slides around. You aren't answering questions here... you're simply defending a peice of crap application that was built by idiots. Using WinSpy++ it was easy to reverse engineer the core event loop and, guess what, none of the "buttons" are even Win32 buttons.

MS Word is multi-platform; built from a single source base and even on macOS it presents as a native app (e.g. it can be driven by AppleScript). Captivate looks and behaves like it was built using Adobe Flash by a freshman comp sci student.

I calculated it last night: given the 11 Captivate documents I inherited from an ex-colleague I had to make over 600 individual edits. Without the "go to slide" functionality it would have taken me hours of mindless scrolling/clicking. Using my C++ "goto slide" plugin and Power Automate the entire task took less than 15 minutes.

The good news is no one in our division is going to be using Captivate moving forward. What are you going to do with your time once the product is retired?