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katherinej12112415
Participating Frequently
November 8, 2015
Question

How do you use a variable inside a scrolling text widget?

  • November 8, 2015
  • 1 reply
  • 1546 views

(Captivate 9) Example: I have two pages on page 1 the user answers a question in a text box entry (the answer can be multiple lines long) - this saves to a variable (Answer1) Which want to display on page 2. I can display it using a variable in a text caption box ($$Answer1$$) but if the answer is longer than the box it does not display the entire answer, so I wanted to display it in a scrolling text widget but I can not figure out how to do this.

I have tried using the variable $$Answer1$$ as the default text - this does not work.

I have tried assigning the variable Answer1 to the variable associated with the widget (Q1Answer) as an on Entry action for page 2 - this does not work.

I have tried making the variable associated with the widget the same as the text entry box - Answer1. This does not work.

Any suggestions?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    Lilybiri
    Lilybiri
    Legend
    November 9, 2015

    When you inserted the variable in a text container (caption or shape), did you use the X button in the Properties panel? Do not type in the variable between $$ but use that work flow. In the dialog box you will be able to define the length displayed for the variable. This will be the same for the Scrolling Text Interaction, no need to switch to that because it has the same limit for displaying a variable (used to be 256 characters, but heard it is now less in CP9, didn't double-check).

    Moreover, only if you are publishing to SWF will it be possible to show the content in a learning interaction by defining the variable. This is functional for some learning interactions, not for all and it is NOT working for HTML output. That is another reason to use a text container instead of that interaction.

    Some examples of using the Scrolling Text Interaction: Custom Short Answer Question - Captivate blog

      K
      katherinej12112415Author
      Participating Frequently
      November 9, 2015

      I tried using the text caption and the "X" for the variable but the text caption is not big enough to hold my answer from my text entry box and therefore does not show all of the text on page 2 it will not show scroll bars no matter how many characters I select or input into the Maximum length field. This is also the case for a shape. This is why I was trying to use the scrolling text widget or another text entry box with scroll bars and show the text in its entirety but neither of these accept variables.

      I looked at the widgets but they list for captive 6.x so I am unsure if they will work in captive 9. If they can where do I install them in captivate?

      Any other suggestions?

      Lilybiri
      Lilybiri
      Legend
      November 10, 2015

      We are both talking about Learning Interactions - "Scrolling Text" - Captivate calls it a "Widget" when on the slide that is why I was calling it a widget. But I still cannot use a variable in the text area of the scrolling text field. I would like to make it read only and have the content shown be the input from page 1's text enter box.

      Again I can get it to work in a text caption field but I need to make the field smaller on page 2 than on page 1 and the TBE on page 1 allows scroll bars. I am only trying to get page 2 to show what the user entered on page 1.

      Thanks for the help but I am still trying to get it to work.


      You cannot control what shows up in a TEB, one of my old feature requests that never made it to the priority feature list. Indeed, default text containers never have a scrolling bar. The learning interactions is your only way out, but controlling the variable to show up will only be functional in SWF output as I explained before.

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