mp4 video files and

Report · Aug 11, 2017

Ok, so I have one slide with two mp4 files (made in camtasia). I have a click box which when they click plays the mp4 videos. I don't want them to advance to the next slide until they have watched the videos. I have one slide that has one video. For this one I just have the continue button appear one second after the length of the video (challenge is if people don't play the video right away). Probably not the best way to handle this but I am beginner.

My question is what is the best way to pause a slide until video or videos are viewed? I don't care if they fast forward the video but forcing the video to play would be a nice to have.

Do I make it an FLV file and just have the video play when they go to that slide? I like that they have to interact with the presentation.

Thanks ahead of time,

Mitch

Report · Aug 11, 2017

Hi Mitch,

A bunch of questions to unpack, first of all you need to decide how you will have the video presented in Captivate. If you incorporate into the actual project you will have far greater control over how it is viewed than if you stream it using a web object. The down side to this approach is file size, (not sure how long your video is) but if its lengthy it will add to the overall size of your project.

I would stay away from anything *Flash* related as Adobe has signaled the ending of Flash support in 2021, so good luck in finding any browser that will support it, the closer we get to that date. ( many don't support it now)

I would also not recommend the slide-timed approach. It works great if the user follows logical predictable actions, (they never do ! ) so the auto advance will just confuse them. If you include your video with the project you can set different controls for it.

What is your plan for incorporating the video into the project?

Cheers,

Steve

Report · Aug 13, 2017

Hi Steve, thank you for taking the time to reply.

The down side to this approach is file size, (not sure how long your video is) but if its lengthy it will add to the overall size of your project.

- The first two are 3:00 minutes the third one is 1:30 minutes

I would stay away from anything *Flash* related as Adobe has signaled the ending of Flash support in 2021, so good luck in finding any browser that will support it, the closer we get to that date. ( many don't support it now)

- So don't save the video (camtasia recording) as an flv

I would also not recommend the slide-timed approach. It works great if the user follows logical predictable actions, (they never do ! ) so the auto advance will just confuse them. If you include your video with the project you can set different controls for it.

- that is the problem, I don't want them skipping to the next slide until the watch 2 videos. same as the next slide. There is one video and I don't want them to continue to after the watch the video. I want them to "interact". They click a click box to play the video. Right now the click box opens up a camtasia video saved as an MP4.

What is your plan for incorporating the video into the project?

- The videos are me taking through how do something in a software program. I am using camtasia to recording me talking over demoing something.

Thanks

Mitch

Report · Aug 13, 2017

Hi Mitch,

See below..

would stay away from anything *Flash* related as Adobe has signaled the ending of Flash support in 2021, so good luck in finding any browser that will support it, the closer we get to that date. ( many don't support it now) - So don't save the video (camtasia recording) as an flv . Yes, I would save as an MPG4 just to make them future-proof.

- that is the problem, I don't want them skipping to the next slide until the watch 2 videos. same as the next slide. There is one video and I don't want them to continue to after the watch the video. I want them to "interact". They click a click box to play the video. Right now the click box opens up a camtasia video saved as an MP4.

The only workaround I can think of is to use Advanced Actions to create a next button that is hidden and not revealed until both videos have been watched. Of course if you are using a TOC then they can simply jump ahead that way, but if you aren't that should work.

By plan I meant are you adding them into the project, and if so are they multi slide videos or just single slide ones? Or are you embedding them as a web object?

Cheers,
Steve

Report · Aug 14, 2017

Hi Steve, thank you for your response. I am looking at the advanced actions. Looks like I need to create a custom variable (not a programmer so it looks complicated). I have unchecked show TOC and playback controls under Project - Skin and TOC. However the browser has it's own built in controls. Not big deal if they pause or stop the video. I just don't want them continuing to the next slide until the videos are played.

By plan I meant are you adding them into the project, and if so are they multi slide videos or just single slide ones? Or are you embedding them as a web object?

- One slide has two videos. The next slide has one video. I have unchecked continue playing the project. I simply have for the check boxes selected on success open url or file. Using the folder icon I selected the location of my mp4 file.

Thanks

Mitch

Report · Aug 14, 2017

SInce you have two videos on one slide, that means that you insert them as event video. That type of video is playing totally undependent of Captivate, hence the individual control panels and the fact that you don't need to increase the slide duration to the length of the video clip. You can just pause the slide, the event video will continue to play. Look at:

Pausing Captivate's Timeline - Captivate blog

Since Captivate cannot control this video, doubt that an advanced action will help you to delay the appearance of the Next button. You could use the Delay command on the On Enter event of the slide and delay the command 'Show Bt_Next' for a number of seconds that corresponds with the sum of the durations of the video. Maybe it can be done with JS, because you need to create an event linked to the end of the videos.

If the videos were inserted as multi-synchronized, you could just use the timeline and insert the Next button after the end of the video. But you can have only one video on the slide with that way of inserting.

Report · Aug 14, 2017

Hi, I can't see any difference between using the delay command (which I have to create an advance action as it is not available by default which pause is) and just using the pause command and setting the slide duration to the sum of the video length. Either way I am preventing continuing according to a fixed time not triggering the continue button when the video are finished playing.

Thanks

Mitch

Report · Aug 14, 2017

I tried to explain that an event video cannot be paused (look at that blog post for which I offered a link), not by the Pause command, nor by the pausing point of an interactive video. It plays totally independen from the Captivate timeline.

Report · Aug 14, 2017

I understand, I was just trying to follow your suggestion

"You could use the Delay command on the On Enter event of the slide and delay the command 'Show Bt_Next' for a number of seconds that corresponds with the sum of the durations of the video. Maybe it can be done with JS, because you need to create an event linked to the end of the videos"

Which is seems like it is doing the same thing as pausing the slide for a fix duration then showing the next button at the end.

Thanks

Mitch

Report · Aug 14, 2017

How will you pause the slide? Which event will you use to stop the playhead with the command 'pause'? If you are not talking about the Pause command but about the pausing point of a button, it doesn't help to put that pause later on the slide, whenever the user clicks the button in the active part, it will execute the specified action.

Report · Aug 14, 2017

Hi Mitch and Lily,

By Advanced Action, I meant a little of sleight-of-hand Advanced Action to achieve your goal. I would have one slide, with both video thumbnails on them. Click one and it takes you to a separate page that plays the videos and returns you to the "now" grayed out thumbnail page, play the other one and it sends you to the other video slide and automatically returns you to the original page, but by now they are both grayed out and a next, or continue button has appeared.

This can be achieved with 3 pages, on enter AA and some Advanced Actions with States. From your learners perspective they have to watch both videos before they can continue, and if you set it up correctly they won't even know they have viewed different pages.

Cheers,
Steve