How to do prevent users from skipping slides?

[Marsi5]

Hi, I’m an Adobe Captivate noob, so I’d really appreciate some help.

I want to lock the user’s navigation option, in such a way that if the user hasn’t finished a slide yet, he or she will not be able to proceed to the next slide or to other slides in the project. How do I do this? Is this even possible? If yes, what are my options?

I’m using Adobe Captivate 4.

Thanks in advance!

[Lilybiri]

Hello and welcome to the forum,

There are a couple of options. First of all, I would not show a playbar but create navigation myself. If you do need the playbar, perhaps for CC or for muting the audio, then do not show the Navigation buttons (you can do this in the Project, Skin editor). If you do not provide navigation buttons on the slide itself, this will mean that the playhead will play just on (except when you are inserting a Pause by adding an interactive object like a button/click box/Text Entry box). If you want to show the user where he is in the file, you could enable the Table of Contents but disalbe 'Enable Navigation' in this TOC.

Lilybiri

[Marsi5]

Thanks Lilybiri! I was afraid that I would just be ignored.

But here’s the thing – I don’t want a total prevention of control from my users. I was thinking of allowing them to go back the previous slides or pause if they please, but not to go elsewhere in the project or skip slides if they haven’t finished the initial slides.

In a nutshell: is there a way to force users to go through each and every slide by preventing them to go forward in the project if they haven’t finished the initial slides? Is that possible?

Thanks!

[Lilybiri]

Hello,

Why should you be ignored? We all once were 'rookies' and this forum with his fine moderator, Captiv8r. Experienced users have helped me a lot when I was starting with Captivate

If you only deactivate the Next button in the playbar, wouldn't that achieve your goal? But of course, the user could just drag the slider to skip in that case.  If you want complete control, you will have to create your own navigation on the slides I think. Add a Back and an Next button, but set the Next button on the timeline of the slide very late on that slide. Just tried this: slide has a duration of 3sec. I created a Next button, with Success action 'Go to next slide' and changed the Timing settings:

1. appear after 2.9sec
2. duration = 0.1sec
3. pause after 0.1sec

The button will appear when the playhead reaches almost the end of the slide and will have this slide paused until the user clicks.

You will need a Back button with more default settings.

Lilybiri

PS: sorry, had to look for your version. You can easily copy this button, the select all the slides in the filmstrip and paste it on all. The timing and the success action will be the same on all slides.

[Marsi5]

Here are some things that I would like to happen:

1) My ultimate goal is to restrict the users from jumping from one slide to another just because they think some slides are unimportant; thus, I was hoping there’s a feature in Captivate that would block them from going forward in the project if they haven’t finished the initial slides.

2) But at the same time, I want to keep the TOC so that users will still have a reference on their progress in the project. But, again, disable them from skipping other slides by clicking the TOC, but allow them to use the same TOC to go back to the slides they have already finished. Such that, for example, if I have a 10-slide project and the user have already finished slides 1 to 3, the TOC can allow the users to navigate to slide 2 or 3 or 1, but will not allow them to jump to slide 8 or any slide they haven’t finished yet.

3) I also want to keep the navigation buttons so that if they want to pause the project for whatever reason, like to go to the restroom or take a quick break, they can do so. And, I also want to keep these navigation buttons so that if the users instead like to use the ‘back’ and ‘forward’ buttons to review the slides they have already finished, they can do so. But disable to ‘forward’ button if they just want to skip a slide even if they haven’t finished it yet.

Are these even possible with Captivate? Sorry for this long post. But I’m just hoping this is can be achieved using Captivate 4. Sorry too if I appear too insistent, but I don’t know who else to ask. Thanks so much in advance!

[Lilybiri]

Hello,

I already tried to give you some answers to those questions. Navigation can be done in three ways:

1. Using a playbar, where you can choose (as I answered in a previous posting) which buttons to add: in your case I would not add the Forward, the Progression nor the Fast forward. The user will be able to go back (previous slide), rewind, pause/play. Could you explain why this is not the proper solution?
2. Using the TOC with navigation enabled. TOC has the advantage that the user can go to whatever slide he wants. But here there is no possibility to prohibit going forward, so I do not think enabling navigation in the TOC will achieve what you want. You can hide slides in the TOC, so that the user cannot click on them, that is all. Or you can temporarily block navigation by controlling a system variable.
3. Create your own navigation buttons on the slides as I tried to explain for the Next button. It will be more work but you will have total control, can decide when a button appears (by using the timeline or advanced actions).

Lilybiri

[Marsi5]

Oh okay. Sorry if I sounded too insistent.

BTW, you said it's possible to temporarily block navigation by controlling a system variable. How do you do this?

Thanks again.

[Lilybiri]

Hello,

Navigation in the TOC can be blocked by changing the system variable cpLockTOC to 1. This is possible by attaching the action "Assign" to an event like entering a slide, or by using this same action in an Advanced action. If you are unfamiliar with the use of variables, perhaps these two blog posts that point to articles I wrote could help you:

Curious about variables in CP4&5

Unleash the power of variables in CP4&5 with advanced actions

Lilybiri

[JLRiley]

I am not sure if I can help this discussion or not but I see two issues.

1) The technical issues of Captivate and navigation.

2) The instructional design issues of eLearning.

From the technical side, I would say that if you want total control, you need to create your own navigation as Lilybiri has suggested.

You  say you don't want the user to continue until they are done with the  slide. What is it you want them to do with or on the slide? If they need to take an action, then set the buttons or text fields or whatever to a specific answer and they cannot advance unless they enter the correct information. If they need to read something, you have to realize people read at different speeds. You could have them click Next and give a quiz of 4 questions and they have to get the right answer to continue.

Most of the time, it is not necessary to force people to go from slide to slide unless it is extremely important information or even life or death. It can be better to design a branching exercise that gives the learner some choice. That is one of the adult learning principles ID's follow. Give the learner a sense that they are in control and making decisions. If this is required training like diversity, then use your own navigation and put in buttons, text entry fields, quizes, and other interactivity that causes them to think and use what is in the course to complete it.

Hope this helps.

Jeff