Need slow, step-by-step instructions on creating an advanced action - Captivate v9

[chuckdeuce123]

If someone is willing to help, it would be greatly appreciated... the "codes" and choices in the dropdowns on the Advanced Action screen make no sense to me. I need verrry slow, step-by-step instructions for the complete idiot.    General "if... then" steps would help, but here is what I'm trying to do specifically:

On my screen I have three statements, each with a checkbox. The user has to check all three boxes before the Next button will take them to the next screen. If they only check one box or two boxes, a text box needs to appear when the Next button is clicked.

I *think* I have the necessary components on the screen, but need to verify that too. The three checkboxes are Smartshapes with two states (unchecked and checked), the Next button is a Smartshape (no states), and the text box that needs to appear when user clicks Next with less than three checkboxes is also a Smartshape (no states).

If you can help, awesome... let me know what other info might help...

Chuck

[Lilybiri]

Each shape button has always three InBuilt states! What do you mean with a Next button that has no states? Look in the Object Style Manager to the category Shape: you will see that all shape styles have always 3 InBuilt states: Normal (default), Rollover and Down.

Since you have to click the check boxes: those have to be Shape buttons as well, or you cannot click them. Again: they need 3 InBuilt states. You can add a custom state as well. I have examples in this blog post:

1 action = 5 Toggle Buttons - Captivate blog

Why do you not use the checkboxes learning interaction? That learning interaction has user variables associated, with as many variables as you have checkboxes. In your case: three. I used this checkboxes interaction in this blog post:

Tips - Learning Interactions - Captivate blog

What has to happen when the three checkboxes are checked? Only going to the next slide?

[chuckdeuce123]

The checkbox interaction doesn't let me customize the look of anything... I need to have more options, so I'm trying to create the actions with Advanced Actions.

Yes, I see the three states on the Next Button now... I didn't know they were there. I haven't changed them in any way. The checkboxes are Smartshapes, with two states... unchecked and checked... they are clickable, and show the checkmark when clicked. Do I need to change them to Buttons so they have three states for what I'm trying to do?

And your last question... yes, when the user clicks Next and all three boxes are checked, it only needs to progress to the next screen. When they click Next and only one or two boxes are checked, a text box needs to appear.

Thanks for your help... as mentioned in my initial question, I'm just looking for someone who's patient enough to give me step-by-step instructions for these actions.

[Lilybiri]

They have to be shape buttons, because a click has to do more than just change to another shape. You have to toggle a variable, that tracks if the that checkbox is set to another state, which is not possible if it is not a shape button. Did you read those articles for which I provided a link? For the check boxes you have two options:

• You are OK with just changing the normal state when clicked (as I demonstrated in that first article)? That article explains how to create an extra custom state on top of the three InBuilt states.
• You use a transparent shape button (or a click box) on top of the two images: one without and one with a check mark.

That is first what you have to decide. In the first scenario, you'll have the same Rollover and Down state for one shape button. In the second scenario the user will not see any state, because the three InBuilt states have to be made 'invisible' by setting the Alpha to 0 and the stroke width to 0. Click box is easier (has no visibility) but cannot be timed for slides in sequence, something you probably don't need.

[chuckdeuce123]

Ok, I'll use transparent shape buttons for the checkboxes. It's when I get to the Advanced Action screen that I need slow, simple, step-by-step instructions, with as little extraneous info as possible... just the steps. I'm thinking there are probably separate actions I need to set up, but again, not sure about that either... Need steps for:

1. How to make the text box appear when the user clicks Next with only one or two of the checkboxes clicked (and stay on that screen).

2. Moving to next screen if they click and all three checkboxes are checked.

If you're wiling and able to lay these steps out for me on the Advanced Action screen, that would be great. If not, I'll keep searching for some kind of general Advanced Action tutorial. The links you provided are helpful to a degree, but without the steps on the Advanced Action screen, I'm lost.

[Kurrykid-jzpfVq]

Here's a couple videos that may help:

Multi-State Buttons:

Adobe Captivate 9 - Creating Your Own Interactions with Multi State Objects - YouTube

Hiding a next Button:

Adobe Captivate 8 - Use Advanced Actions and Variables to Hide a Next Button - YouTube

[Lilybiri · Accepted solution]

Create 3 user variables: v_one, v_two, v_three with a default value of 0. They will track if the check box has been marked or not. Value=0 means not checked, Value=1 means checked.

The images for the check boxes have two states:  Normal (no checkmark) and Checked, the image itself I will label Im_one, Im_two, Im_three

Create the Text caption or shape with text, label it Message and make it invisible in output (eye icon on Properties panel).

Each of the transparent shape buttons over the images has to trigger a conditional action; I would create a shared instead of an advanced action. It will look like this (example for first action):

As for the Submit button, this conditional advanced action will do:

The ELSE part has only one command: "Show Message"

Be sure to put the pausing point for the 4 shape buttons at the same place.

[chuckdeuce123]

This is exactly what I need... I'm virtually hugging you. Ok, I might have questions as I go... only one so far is... your first image showing Preview Action/Toggling... where is that... how did you get there?

[Lilybiri]

Due to different timezones, I was in dreamland when you posted the last question. It was after midnight when I created your example file to be able to show the actions.

When you look at the top toolbar (right) in the Advanced Actions dialog box, you'll see a button with a right-pointed triangle, that is the button that opens a preview of a conditional action (is dimmed for standard actions). I like to post that because you can see both parts (THEN and ELSE) for the condition, which is not the case for the Advanced actions dialog box itself. In this case there was only one decision, but if you have multiple decisions all will be visible at once.It looks a bit different because the 'operators' (like equal to) are translated to the programming equivalent.

==    Translates to 'is equal to'

&&  Translates to  "AND'

[chuckdeuce123]

Yes, I see it now, thank you! I think I have the Submit/Message actions in place properly. Still having trouble with the three transparent buttons showing the checked state... do you have a screencap of the Advanced Action screen showing the choices in those rows? (Just for one, I can replicate for the other two)

I reeeeaally appreciate your help!!

[Lilybiri]

This is the THEN part:

I used shared actions, here are the parameters:

[chuckdeuce123]

YaAaAyYyy!!!!!     

I can't thank you enough. I'm used to doing this in Articulate Storyline, where the triggers are right there, so easy. Captivate is so much more complicated.

It's all doing what it should, the only thing I need to figure out (and this may be something that works when published, but not in preview) is to make the screen reset, so that if user returns to the screen, it does the same as it would on first visit.

If you know how to make that work, I'll be all set. If not, I understand you probably need to move on!

Thanks again--

Chuck

[Lilybiri]

Captivate is not more complicated, it has another work flow. What I most appreciate in Captivate is the way you can reuse everything. I showed you the shared action: it would show up in the Library (something totally missing in SL) and that Library can be opened in any other project as an external Library. You can drag the shared action to the other project, and use it again. The variables will be created automatically in the new project. No need to recreate or use that (ever dangerous, reason of much corruption) Copy/Paste.

To have the slide reset on a next visit, you need to use the On Enter event of that slide, and reset everything with a (standard) advanced action. In this case that means:

1. Assign v_one with 0
2. Assign v_two with 0
3. Assign v_three with 0
4. Change state of Im_Check_1 to Normal
5. Change state of Im_Check_2 to Normal
6. Change state of Im_Check_3 to Normal
7. Hide Message

[chuckdeuce123]

Ok... would I leave the On Success actions the way they are, and ADD the On Enter actions as new Actions?

[Lilybiri]

It is a standard advanced action. Yes the On Enter slide is another event.

Have a look at: Events and (advanced) Actions - Captivate blog

[chuckdeuce123]

Worked great, thanks! You're so familiar with my checkbox scenario, let me ask this too...

The user can check the three checkboxes, and if they click again they un-check and are not re-checkable... is there a way to allow them to toggle checked and unchecked? I've tried a few of the toggling ideas from posts and blogs, but no success. Assuming the actions would be added to the actions for each checkbox, just not sure where/how... and without disturbing the functionality of the other actions we created for the Next button.

[Lilybiri]

Hmmm, in the file I set up I could toggle as much as I wanted. Just double-checked again. Check the timeline, please. Mine looked like this:

You see that all the buttons have pausing at the same moment. Since they trigger an advanced action that has no Continue command, the playhead will not move on. That is why you can continue to use the buttons.

BTW, the object you see on top of the stack is a Text Caption (it has no label, sorry) including the three user variables. I'm used to put this for tracking reasons when testing any advanced action.

[chuckdeuce123]

Mine are all set with the same timing and timeline looks the same as yours. I can check each box, un-check each box, but that's it... can't check it a second time. Is it something that would be part of each checkbox button action, or part of the Next/Submit actions? I thought I had screencaps of each of your advanced actions screens to compare mine to yours... if there are views of yours I haven't seen, that might help me find the differences...

[Lilybiri]

You did see all of them. You can post yours, maybe I'll detect what is wrong?

[chuckdeuce123]

Here are the images for one of the three actions for the three transparent checkbox buttons...

And here are the images for the Next/Submit button...

[Lilybiri]

Sorry, my bad. I used a shared action as I told, and didn't give you the correct preview, tried to repro it with an advanced action and didn't check it.

In the action for the check box instead of the Assign actions use the Toggle action as I did in the shared action myself.

I hope you understand, and really apologize . It would be better if I didn't answer after midnight anymore as I did for you.

Toggle will always switch to the other possible value: if it is 1, it will become 0.

[chuckdeuce123]

Not at all! I owe you big time! Toggle works great, and I am all set!!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you!