multiple buttons on multiple slides

[sharonm.lawson]

hello, 

Captivate 9 (but i had the same problem in Cap 8, as well)

I am making a web app that will appear to users to be a website.  This "website" is our new training site for our organization.  On each "page" i have multiple buttons.  Each button is attached to a PowerPoint or Captivate file (these files are the training lessons).  Each page has 15 - 25 buttons for the lessons, a "home" button and a "return to XYZ" button, plus a few images and text captions.  I want the user to start at the "home" page, click to another page and be able to click on buttons to get to the training lessons they need to take.

My problem is that I don't understand how to make all the buttons available to be clicked all at the same time, and not have the "pages" advance.  For example,  Jane opens the "webpage" and sees the home page. She clicks on "Trainings about the Color Blue" and is taken to that page.  On that page, there are 3 trainings: Baby Blue, Sky Blue and Royal Blue.  Jane clicks on Royal Blue, the Powerpoint file opens in a new window in front and she takes her lesson.  While she is taking her lesson, the "webpage" is advancing through all the other pages: "Trainings about the Color Red", "Trainings about the Color Yellow", etc.  Now Jane closes the Royal Blue training and sees some other page that does not show the Baby Blue, Sky Blue and Royal Blue lessons.

How do i program the "webpage" to stay put until Jane clicks the "return to Home" button?

[Lilybiri]

How did you set up the action for the buttons? In CP9 be sure that all buttons are pausing at the same moment and that the option 'Continue Playing Project' is unchecked if you use a simple action. For CP8 the only possibility was to replace a simple action by a standard action. I explained this in a blog post and a Youtube video

[sharonm.lawson]

thank you for your quick reply!

i had the buttons set as "Go to URL or File" because "Open Another Project" didn't allow me to choose Powerpoint files.  in the "Go to URL" option, the "Continue playing project" box is grayed out so i can't click or unclick it  (the "home" and "return to ..." buttons are set to Jump to Slide #).  the buttons are all set to be active/inactive at the same time (whatever the default timing is).

i watched the video you included, but i didn't understand how to apply it in my situation.

[Lilybiri]

Open Another Project is only for Captivate projects.

I suspect your forgot to choose a Window different from the Current window, using the small triangle button. In that case the option 'Continue Playing Project' will appear. It is grayed out for Current window, because that would block everything.

[sharonm.lawson]

i will try this.  thank you.

so, if "continune playing project" is UNchecked, then the "pages" should not advance themselves?

[Lilybiri]

Indeed, this is a new feature in CP9 as I mentioned. It was not available in CP8 where simple actions automatically released the playhead. For that reason I mentioned the blog post and the video (with links) in my first answer.

[sharonm.lawson]

i'll watch the video again and work on it.

thank you for your help