Multiple text box entries

[CaptivatePro]

I have an image of an excel spreadsheet in which I need to have multiple text box entries over cells, for participants to input set information into. I am unsure of the best way to go about this, any suggestions would be much appreciated...

[Lilybiri]

Some questions before being able to give you a more efficient answer:

• Do you need to validate the entries in the Excel cells? Do they need to be scored and have the results transferred to a LMS?
• Are those entries limited to numbers or do you also need to have the learner input calculated cells?

Here are some first ideas:

• Quick solution could be to insert some software simulation slides, in Assessment or Training mode. A lot of the work can be taken out of your hands in that case. Text Entry Boxes will be added, and they will be of the validated type. Scores can be added as well.
• Another solution would be to add Text Entry Boxes manually, and you can have the choice to validate or not. That will be more work but you get more control. If a score is not necessary, or you want only a final score after all cells have been filled, you could also replace the TEBs by Scrolling Text Interactions.

I don't know if these links could be clarifying:

http://blog.lilybiri.com/text-entry-boxes-back-to-basics

http://blog.lilybiri.com/scrolling-text-interaction-to-replace-text-entry-box

[CaptivatePro]

Thank you for the reply, I would need to verify the answers input in captivate (to ensure participants understand what they're doing). No calculated cells are needed as they just need to input a few words into each box. I was also wondering if there is the possibility of having one submit button linked to all the entries?

[Lilybiri]

I have blogs about using one Submit button for multiple Text Entry Boxes, but you didn't answer all my questions. Now I know you need validated entries, but not if they need to be scored. If you want one Submit button, how do you want to see if one or more TEBs are not correctly filled in? Validated TEBs mean that you have one or more correct answers.

[CaptivatePro]

Apologies for the late reply, I would not need them to be scored. With the one submit button I would also like to be able to see which specific boxes are wrong rather than the overall TEBs being wrong as a whole. Also I don't think I would need them to be vaildated as there will be one right answer in each box.

[Lilybiri]

That last request: 'to be able to see which specific boxes are wrong' makes it rather complicated. How do you imagine to 'see' which cells were wrongly filled in? Number of wrong/correct inputs is easier, but to 'see' which were wrong means you have to store a lot in variables and make those variables appear in another slide or in a popup. I could do it, but would take me some testing.

[CaptivatePro]

So in these yellow boxes would be where participants would enter the information and it would be helpful for them to see which cells they have put in wrong. If it is overly complicated then an overall right or wrong would be fine I'm sure...

There is no specific way I would like it to show whether inputs are incorrect/ correct but a simple red or green over the box or tick/ cross would suffice.

[CaptivatePro]

[Lilybiri]

As I told, I have some ideas to set this up but it would take me a couple of hours to test if it works and that is IMO bit beyond the idea of a forum. I would use the TEB funcitonality as much as possible and multistate objects for your correct/wrong checkmarks.

[CaptivatePro]

Thank you and for what it is, I understand it's a bit complex however I've been given a relatively strict format to follow so would like to stay as close to the original idea as possible

[RodWard]

Have you ever created User Variables or Conditional Actions in Captivate?  If not, those are two areas that you will need to learn about in order to pull off what you are looking at here. 

Each of those yellow cells in the spreadsheets will need to be a Text Entry Box (TEB for short), and each TEB always has an associated User Variable.  However, since you cannot change the name of a User Variable once it has been created, to make your interaction easier to follow with variable names that tell you what they represent, you will need to create your own User Variables and name them yourself.

Since you want all TEBs to be evaluated by clicking just one button, that means that all of the validation of the variable values will need to be done in a single complex Conditional Advanced Action.  That's the part that will be the most challenging, and time-consuming...which is why Lilybiri is saying the time required to design the solution is greater than she is prepared to just give away.

Good news is that learning about all of these areas is quite addictive and once you get into it you may find that you really enjoy the challenge.  So, why not start working on the problem and see how far you can get.  Most experienced Captivate developers here are happy to help suggest where you might have gone wrong once they can see what you have already developed.  But we all have our own projects and jobs, so we're not usually in a position to do everything for you.

[CaptivatePro]

I am just asking for advice on where I may be going wrong, not asking for anyone to do it for me as I'm sure we are all as busy as each other. I was playing about with captivate yesterday and had created the text box with an advanced action to change the state of a hidden shape behind the yellow box to show as red if wrong and green if correct however that didn't seem to work...

I understand you can set a success action to change the state of the hidden text box behind it, but there is no option for failure. If you could advise me on just what I should be including in the advanced action that would be helpful.

[RodWard]

Changing the state of an object is a good use of a Conditional Action.  But if your Conditional Action did not work, the most likely reason is that you haven't set up the Conditional Action properly.

However, since you haven't included any screenshots to show HOW you set it up, we have no way to suggest what you might need to change.

Perhaps you could supply more information and screenshots as well.  The more you can tell us, the easier it will be.

[Lilybiri]

Reason is that the TEB has priority, is an interactive object. Do add a multistate object which is not overlapping with the TEB. It doesn't need to be invisible, you can have a normal state which is blank, and two custom states for correct and wrong checkmarks. 

As Rod explains it is not just telling you what to include in the advanced action, which will be a lot since you ask for those checkmarks. I am perfectly happy to help you with answers like this one about the priority of interactive objects.