Smart shape buttons only working when you replay a slide

Report · Feb 07, 2018

I'm having a problem with slides where I'm using smart shapes as buttons not working properly on first play.

I'm making them transparent by setting the fill transparency to 0% and the stroke width to 0. The actions are pretty simple. I have quiz questions I've already received as Powerpoint slides converted to png images. I put a transparent smart shape over the wrong answer, which is set to "go to the next slide". That has an image of a slide telling them the answer is wrong, and a transparent button over text on the png slide telling them to click a button image, with a transparent smart shape that takes them back to the previous slide. When they click on the correct choice, that transparent smart shape takes them to the "you are correct" slide, which has a transparent smart shape over a continue image, that takes them to the next slide.

I realize there are ways to do things differently using Captivate to create the text and insert individual images within the slide, but this gives the original content author more freedom to format their content they way they'd like it, and to format their content in a way that leaves room for the interactive portions of the content. It has worked correctly several times, but I intermittently have issues where the smart shapes don't initiate the actions called out in the Action tab for the shape. I've reviewed everything associated with the shape I can think of, and it all looks correct, though it doesn't work when I play the course. It seems like I have in fact set the Actions correct in that when I rewind the course a few slides, the smart shapes now start working as they should.

I've had this happen both in preview and in published content.

Report · Feb 08, 2018

Try setting the fill transparency of the smart shape to something higher than 0 percent (e.g. 5%) and see if the issue might be related to that. If that helps, then set it to 1 or 2%. My guess is that most people wouldn't notice the shape at that transparency.

Report · Feb 21, 2018

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I ended up going with what's become way to common - go back to a working version of the file and start over. I'd figure the mistake was mine in editing and maybe it is, but all the "Actions" configurations look right, and like I said, the buttons work exactly as they're supposed to when you move back in the course and replay those same slides. Is this perhaps a bug?

Report · Feb 21, 2018

It's not normal for Captivate Smart Shape buttons to have any issues detecting clicks and executing actions. There's usually a reason. You just need to find that reason.

If I had a course module that was misbehaving in the way you describe, the first thing I would be checking was the verify that the Smart Shapes are actually registering click events at all. You can do this by substituting their current actions with an Action that does something for which you can see immediate results on any slide.

One way to do that is to insert a variable into a Smart Shape and set that Timed to Rest of Project so that the value of the variable is visibly present on all slides. The Advanced Action just increments the value of this variable. Set the action of any Transparent Smart Shape buttons you want to check to Increment this variable (instead of the other actions you had).

Now just go through the course and see whether or not the variable keeps getting incremented whenever you click the Smart Shapes. If it does, that shows the Smart Shape is correctly registering the click events. If it doesn't, then you need to check whether or not there may be something blocking the hit area of the transparent Smart Shape. To find out if this is the case, change the transparency value so that the shape is now completely visible and see whether or not the buttons seem to disappear when you get to the slides. (It may be that their timing or layering on the timeline mieans they are not actually available when you are trying to click them. If they're completely transparent at the time, how would you know?