Need to use on-screen buttons as well as playbar

[John_Meidl]

I am building a course (in Captivate 9) where at a "branching" slide a learner will click on a a section of a map of four states to view the training needed to be certified in whichever territory(ies) he/she wants to sell the product. Some learners may need to view only one state; others, two or three or all four states. I plan to use my own (shape-based) buttons for navigation on those slides rather than the playbar, so that when the learner reaches the end of a set of slides relevant to that state, he'll be directed back to the "branching" slide, to select another state if needed or to say "I'm done."

Normally, I'd prefer to use either all shape-based buttons or only the playbar in a course. However, for this course, I feel that I also need to use both my buttons and the playbar, as I would like the learners to be able to have access to these playbar functions:

• Rewind (to start the course over, if needed)
• Pause (to pause the audio)
• CC (to open and close the closed captioning)
• X  (to close the course)

Does anyone have a suggestion regarding whether there's a way for me to use only buttons or only the playbar for this course?

Thank you!

Jan

[Lilybiri · Accepted solution]

I would not use the playbar, because it always will cover the whole project, and by scrubbing the learner could end up on slides he is not supposed to view.

For toggle buttons CC and other: have a look at my blog post:

1 action = 5 Toggle Buttons - Captivate blog

For Restart course, a dedicated shape button is available in the Shape thumbnail box, category Buttons. You can replace the shape, but there you'll have the needed action.

To close the course, there is a simple command available.

For the Play/Pause button there will be a slight difference with the one on the playbar, it will not pause background audio (strange, but I have explored all pausing situations in my sequence of articles about the TImeline). I have a very old blog post about Play/Pause, could now be easier. Do you want to appearance of the button to change by switching states or will you use two buttons in the same location and use Show/Hide? For the States scenario you will only have the normal state changed with the action, because you cannot change the rollover/down states. If you prefer Show/Hide you can have the full trio of InBuilt states. The condition is pretty simple:

   IF cpCmndPause is equal to 1

        Pause

   ELSE

        Continue

This condition doesn't have the change in states or in button yet, wait for your answer.

[John_Meidl]

Thanks so much, Lieve, for your quick response and this helpful information! I need to read your message carefully and also read your blog post and perhaps do a bit of experimenting before answering your question. (I'm relatively new to using Advanced Actions and states of buttons.) Hopefully on tomorrow I'll understand the processes well enough to respond to your question.

[Lilybiri]

OK. I did use a shared, not an advanced action. If you are familiar with multistate objects, that is the easiest way to create a toggle button with the restriction that only the Normal state will be replaced. In that blog post you can watch an interactive movie, but it is still a SWF. Be sure to use a browser where the Flash Player is enabled. 

Shape buttons have the advantage that you can have them on master slides, which will save you a lot of time. I suppose this possibility can be used for the CC, Play/Pause and Exit buttons. 

[John_Meidl]

Thanks again for this helpful information. Since my last posting, I've learned that the customer was thinking that they could not only "branch" within the course module, but also to other course modules and back again, which is not possible with the LMS they're using. So I may not need to do branching after all. But your information will be valuable for my future projects.

One question -- Are you saying that multi-state objects (toggle buttons) require that the learner play the course on a device that uses Flash Player? Since some of the learners for this training may use an iPad, I suspect that toggle buttons should not be used? Please clarify anything that I may have misunderstood. Thank you.

[Lilybiri]

Where did you learn that multistate objects require a Flash Player? There is so much misunderstanding! Multistate objects have no relation whatsoever with Flash player. Since more than one year I only publish to HTML and am using toggle buttons with an added custom state all the time. Difference between a desktop/laptop system and a mobile device is that user will click or tap.

[John_Meidl]

Oops, sorry about that. I mis-read your message. Now I see that you were saying that I would need to use a PC with Flash Player for watching the interactive movie on the blog post.

Not sure what my excuse is for my confusion -- that winter was too long here, or that I have spring allergies, or that I'm juggling a lot of projects... Ha!

[Lilybiri]

Could be me as well... that blog post was written before I was able to embed a HTML published course in an iFrame, hence the embedding of a SWF.  My recent posts only use iFrames. I was just a bit astonished that you understood me wrongly.

[John_Meidl]

Well, the format of the blog postings doesn't matter to me. I'm just very appreciative that you share this information with the rest of us, so thank you!