Hyperlinks option not showing

[Vectar]

Hi, 

I was just working in Captivate 9 and for some reason my hyperlink option stopped showing. See screenshot.
The icons are not visible any more. Just a few minutes ago I used it to make a mailto link on a slide and added a new slide to do the same and it stopped working.

Does anybody know a solution for this? I restarted my computer but it didn't help.

Best regards,

Dick

[Lilybiri]

Not sure what happens, hope the project is not corrupted.

Could you try to clear the Preferences. If you have administrator rights, run the file 'CleanPreferences..' fitting for your OS. You can find it in the subfolder 'utils' of the installation folder of CP.

Are you using the latest version 9.0.2.437?

[Vectar]

Hi Lilybiri,

When I make a new eLearning document it starts good but when working in the file at some point the hyperlink function dissapears.
I'm actually working in 10.0.0.192 I thought it was Captivate 9

I will try to do the preferences trick.

Best regards,

Dick

[Lilybiri]

Is this a normal project or a responsive project with Fluid Boxes?

[Vectar]

Hi Lilybry,

I did some tests. I cleared the preferences and when I start a new project, the hyperlink function works. However... when opening the project that started the problems, the hyperlink function disappears again and also with new projects.

It seems that I will have to redo my eLearning again as I can not open the old project to copy paste content to a new project without loosing the hyperlink functionality.

It's a normal project, with a background and I was just finished with placing the text frames and pasting the text in it. It didn't yet have any question. It only had some mp3 files with voiceovers added to it.

The text was copied from PowerPoint. Not sure if the markedup PPT text gave problems to Captivate?

Best regards,
Dick

[Lilybiri]

Something is corrupt in the project. One recommendation, NEVER copy/paste formatted text, especially not from ay MS application (formatting is a mess for those). You can first copy/paste to notepad or use a tool to strip out formatting. Google, there are quite a lot around, both for Mac and for WIndows.

BTW If you have to recreate, are you aware of the fact that you can open any Library from any project in a new project using File, Import, External LIbrary? Depending on the number of assets you have that could save time. Do not forget to use a custom theme, another time saver. I don't think the Hyperlink problem is affecting the theme in the first project.

[Vectar]

Hi Lilybiri,

Thanks for your tips, but more problems pop up.

I copy pasted plain text into a new presentation. After all the slides were created, I started styling the content. I added mailto links to my first slide. This worked, than I went to another slide to do the same and now I have the option to edit or delete the hyperlink but on that slide I didn't create a hyperlink yet. See screenshot.

Also the community is not working within Captivate. I wanted to respond to you but it didn't work.

Than another problem popped up. When my presentation was still in plain text mode I previewed it as HTML in browser. It worked fine. I duplicated the project and copy pasted my other text to the slides and saved it as course 2. I previewed this one but it keeps showing the preloader.  I worked with Captivate 7 before and all this problems never came up. Now since I'm on 10 already these bugs pop up. I'm thinking about switching back to Captivate 7 now as this eLearning is very simple and doesn't need any complicated features.

Best regards,
Dick

[Lilybiri]

Are you perhaps using a template or a theme created in a previous version?

[Vectar]

Hi Lilybiri,

Nope. These are the steps I follow:

- Start new porject

- With themes I choose the white theme

- In Masterslide view I change the background image

- I create 16 slides

- Open my PPT

- Copy the text from PPT to Textedit

- In Textedit I say "convert to plain text"

- I start copy pasting the Text edit text in to the slides

- On 2 slides I have emailadresses

- I select the email adres on the first slide and set a link "mailto"

- I go to the second slide and want to select the mailadres to create also a mailto hyperlink but it is not possible anymore as I can only modify or edit it says. But both options are not working as I haven't set a link yet

- From this point the whole hyperlink functionality stops working even with new projects

- So I need to reset my preferences and no longer open the previous project to make sure all keeps working

It is so weird.

Best regards,

Dick

[Vectar]

Hi Lilybiri,

I created a screencast of my problem. Maybe it helps with clearing up the bug that I'm having with the mailto function.

WeTransfer

Best regards,

Dick

[Vectar]

Hi Lilybiri,

Did you have a change to look at my video? It is a strange problem. I totally understand if you don't have a solution at this point.

Best regards,

Dick

[Lilybiri]

Sorry, Dick, but I'm reluctant to download any file. Was it not possible to insert it in a post?

[Vectar]

Hi Lilybiri,

As it is a screencast the filesize became a bit big over 100MB. Not sure if it's possible to upload here.

Do you have a suggestion for me to send you the file in a different way?

Best regards,

Dick

[Jonathan Joosten]

I'm working with captivate 2017 and I think I found a way arround this interface bug.

1) Start Captivate without opening your or any project.

2) create a new project (you don't need to copy your current one, you don't need to save this one)
3) check if the hyperlink tool works (it did with me)

4) now open your project, the hyperlink tool should be working

sometime it doesn't seem to fully work at first, but randomly clicking en selecting text seems to fix it sometimes.

I hope this bug is fixed in the 2019 version, but I've had hyperlinks toon button problems for many years now??

[chrismay_at_delta]

I too have had issues with the hyperlink button not being visible. I am using Captivate for Mac, what about you guys?

I am pretty sure I have submitted a bug report, please make sure to submit also, that will help get the issue on Adobe's radar.

Feature Request/Bug Report Form

As for a fix, I find that if I quit Captivate and restart my computer then re-open the file, it usually fixes the issue for a while.

[Lilybiri]

I am pon Windows, didn't see that problem myself. But you better use this link to log a feature request or bug form:

Adobe Captivate

[SBWELL]

I've had some nasty problems with the hyperlinks button disappearing. The kind of problems that make you reconsider your career path - when you spend months on a large project only to find that a corruption happened months earlier. 

I find it occasionally happens on both responsive and non responsive and even break point modes. Once it happens, it spreads - as in the corrupt preference seems to spread to any projects you open after that - if you open older projects that you know worked fine, they all of a sudden have this problem too. Even if you do a fresh install, even on a new machine. 

After relaunching, deleting/resetting preferences, reinstalling, changing machines, I have one solution that seems to work for me when this happens. Usually anyway. 

In a fresh and up to date install of Captivate:

1. Don't open your old project that had a missing hyperlinks button (so the install is clean)
2. start a new project
3. create a new text caption on a blank page (don't ask me why, it has to be a blank page)
4. add a hyperlink to this caption - the default adobe.com will do. 
5. copy the text caption (the whole box box not inline text)
6. with this new project open, open an old project that has a corrupted hyperlinks button
7. paste the text caption from the new project to the old corrupted project
8. this seems to overwrite what ever preference in the project is corrupted, and you can now access the hyperlinks button again.

And yes, like most of you, there is a round indentation on my desk suspiciously resembling the shape of my forehead. 

[alonzo23g]

This one did the trick, however, I discovered I had to do exactly this, but with a shape rather than a text box (caption); at first I was unsuccessful, until I created a new shape with text in the blank page (I ended up not needing to paste the copied shape into the old file). Thank you @SBWELL 

[SBWELL]

If it happens in future, you can skip the fresh install part. 

Just restart captivate (don't open the corrupt file), open a new blank file, create a new text caption on a blank page, add a hyperlink to it, copy the text caption, open the corrupt file, and paste the text caption into it.

This overwrites the corrupt prefs.

[alonzo23g]

Update on this "bug" for those who stuble upon this still present "bug" in the current version of Captivate Classic 2019: I found that this workaround still works, with the caveat being that the hyperlink shape or caption needs to be copied from the new, blank project as the same type of object that the problem link is; so for example, mine is a shape with a "broken" hyperlink, so copying a caption with a hyperlink didn't work, until I created a new shape with a hyperlink and copied it into the old project.