Text box not submitted on enter

Report · Oct 02, 2019

Hi there guys!

I'm new to Captivate. I've been using Captivate 2019 version 11.5.0.476 on Windows. I was asked to use it because the company I work for already bought a license.

Everything was going okay until I needed to validate a simple text box before letting the user navigate to the next slide. I only need the user to enter a specific IP address, let's say: 10.10.150.20. These are the steps I have taken:

1. I created a variable called v_ip_address already set to "10.10.150.20". (I have tried both with and without the quotation marks)

2. The text box to be validated is called S03_Text_Entry_Box_1 and has an associated variable with the same name

3. I created an Advanced Action called S03_Address_Validation with a condition that checks if S03_Text_Entry_Box_1 is equal to v_ip_address and only runs one action: "Go to next slide"

4. Then, on the text box to be validated I assigned that Advanced Action called S03_Address_Validation both On Success and On Focus Lost

5. On the text box properties, I clicked on Validate User Input and display Success and Failure captions with a simple message.

6. I chose not to show a submit button. I need it hidden.

7. The text box itself has Enter as shortcut.

The result is:

- When I enter the right input into the text box (10.10.150.20), I always get a Failure message after pressing enter. Nothing else happens.

- Nothing happens when I press Tab. There's actually no other focusable element on the slide. No action is taken anyway.

- After clicking outside the text box, I get no Success message but it does navigate to the next slide.

Here's a couple of questions....

1. Why THE HELL does this freaking software behave like this? I've been trying to have the Enter shortcut working for hours without any success. I have read many many unresolved forum posts about similar issues regarding unexpected Captivate behavior. I haven't seen anything useful. I already lost a whole day of my life that I will never recover, dealing with this buggy Captivate behavior. If it's not buggy... it's at least very veeery far from being intuitive because I'm a web developer and haven't been able to get this working.

2. What do I need to do to have a simple Advanced Action validation working on a simple text box to complete a simple action such as "Go to next Slide". This is freaking me out big time, and I cannot refuse to use Captivate because the company already paid for it. PLEASE HELP! Help me not to hate Captivate this soon. Thank you vey much in advance!

Best regards!

Report · Oct 02, 2019

Here is what I did to make this work. I am going to try to minimize the steps.

Create Text Entry Box
Delete Submit button
Created Advanced Action called ipAdd
- This action simply says if Text_Entry_Box_1 is equal to a literal 10.10.150.20 - go to next slide
With text box selected choose Execute Advanced Action for the onSuccess action and assign the ipAdd action to it.
Assign Enter as the shortcut

Tested OK

Hopefully this helps

Report · Oct 02, 2019

If you wish to utilize the success and failure notifications with validating input - you will need to enter a correct answer in the little box that pops up.

Report · Oct 03, 2019

Thank very much dear Stagprime for taking the time to reply.

Yes, it does work when I reproduce the steps from scratch on a new project from a Powerpoint presentation. I just create the text box, follow the steps and it works. But it seems very buggy, it might be me or my PC though.

When I just load the HTML preview it works fine the first time after entering the correct value. If I enter a wrong value, it does nothing; as intended. But after entering a wrong value, it won't take the correct value either. It just won't validate and proceed by taking any value at all. It looks like it just stops working. I'm not using any Validate User Input options at all. I don't need any workaround, I need this very simple function working because I will need to do basically the same thing in many situations. I will have to validate text boxes against conditions very often. And it's actually something that should be very simple to do, it doesn't seem to be worth to overlook.

Would you PLEEEASE try to reproduce the case again and tell me if there's something I'm overlooking? It shouldn't be this complicated.

Thank you very much in advance dear friend!

Report · Oct 03, 2019

You stated something new here that I did not notice in your first post which is that you created a new from PowerPoint project. I would suspect that is part of the issue. What if you re-create using a straight up blank slate?

Report · Oct 03, 2019

I didn't state that in my question, I'm sorry. But I thought it wasn't actually relevant because I need to work on projects from Powerpoint presentations. I receive the PPT presentations from the company. They are screenshots from a private system to which I have limited access. There's no way around that. But it should be simple indeed. I import the presentation. On one the slides, I just get a background and a full screen size click box that I delete because I need to force the user to enter valid value into a text box before going to the next slide. Then, I add a text box and follow the steps. Shouldn't it work just like that? If it doesn't... Captivate is not worth it! I hope it's just me needing some more expertise and everything will be fine soon. Would you please help me out to have this working on a project from a PPT presentation? Thank you very much in advance!

Report · Oct 03, 2019

I never use the "from PowerPoint" option - too many frustrations with control of content. At best - I might copy paste some text or images over and if you have a custom theme for your company - I would take a blank PowerPoint Slide and get a perfect screenshot of it. I would then use that as my background for the Captivate project.

Report · Oct 03, 2019

I wish I could just record interactive videos from the system itself but, as said before, I have limited access to the system because it has confidential information. Some of the simulators might have around 100 screens. It looks like a lot of work having to take every single image from the PPT presentation and importing them to Captivate. I mean... paying hundreds of dollars and then having to spend a number of hours "importing and exporting" doesn't look like the best move. Please help dude!

Report · Oct 03, 2019

Hi there

I'm wondering if you may want to try this.

Configure the PowerPoint so the slides advance on a click of the mouse. Then start the PowerPoint in presentation mode.

Configure Captivate's recording options so you are recording in "simulation" type mode. Then tell it to record the screen.

Then work your way through the PowerPoint, taking care to click where the user would click to "advance" things.

Once you have finished and stopped the recording, you should have the basics you need to create the simulation, You will likely need to add things like the text boxes and suchlike, but I would think the bulk of what you need should be there.

Cheers all... Rick 🙂

Report · Oct 03, 2019

Thank you Rick for taking the time to reply. I won't say no, just because. I can give it a try. But it looks like that would leave me at the very same point. I will need to create the text box and the Advanced Action just like before, which will very likely lead to the same issue. Yes, I can give it try but, again, paying hundreds of dollars for workarounds to very simple tasks doesn't look like the best move. Is it not that I'm just overlooking something to click on to have it working? I just need to validate a simple text input before going to the next slide... it's actually veeery simple! I do want to use an Advance Action because I might need other kinds of validations in the future such as date comparisons, simple mathematical operations, etc. It would be very nice to be able to do so on a project from a PPT. Please, help! Thank you.

Report · Oct 03, 2019

Sorry, I must have misunderstood something. I know that the post headline had to do with validating a Text Entry Box. But your reply to Stagprime seemed to suggest that you had a need to create simulations based on PowerPoint slides given to you. As such, I imagined you importing the PowerPoint slides. Then after importing, you would need to visit each slide to add a click box or other interactive element in order to make it a simulation. So what I suggested was intended to save much of that as Captivate would do it for you by recording in the manner I suggested. Apologies for misunderstanding. Rick 🙂

Report · Oct 03, 2019

Guys... please don't take me wrong. I do appreciate your replies very much. It's just that I'm not a workarounds fan. I like getting things working. Workarounds aren't usually professional. One of Captivate's big sales arguments is being able to import PPT presentations and work on them easily, which as of now, is not true for me. Happily, I'm not the one who paid for it. I could even create simulators by coding a front-end app using a couple of the many front-end technologies out there in a reasonable time. But the company just wants me to use Captivate because this job might be taken care of by someone else in the future. I just made it work by NOT using an Advanced Action but by just using the Validate User Input option with a "Correct value" set. I see that both features are not compatible, at least not easily. I don't think it would be hard to think of a situation in which we might need both options to validate the same text box. Let's say using one to limit the input's length and number format and the other to validate against a variable. I can go ahead with my work as of now but, I'm not happy at all with having no way to have a "simple" Advanced Action validation working on a simple text box on a project from a PPT. If there's a professional way to do it within Captivate that I'm overlooking, Adobe should make their UI more intuitive so we can easily figure out how to get things done. If it's a bug, come on Adobe guys... you're charging us real money for it! Help us keep using your stuff. I'll still keep attentive to any other useful contribution from you guys regarding the very specific issue... how to validate properly a text box using an Advanced Action on project from PPT without any workaround (even better, combining it with the Validate User Input feature). Thank you very much guys, best regards! P.D. I hope I will become a contributor some day as well

Report · Oct 03, 2019

I believe I was able to reproduce your issue. I was also able to make the validation work by making sure that the correct entry was placed into the box I mentioned earlier. The advanced action and the correct entry are both needed.

Report · Oct 03, 2019

I take issue with the statement that "workarounds aren't usually professional". Statements like that denigrate the "professionals" on this forum who are generously giving their unpaid time suggesting ways (i.e. "workarounds") that you can achieve your desired results, despite the limitations of the tool. Workarounds are a fact of life in any industry where the products and/or tools you have aren't able to deliver everything you might want. Yes it would be lovely to live in a world where everything just worked the way you wanted it to, but last time I looked THIS is not that world. The fact that you pay for Captivate doesn't make it obligatory for Adobe to ensure that the sofltware does everything you want, in the way that you want it to work. That's an unreasonable position to take about any product. Captivate is a very powerful tool and in the right hands it is capable of producing very sophisticated e-learning. But that doesn't mean it is guaranteed to satisfy your every desire.

Report · Oct 05, 2019

Hi RodWard. I'm sorry I took long to reply. Thank you for your comment. First, I'd like to apologize if you or anybody else felt offended by any of my comments. I see you are an Adobe Community Professional and I feel your comment to be extremely defensive. As you can easily see, I have opened every and each of my comments thanking others for taking their time to reply to my questions, and I think they have been very nice. I truly think you have misused of couple of terms in your comment or maybe, you haven't had the time to read my comments thoroughly. Since you think my comment was "denigrating", let me please further explain my point and thus give it a try to contribute something of value to the discussion. Our dear partner Stagprime, who has been very kind to try to help, literally wrote: "I never use the 'from PowerPoint' option - too many frustrations with control of content". And that's where my point comes up. I think a "professional" workaround is something that you do to cope with something that hasn't been coded into a system, or that hasn't been already covered by the scope of a project. Finding a software to be "frustrating" or maybe "too complicated" is NOT a valid reason for a workaround. Why? Very simple. If something is complicated, troublesome or frustrating, a professional will need make an important decision... we can solve it by making it work properly, or we can determine that the right course of action is to make use of a different tool to achieve the desired results. When I deliver results to my clients, I strive to deliver results... not workarounds. If you are expecting me to use workarounds, don't charge me money for that because I'm the one actually working it around, not you. Any tool could be very powerful in the right hands, like you said. A pencil for example, an artist can draw a masterpiece with a $2 pencil. But, what if the artist bought a $400 pencil that ends up not giving what it was intended to do? Does it make any sense? That's exactly what I see in this situation comparing what I can do with Captivate and with many other open source front-end development tools. If I need to be an artist to use Captivate... give me the $2 pencil, not the $400 one... please! You said that Captivate doesn't need to do everything I wanted it to. (Tough words because you're very far from understanding my original question in this discussion). I have been asking about a SIMPLE validation on a very SIMPLE project imported from a SIMPLE PPT presentation, which is EXACTLY what Adobe has been offering us for those $400. It's very very clear that I haven't been asking for something that I just want to happen, just because. You didn't have to say that I want to live in a world where everything works just like I wanted it to, that's actually offensive from an Adobe Community Professional and you could just end up pushing away from your community potential customer like me who already work for big companies that could buy other products in the future. Now I'm afraid next time I ask a question about a SIMPLE process or feature that HAS BEEN OFFERED by Adobe, I will receive a defensive comment from one of you Adobe Professional guys saying that this is not a perfect world. Please, don't get me wrong but, I'm not asking anybody to make the world perfect for me. Just help Adobe fulfill their promises for which they charge us money. If Captivate is intended to be able to import content from PowerPoint, create interactions and validate inputs seamlessly... just make it happen. Users are finding it "frustrating". Otherwise, give me the $2 pencil. I'll be much happier using workarounds after having paid $2, not $400. As I said before, I need to keep using Captivate because the company already paid for it. But just let me get some better control of the position and help them make a better decision soon.
Best regards!
P.S. This is not anything personal, this a professional matter.

Report · Oct 05, 2019

For what it is worth - I have been using Captivate since version 3 and a host of other software packages like Microsoft Office for many years. Software changes. Remember when we were introduced to the Ribbon in MS Office? We had to relearn some things - didn't we? Captivate is no different. The same workflow I used in prior versions of the software are not necessarily the same as the ones I use now. I see it as something that simply comes with the territory. When we discovered the solution to this issue by stating that we needed both the Advanced Action as well as the correct answer placed in the box - I saw it neither a bug nor a workaround but simply the way it needed to be. It is true that I never use the PowerPoint project (tried it many versions ago) and to be fair - a blank project is the only one I use. So I set about investigating this issue having never tried it before with that project type. You said that you strive to deliver results and not workarounds which is great and as far as your customer is concerned - if the project you have created for them works the way they want it to work - they won't see it as a workaround they will see it as results. And hey - I would even venture a guess that some of the best improvements to products have come as a result of someone pushing the boundaries with a workaround. Perhaps this is one of those areas... Perhaps it would be good to submit a feature request (or bug report) so that Adobe can get the feedback as well. We are pretty much all just random people who use Captivate who are not in a position to actually make any changes. We just try to help where we can. Good luck with the rest of your project..

Report · Oct 06, 2019

Leonardo. I think you have inadvertently made my point for me. Your illustration about the $2 pencil versus the $400 pencil "hit the nail on the head". It's not the tool, it's the expertise of the user that makes the biggest difference to the end result. In the right hands, any of the e-learning authoring tools currently on the market are capable of creating great courseware. However, Captivate is a very powerful tool. Definitely NOT the simplest one you will find. As a result, what I see time and time again on this forum is that those who post questions have often NOT undergone any training with this (rather complex) software, nor have they extensively researched the Adobe Help pages, or the plethora of online video tutorials available for Captivate. They aren't getting results because they don't know the tool well enough. When they get frustrated, they turn the blame on the tool rather than looking more inward. If you don't know how to use the tool in the first place, what does it matter how much you (or your company) paid for it? Be patient and learn the tool first.

Report · Oct 04, 2019

Not just you. I've used validating text entry boxes as a technique in the past and it's worked OK. However, I've got one now that just won't do anything in exactly the same way you describe, so I came here for the first time in ages in desperation. Looks like yet another intermittent bug that nobody will do anything about.

Report · Oct 04, 2019

Leonardo, I think I'm getting somewhere. My text entry box is supposed to be completed with "=int(($C$2-C5)/365.25)" and this, when published on the LMS, just sits there when you hit the 'submit' button. If I change the Correct Entry to a simple word, like "horse" it works fine. There are other places where Captivate struggles to distinguish between values and strings, so this might be one of them. If it's expecting a string and you give it something that it thinks is a value, it might just sit there and sulk.

Obviously, narrowing the bug down a little doesn't solve the problem. I tried putting the Correct Entry in quotes and inverted commas but that didn't work.

Report · Oct 04, 2019

Actually, the more likely reason for the failure in this case is that entering something like "=int(($C$2-C5)/365.25)" into a text-entry box in HTML5 output is causing issues because you have several characters included that are used in either HTML or JavaScript code. My bet would be that Captivate's validation coding was never set up to evaluate those types of character combinations. That would be why you can get it to evaluate ordinary words and numbers but not this.

Report · Oct 05, 2019

So it's a bug.

Report · Oct 06, 2019

Not precisely a bug. It's more likely a design limitation. The designers/developers of the functionality were probably not asked to allow for the specific type of content you were trying to evaluate. They weren't expecting users to enter mathematical formulas that contained programming code characters. Having said that, by all means log a bug report with Adobe if you want to see any chance of this functionality being improved in future versisons. They're not likely to see this on their development map as a result of any discussion posts buried several layers deep here on a forum.