How to create an accordian menu that links out to other slides (like a table of contents)...?

[DavidKnowles]

So I'm developing this course in Captivate, and for a section of the course, I need to create an accordion menu catalog of three subsections with four items each that corresponds to 12 different slides the user can navigate to. (Example below) I tried using the pre-made learning interaction, but as far as I can tell, you cannot set any actions within the text allowed in the contact area, and I need my text to link out to other slides. I looked into incorporating a Javascript interaction, but I don't know how to interact with the elements on my slide already or if its even worth it to set that up. Does anyone have a solution or a fix for this?

Slide 22: Voice Services

Menu Section 1: Standard Voice Services

          Item 1: POTS

          Item 2: Private Lines

          Item 3: Calling Features

          Item 4: Operator Services

Menu Section 2: Advanced Voice Services

          Item 1: Centrex

          Item 2: ISDN

          Item 3: VoIP

          Item 4: Bundles

Menu Section 3: Long Distance Services

          Item 1: Switched

          Item 2: Dedicated

          Item 3: Information Database

          Item 4: Multiple Dialing Plans

I want to be able to click each menu section, to show the sub-items and hide the sub-items of other sections, then click those sub-items to navigate to a different slide associated with them.

[RodWard]

Why are you NOT just using the Captivate TOC for this?  Why waste time trying to build this when a perfectly good solution is already available?

[DavidKnowles]

1) The Table of Contents that Captivate provides is either an overlay or requires a wider profile, you can't place it on a slide like I want

2) I need to make the button to each item check a variable so that it recognizes if it's the first time it's visited.

3) I want the TOC to ONLY appear after slide 22, I don't want the user to jump ahead of the first 22 slides to the TOC.

[RodWard]

1) The Table of Contents that Captivate provides is either an overlay or requires a wider profile, you can't place it on a slide like I want

ANSWER: Captivate's TOC is an elegant solution that looks good, has many configuration options and works well. It has much to recommend it. Being unable to control its exact position on the slide is a minor issue really.

2) I need to make the button to each item check a variable so that it recognizes if it's the first time it's visited.

ANSWER: This will be more of an issue.  Yes you can do this with User Variables and Advanced Actions but creating your own custom TOC to do this is going to end up being a maintenance nightmare.  Trust me.  You (or whoever has to maintain your creation afterward) will wish you had just used the default TOC instead.

3) I want the TOC to ONLY appear after slide 22, I don't want the user to jump ahead of the first 22 slides to the TOC.

ANSWER: You can easily hide the TOC on the first slides using one system variables that control visibility of the TOC and another that Locks it so that even if the user did open it they could not click on it.

[mycountrymobile-com]

Hello,

It sounds like you're working on an interesting project in Captivate! To achieve the accordion menu functionality with clickable items that link to different slides, using JavaScript can provide the flexibility you're looking for. You can dynamically show and hide sections by adding click events to the menu items, and control visibility by assigning unique IDs or classes to each section. JavaScript methods like slide.show or slide.hide will help you navigate to the corresponding slide when an item is selected.

Additionally, consider integrating virtual phone numbers for a more scalable and dynamic solution, especially if you're working with services like VoIP or POTS.

I hope this helps, and best of luck with your course development!