Selecting Text/Cells (MS Office)

[donalall]

I want to create Microsoft Office "Try It - assessment" simulations and i am wondering if "clicking and dragging to select text/table cells-columns etc, and the resulting highlighted text/table" is supported. How can i do this in Captivate 5.5?  (I also have ELS 2.5)

If it is not directly supported is there a work around? i.e. check for an inital mouse click and then a mouse release action, use a widget, create it in Flash (i have limited experience in Flash so a URL showing this would help).

[AdityaKalania]

Hi there,

Please try Full motion recording mode of recording, that will record all the events as a movie and then you can add other objects like text caption and highlight box in the captivate project manually.

Thanks

[donalall]

I think Full Motion Recording would work for Demonstrations but not for Try It Assessments?.

I want the user to perform a task e.g. selecting text, and then get correct or incorrect feedback.

Captivate does not automatically record the mouse release when the user has finished selecting the text. Also I would like to display the highlighting of the text as user selects the text, so the user can see what they have selected so far.

I'm not sure how to do both of these.

[AdityaKalania]

There is no such object in Captivate that will solve this purpose for you.

Let me do some research and see if i can get a workaround for you.

Cant commit you for a resolution on this.

[Lilybiri]

Personally I do not think this is possible for assessment, at least not if you want to 'assess' if a user succeeds at selecting by dragging the proper amount of text, numbers.

For some selections double-clicking can replace the dragging (word selection in Word, content of cell in Excel/¨Project) and double-clicks can be incorporated. Same for selections using the context-sensitive menu (right-click) but never heard about selections by dragging.

Lilybiri

[AdityaKalania]

Yes,

I also didnt find anything useful.

I believe in what Lilybiri said. You can use Double clicking for selection, but click and drag is something that is difficult to obtain.

[RodWard]

I'm with Lilybiri on this one.  Anytime I've had to simulate selection of text for a Let Me Try lesson, I've asked the user to double-click the text to be selected and then used the double-click event to jump to a slide where that text appeared to be selected.  Then depending on how the app works, you can use them hitting the Delete key as another trigger to jump to a different slide with a TEB so that they can enter new text.

It may not be perfect, but it seemed to work OK.

[Erik Lord]

As Lilybiri states, there's no functionality within Captivate that can actually 'see' what a user is selecting when simulating a mouse-down-and-drag movement.

What I would suggest is use FMR, as has been suggested, to show the user how the action would look (while describing the actual mouse actions/presses)...

...then during the assessment, have them click the 'start area', then show the FMR again while stating 'we will perform the drag selection for you here'...then, once the FMR is complete, have them click the area where the drag action ends to finish the 'try it' part.

Yeah, it's not very representative of the actual action, but probably as best you can do with Captivate.

Alternatively, you can actually 'draw' with Flash, so you could possible create a Flash SWF to embed here, which would allow the user to 'draw' the selection in the proper area. I imagine that would be a lot of custom Flash work for that single interaction, so not sure it would be worthwhile...

Erik

[donalall]

Thanks for help and good tips.

I found another workaround for selecting text in Word, selecting cells in Excel  - i'll display a button called "Shift" to mirror the action of the Shift key on the keyboard. Click where you want to start your selection, click the Shift button (show it in down state), click where you want to end the selection - text is highlighted.

I can also use the Shift button and Copy command to copy formula in Excel..

(The following forum discussion outlines why "Shift/Control and Click" are NOT supported in Captivate - http://forums.adobe.com/message/3957662#3957662).

I will have to use the Full Motion Recording for mouse down and drag actions in Word and Excel. And the Flash option.... well with my limited experience that will have to wait for another day : )