Timeline Issues

[steve91586674]

Hello. I am having problems with a Captivate file. When I preview the project locally, everything shows up fine. However, after I publish and upload it to my webserver, I experience problems. The problem happens on 3/35 slides. On those three slides, the timeline pauses (I see the Play button change) but the imported audio continues to play. However, none of the objects later on the timeline show up. The issue happens on only those three slides, despite other slides having the same components. I can manually click play again and the objects eventually appear, but always out of sync with the narration.

I've tested and this issue happens in Edge, Chrome, and Firefox. Others have experienced this problem, too, on different computers. The problem also happens irregularly: it will occasionally work as expected, but then pause the next 10 times and never play normally again.

I'm stuck and would appreciate any help. I can't share the file publically due to copyright issues but can share it privately if someone is willing to take a look. Thank you.

[RodWard]

If the timeline is pausing on specific slides then there are only a few reasons this would occur:

• There is an interactive object on the slide itself pausing the timeliine.
• There is an interactive object on the Master Slide to which those slides are attached.
• There is a Pause action being executed by the On Slide Enter event of those affected slides.

To find all interactive objects in your project for a given slide, look at the Project > Advanced Interaction dialog.  Find the numbers of the affected slides (in the column at far left of the dialog) and look at which interactive objects are listed for those slides. Any button, click box, Text Entry Box could be pausing the slide.

Are any of these possible reasons for the issues you see in your project?

If your imported audio is continuing to play even when the timeline is paused then that means the audio is not attached to the slide, but more likely attached to an object on the slide.  Did you import audio to each slide separately, or did you report the narration audio as background audio?  (Background audio by default will continue to play even when the timeline is paused.)

[steve91586674]

Hi Rod. Thank you for your suggestions. I've looked into the three options you mentioned and I'm still unable to find any cause for the timeline behavior. There are interactive objects on the slides, but no pause at the time I see the timeline stopping, nor any on enter or on exit actions. I did not build this project, one of my peers did, and I'm troubleshooting for them, so I don't know for sure their process.

As for the audio, it is imported separately to each slide and is slide audio, not background audio. 

Might you have any other suggestions?

Thank you!

[RodWard]

I think you are going to need to let someone see the CPTX file to debug this issue.

[Lilybiri]

Rod will not mind that I am popping in, he know very well that Timeline issues is one of my preferred topics.

Due to what has already been reported, I can add some more info:

• Since slide audio is not paused, the problem can NOT be due to an absolute Pause command, because that would have paused slide audio as well. This means that such a command On Enter, nor in an advanced action with a Delay Next actions.... would lead to the result you experience.
• It cannot be due to the pausing point of an interactive object on the Master slide, because that pausing point can only be at the end of each slide and wouldn't bother slide audio in that case.
• Conclusion: it is probably due to a pausing point of an interactive object on the slide. 

I would try to figure out at which frame it is happening:

1. Store the first frame of the slide in a user variable (v_Start) by using the On Enter event with the command 
      Assign v_start with cpInfoCurrentFrame
2. Insert a text container which embeds both v_start and the system variable cpInfo CurrentFrame. When the lide is paused, the difference between both shows you at which frame/time the slide is paused. Normally the framerate is at 30FPS.

I regret not having seen a screenshot of the Timeline panel (without the stage). That is normally not a problem. 

Last idea: is it possible that an interactive object was initially hidden on those slides and has shown up using an advancede/shared action, thus leading to pausing?

[steve91586674]

Hi Lilybiri. Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I tried capturing the difference between the first frame and where the slide paused, but I did not notice anything in that frame/time causing the pause.

I've include below a screenshot of the Timeline panel for one of the slides where it is pausing. The slide pauses, but the audio continues, at 14.33 seconds. I don't see any Advanced Actions in the project that would be causing this issue. The only interaction I see on the slide is SmartShape_731, which doesn't appear until 50 seconds.

Thank you for your help!

[Lilybiri]

My conclusion about the pausing point was exactly due to the fact that the slide audio continued playing. That is only possible with a pausing point.  There is no pausing point visible indeed except at the end for that shape button. See:

Pausing Timeline and Audio clips - eLearning (adobe.com)

I forgot to ask if this is a Drag&Drop slide, but I suspect a negative answer. That is the only type of slide where a pausing point exists but is invisible on the slide timeline.

Did you check the On Enter action for this slide?  Why? You could have an interactive object on a previous slide, which is timed for the rest of the project but was hidden on entering the slide and made visible bit later by such an On enter action.

[steve91586674]

Hi Lilybiri. Thank you for the link to the Pausing Timeline and Audio clips. I had not realized there were four ways that audio could be played in Captivate or how the pausing worked differently with each.

One of the trouble slides is a Drag&Drop, although not the one included in the screengrab in my earlier post. Do you have additional suggestions for the D&D slide that I can try? I did check the On Enter action for the slide that is screengrabbed. It shows No Action.

I appreciate your help!

[Lilybiri]

I have many blogs about the Timeline, one of the most neglected important topics in most trainings and tutorials. As consultant I have solved a lot of issues with lack of understanding of the Timeline, which did lead to my multiple blog posts and some presentations on Adobe Conferences in 2017-19.  However that topic disappeared completely again although it is one of the most featured tags in the eLearning community.

Drag&Drop has many small bugs which lead to confusion. I logged all of them since many years, but only one has been fixed:

• As you now know, the lack of showing the pausing point in the Timeline panel. It is an automatically inserted pausing point, as also exists for quiz and score slide (and used to exist for interactive Learning Interactions which have now been deprecated). The only way to see its position is in the Drag&Drop panel. My recommendation if you have slide audio (narration) is to edit the timing of that pausing point so that it appears after the end of the audio. 
• The Failure action is not a failure action but a Last Attempt action, similar to Quiz slides. It is still labeled as Failure action in 11.5. It is only a real failure action if the number of attempts is set at 1.
• That failure action was even available for Infinite attempts which was crazy! That last bug has been fixed in the most recent version, it will be dimmed for Infinite attempts. It took many versions since the appearance of D&D for this simple fix.

Sorry for my ranting... fixing those bugs would avoid frustrations and confusion. Pausing the Timeline is already a complicated topic 'an sich' (I am not German, but this is the perfect expression in my mind).

I am out of ideas for the slide for which you showed a photo. Sorry. It needs in-depth exploration which is not possible in a forum.

[steve91586674 · Accepted solution]

Hi Lilybiri. Thank you for the clarification on the D&D bugs to keep in mind when creating those slides. I'll also have to go back and look through more of your blog posts on the Timeline. Even after using Captivate for a few years, there's so much that I still need to learn.

As for a resolution to my issues, it appears that my project in question is corrupted, which explains the irregular behavior. @RodWard was able to look at the file, investigate, and see that even adding in other interactive objects didn't pause the timeline as expected. I very much thank Rod for his time and help. And @Lilybiri, I thank you for your patience and clear explanation of potential causes. They helped me troubleshoot in a new way, which I'll carry onto future projects.

Thank you both!