Unable to type in text entry box Captivate 9

[Megan_Longwill]

Hi everyone.

I have an issue with text entry boxes that appears to only impact me as none of my colleagues experience the same problem.

When I create a TEB and review or publish the project and attempt to key text into the TEB, I am only able to key the first 2 or three keystrokes of type. For intance, in my current project I have a simple TEB set up for learners to respond to a question. When they select the Submit button, it reveals a model answer they can compare their answer to on the same page. However, I am unable to enter text into this TEB. I also have other, smaller TEBs being used to make a screenshot of our data system interacive. These are not affected by the problem.

This is a screenshot of the slide showing the TEB properties, including the More Options box:

I have attempted a number of remedies including playing with the size, properties and options of the TEB and getting a colleague to build the TEB for me. I eventually created a template I knew worked so I could simply paste this in to any project but even that is not working now. I have research the web extensively but have not identified anyone else expereincing this issue. Maybe I'm special.

Can anyone give me a clue to why this would be happening?

Megan (Australia).

[RodWard]

Megan,

Try resetting your Preferences folder.

[Megan_Longwill]

Hi Rod.

Can you give me more information about resetting the Preference Folder. Are you talking about the project preferences or Captivate preferences? I have examed both. This is the Cap9 Object Style Manager:

The only reference to TEBs in the Cap9 Preferences is under Recording Defaults:

Keeping in mind, I am working on a departmental networked computer. I have not been ablle to locate a 'Preference folder' where the software is stored:

Ta.

[RodWard]

I mean resetting the Preferences for Captivate.

There's a utility called CleanPreferencesWin.bat located inside the Captivate install directory > Utils folder.  You just need to close down Captivate and double click that file to wipe out the Preferences that Captivate currently is using.  Sometimes doing that will fix niggly issues like the one you are experiencing.

[Megan_Longwill]

Thanks for that, Rod. I followed your instructions but no joy I'm afraid. Any other suggestions? I am on a networked desktop computer if that is any help.

[RodWard]

I notice you have the Maximum Length for this TEB set to 999 characters.

If you delete this TEB and insert a new one of the same size, without selecting scrollbar enabled, and without removing the Submit button, does it suffer from the same issue where you cannot type in any more than a few characters?  I'm curious to see if the issue is with ANY TEB on that slide or only AFTER you make some changes from the vanilla TEB settings.

[Megan_Longwill]

You were right to be courious. Yes, when I deleted the TEB and inserted a 'vanilla' TEB without making any changes, it worked. I note too that other TEBs being used to provide interactivity on a screenshot are working and this is possibly because I didn't need to make too many changes. What could be the cause of this?

[RodWard · Accepted solution]

OK.  That's progress.

So next step is to make one change at a time to this TEB and republish to test whether that particular change reproduces the error.

Document which settings you have on your malfunctioning TEB and try each setting separately until something breaks.  If you can reproduce the error, you may have found a bug that you need to report.

[Megan_Longwill]

Rod, your a genius! I worked through each of the elements on the Style and Actions tab and found that putting a shadow on the TEB was the bug. Once that was removed, it worked perfectly. Easy fixed by using a work around such as shape behind the box. Thank you for taking the time to work through the issue with me. I can now share this with my team.

[RodWard]

That's good to hear.

I don't see any logical reason WHY that particular setting should make a TEB malfunction, but since it does, I think you should take the extra step of logging a bug with the Adobe Captivate development team via the Bug Reporting Form link on the Captivate Community page.  Hopefully the issue will get fixed in the next version.

[Megan_Longwill]

Yes, its bizzare isn't it? Will do and thanks again.

[Lilybiri]

Just popping in: an alternative to the TEB is the Scrolling Text interaction. I also wonder if the length of the variable (999) is not a problem, because a variable cannot store that many characters in Captivate.

Out of curiosity I tested this out, a TEB with a shadow, and couldn't reproduce the problem. I didn't change the maximumi number of characters however.

[essentialgeek]

I'm really grateful that you shared this; I just ran into the exact same thing this afternoon on the first slide of a brand new project - talk about hitting a wall right out of the starting gate! I took the shadow off of the TEB and now it works. Again, thanks for sharing!