Captivate 2019: Difficulty with advanced actions and apply effect

[#1]

Hi All,

I've been wrestling with ultilizing advanced actions and apply effects together forever.  I really need to get this figured out, but I never seem to see a tutorial on exactly what I'm trying to achieve.

Here is that I'm trying to do:

I have a slide with three boxes on it.  Every object on the slide is set to show to end of slide and starts after 0 seconds:

When you click on a box, the following advanced action is supposed to occur:

Basically, when one of the three boxes is clicked, a window is supposed to appear and the state of the button itself is supposed to change to show it was clicked.  The first time the box is clicked, a zoom effect is supposed to apply, and any subsequent attempts cause the window to simply appear.  At least, that is what is supposed to be happening.

The end result is thus:

Straightforward, right?  Something to add.  There is an advanced action set up for the slide itself as well:

This variable tells the course that this slide has been visited.  this is a signal for it to leave things as-is on the slide in terms of what has and hasn't been clicked.  The variable is reset to 0 if the splash page is visited (which can't be reached via the navigation controls, only by starting the course over.

In addition, each button has an advanced action linked to it to basically close any open windows when the slide starts up.

Hopefully you are not confused yet.  I'm done setting the stage.

So, what is happening?

Basically, when you get to the slide and click on a button, nothing happens.  The state of the button does not change, and the window fails to open.

HOWEVER, if you change the first line of the advanced action for a button from Apply Effect to simply Show, then the window opens, and the state of the button changes.  Everything else behaves as intended as well.

But not if you leave it at apply effect.  I keep running into this wall with my applied effects.  None of them ever seem to work when I link them to an advanced action.  I don't know why.  I've tried it with entrance and basic effects and this keeps happening.

Help!

[#2]

Did you read this blog post:

How to use Custom Effect in Actions? - Captivate blog

[#3]

Hi Lilybiri,

Seems you are my personal Captivate guru.  Thanks for always riding to my rescue!

But...alas, in this case, this is not the solution, at least I think it's not.  Because...your example is of a show command followed by a motion path.  That's all well and good, but I don't want the window to show first and then zoom in - that would look really weird.  I need it to just zoom into existence.

Maybe I'm using the wrong effect?  It was my understanding that with entrance effects that the whole "show" thing is implied, as the whole "hide" thing is covered by exit effects in some cases (like fade out).

How can I get the window to show up with a zoom effect?

[#4]

It is just an example, to clarify the way you have to use custom effects in advanced actions. A custom effect can have a combination of many effects: you can add an Alpha from to to simulate the appearance from invisible to fully visible. 

[#5]

Hi Lilybiri,

So, are you saying that in my advanced action, I need to first add an instruction to show the window, and then add the effect to make it zoom or fade or whatever?  Won't that just make it appear fully first, and then zoom in or fade afterwards?  That would look really odd and not at all what I'm going for.

[#6]

Please, post full actions with the Preview button instead of all those screenshots of partial actions which are very tough to understand. The Preview button is the first button in the top right control panel. At least it is then possible to see a big part of a complicated action.

If something is hidden in output, you have to show it when applying an effect. You have to play with the effect there is also a scaleto  effect.

Entrance effects will end with the present status of the object on the stage, but you cannot have an object which is invisible in output. Exit effects start with the present status of the object on the stage, but they cannot be invisible in output neither.

From the first condition I presume that the Window is invisible in output, since you show it in the ELSE part. If that is indeed the case, you have also to show it in the THEN aprt. You can strat with a Scale to effect set to

[#7]

Hi Lilybiri,

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by the preview button.  On my interface the first button in the top right control panel is community.  When I click preview, it does not have an option to post full actions.  Were you asking for a video clip?

So, how can you show something that was hidden and apply an effect at the same time? 

You mentioned the THEN part (aprt?) Where is the THEN part?  I only see IF or ELSE on my advanced actions.

I feel like there is something fundamental to my understanding of how animations work in captivate that I am missing and that is different from how they work in EVERY other type of authoring program out there.

[#8]

In the dialog box for Advanced actions, top right control panel, first

button is Preview button for advanced actions.

[#9]

Thanks!

Here are the preview panels for the slide start:

here is the script for hitting the button:

[#10]

I tried to see the logic of your actions.

The action On Enter could be simplified a lot. I see that for the decisions 2-4 you are hidiing the three Windwo...group. Why not do it in the first decision, since it has to be done anyway. You can then get rid of all the ELSE parts, only the THEN (which is the part immediately after the IF condition) is relevant.

Moreover I don't see the reason of the Pause command: why do you want the slide to pause at the first frame? Moreover the Pause is missing for the second decision, why do you want to stop at the first frame only for the second and third Box?

The button action: you canot zoom in an object that is invisible, the group has been set invisible with the On Enter action. Moreover you keep the timeline paused, the effect cannot paly. I would like to see the timeline. Got it to work with thiese changes:

• Instead of hiding the group I used the On Enter action to set the Alpha to 0.
• I added an interactive object with a pausing point later than that of the buttons, you need just enough time for the Entrance, Zoom In duration.
• For the button click you need now two effects (or one custom effect)  and you have to release the playhead I created this for one object (ster). THe AlphaFromTo has a very short duration (0,1sec) and sets the alpha back from 0 to 100%.
  

Alternative would be using a timed effect in combination with micronavigation.

I have a last question: it is still not clear to me how the variable is toggled from 0 to 1.