Why did you make certificates and printing so buggy in Captivate 8?

[danicaconway]

I have to admit, for a program that's supposed to be designed for eLearning, I find it odd, to say the least, that you don't have a standard certificate feature, and your printer widget doesn't print to fit automatically.  Very frustrating.  This is an eLearning tool after all.

So you have a FOLDER for a certificate widget, and yet there's no widget there.  And I create my own, and it prints on two pages.  And if I print to fit screen, it doesn't print the certificate at all, just a couple of blank pages with footer information comes out.  And then I try to print on half the page, putting the certificate sideways, and the certificate prints fine (except, of course, the big black bar across the bottom), but the inserted name and score and date don't print sideways (even though they LOOK correct when you're in Captivate making the document).  So I try a really cludgey setup so it takes half the page, but is not sideways, and it prints ok except the BIG BLACK BAR at the bottom where the video control bar would have been.  So then I go to your forums and somewhere it says to install the eLearning Asset tool because that contains a certificate that works, and I do, and guess what?  It doesn't contain one.

What's the point of having this eLearning program if you can't even print a certificate properly?

And you no longer support email output?  We can't export the scores to a LMS, as we do not HAVE one.  And we don't have the money to buy one.  So we MUST use email output to our own web page.

And you don't allow me to load the old Captivate 4 projects (which happens to be what I designed all my previous video courses in) in Captivate 8?

[RodWard]

I don't work for Adobe and this is a User Forum, so almost everyone here is just like you.

It sounds to me that perhaps you are tryign to use the older certificate widget and not the one found among Captivate's Learning Interactions.  Is that correct?  If you click Interaction on the button bar and choose Learning Interactions do you see a certificate there?

If not, it may be that you haven't as net set up the Elearning Assets you talked about.  You may have only performed part of the installation process.

As for your other issues:

• Adobe dropped support for email reporting several versions ago because it was notoriously unreliable.  Adobe introduced other non-LMS reporting methods as a compensation.
• Captivate versions up till Cp6 were capable of opening and upgrading Captivate 4 .CP files, but from Cp7 onwards only earlier CPTX files can be upgraded. If you're only upgrading Captivate very 4 or 5 versions you're going to have to expect issues of this type.  I would suggest you think about getting on the Adobe subscription plan from now on.

[danicaconway]

Thanks for replying.  I do see Adobe employees responding on here, so that was why I addressed it to them.  I was very frustrated after spending an entire day on it, and also those other two issues that mean I can't go back to my previous data anymore.

I am using the cloud based subscription with the Captivate 8 installation.  The previous version I used was not cloud based, was basically purchased and installed directly on my pc.  But that was completely removed, and I downloaded the cloud version, so it should have come with the most recent versions of the certificates.  I will take a second look at that interactions button you mentioned, I was trying to do it thru widgets.

I might be able to send an email thru button actions, using javascript, but not sure.  It unfortunately has to be email because that was the way the website was set up.  We didn't set the site up but now we're stuck with it.

Anyone have suggestions / links to a tutorial on how to use javascript to create and send an email?

[Lilybiri]

I tried to explain the difference between the 'old' widgets, and the newer 'learning interactions'.

Tips - Learning Interactions - Captivate blog

Maybe Rod kept the old widgets from previous versions, but AFAIK the old Certificate widget is no longer shipped with Captivate 8, only the newer learning interaction. Same with some other old widgets, now replaced by learning interactions: checkboxes, radiobuttons... The Insert, Widgets allows you to browse, to insert both widgets and learning interactions, depending on the chosen folder. Personally I always use the menu work flow, not the thumbnail dialog box shown above.

[danicaconway]

The learning interactions did have certificates.  However, a couple issues/ training gaps.  First, I have a text box entry for user name to enter before they take the quiz, and I want that name to show on the certificate.  I named it the same as the certificate has for that name, but it's not showing up.  I'm sure I have missed some step linking the two

Second, I don't want a certificate that shows a grade, just the score (as in percentage).  All the certificates either don't show anything, or automatically have a place for both, while not filling in the grade.

Third, when I use print button that's on the certificate widget, it still prints with black bars around the edge of the certificate.

Finally, I don't know how to make it show the course name.  Maybe a hidden variable somewhere that doesn't display in the report?

[danicaconway]

So I've gone back to my own custom certificate, since I can't figure out how to make the widget fill in everything I want there.  And it too has the printing problem, so maybe the question I should get answered is how to get my certificate to not print the weird grey space at the bottom.  Can't it just show as white somehow?  It has to be turn-key because users are most definitely not going to be computer literate.

[danicaconway · Accepted solution]

Re-sized the project to remove that grey space at bottom, used following settings:

Go to MODIFY / RESCALE PROJECT

Not the best approach but it worked.  Guess I'll have to wait and see if I get complaints about it from people using different computers.