Problem with applying master slide positions in quiz slides?

[georgeo1788178]

I'm new to Adobe Captivate and am getting very frustrated in my attempts to fix the positions of default shape boxes in quiz slides. In particular, the default failure shape style box keeps jumping to different positions on the different slides. I've gone to Master slide view, selected the hot spot quiz slide and arranged the various boxes on the slide to be where I want them. I then hit the 'exit master' button and return to my slides. When I'm on a hot spot quiz slide I then expect to be able to hit the 'reset master slide' button and for that slide to then conform to the defined master slide for that type of quiz but it doesn't.

Have I totally misunderstood this? How do I go about defining a master layout so that all the appropriate slides conform to that master definition?

Many thanks for any help on this.

George

[BDuckWorks]

I'm sorry to say, many of the changes to the master slides will not affect the existing slides in the Cp file.

Those changes will appear in new slides created within that file using the updated master slide.

It may be worthwhile to change the master slide, go back to the target slide and reassign the master slide to another type, and the re-assign it to the edited slide.

This has worked sporadically for me, depending on the changes.

[georgeo1788178]

Hi, thanks for the response. I guess I would be happy with going through each individual slide and repositioning the boxes and I have done this 2 or 3 times already. My gripe is that after I have done that the positions then revert, mainly to where they were before I changed them, or in some cases to somewhere different on the slide. This is really frustrating as I really can't see what I am doing wrong. Is this usual for Cp?

[Lilybiri]

Which version are you using? I am a bit astonished by your question, because I have different experience with quizzing master slides. Any change to such a master slide: to the default design elements, to the location or size of the different captions, to the buttons is reflected immediately in the existing question slides. No need to reset the master slide at all. I am on version 9.0.2.437.

I was pretty sure about the master slide for T/F, MCQ. Just double-checked for the hotspot master slide as well:

1. I inserted a hotspot question slide, based on the Hotspot master slides from one of the default themes which I had customized
2. I switched to the hotspot master slide, did change the style of the buttons, the size of the feedback shapes, the review area
3. All changes were immediately applied to the previously inserted question slide.

@BDuckWorks Are you using a older version of Captivate? It is strange that you mention that the changes to quizzing master slides do not affect existing slides, I cannot remember when that was the case but it is not so in the latest version. Any change to a master slide immediately is done to content slides based on that master slide.

Forgot to tell that I was in a normal, blank project, not in a responsive project.

[georgeo1788178]

Hi Lilybiri,

Thanks for the response. I'm using 9.0.2.421      on a mac. What you say is what I was expecting but it seems to be all over the place with the positions changing almost at random. I started from a blank presentation and imported a set of powerpoint slides (but deleted all but 1 very shortly!). 

[georgeo1788178]

meant to add: it's doing similar on MCQ slides, not just the hotspot ones.

[Lilybiri]

Latest version is 4.0.2.437. I am on Windows, not on Mac. Because you mentioned hotpost slides explicitly I tested it out on those as well (I never use the default hotspot questions, create custom questions) but the behavior was identical to the other master slides. Can you update and check again? Are you using a custom theme, or a default theme that as available or created in CP9?

[georgeo1788178]

Hi, I'm using a default theme so nothing problematic there. I seem to have the latest version installed as the upgrade button is greyed out.

[Lilybiri]

It looks like a Mac only bug in that case? Which objects did you try to change on the master slide: you talk about the shapes used ofr feedback. You changed the default style, or applied another style to those shapes? When I tested, I changed the default style (in the Properties panel) and moved the shape to a new location, changed the size as well.

[georgeo1788178]

I changed the font to arial, and changed the size of the review area box. I moved the back, clear, skip, and submit buttons up on the slide, and also the default result box and the success, failure and hint default style boxes. In all of these, I moved them further up on the slide so that they didn't clash with the footer banner that I have in the master slide layout. I didn't make any functional changes as far as I am aware - didn't delete any boxes, didn't try to add any others.

Thanks,

George

[Lilybiri]

I just reproduced what you did: changed the font, moved areas and buttons, changed size and everything was reflected immediately in the existing question slides. Of course, it is always better to start by designing the theme, which includes object styles and master slides. With the changes I applied to the quiz master slide, i did override the default object styles because I did it immediately in the Properties panel, which is not good practice at all. If I save the overridden styles (is the case for the change in font) to keep the changes, all shapes on all quiz slides will change at once. The only style you changed was the font to arial, if your description is complete.

A totally different question: when you installed the patch, did you delete the Layouts folder in the Shared documents (which is the equivalent of the Public documents in Windows)? Did you clean the Preferences?