Which function should I use to create an interactive selection and print the result?

[ericaverza]

Hi everybody!

I am here again with a question that might change everything that I did until now in my current project. I will try to briefly explain what I am doing and which are my goals.

Project: I have a project that consists of a central mind map with several options in the shape of little square images. When you click in one of these images, you are redirected to a fact sheet page, with information about it. In this page, you can choose whether this option is relevant or not to you, by choosing YES or NO. If you click YES, you are redirected to the mind map and a positive tick will be present on top of the previously selected little square image. If you chose NO, you are redirected to the mind map and a cross will be showing on your little square image. Ideally, you should be able to click on this square again and decide again YES or NO how many times you want (until you are satisfied with your choice). In the end, you should have the initial mind map with either positive ticks or crosses on the square, depending on your decision about each option.

How I did: I did this by creating 3 buttons for each option (one of top of each other): in the bottom, a button with the square image with a cross, on top of it, a button with the square image with a positive tick and on top of all the previous two, a button with the original square image. I added to each button the action to 'jump to slide X', being X the number of the slide with the fact sheet of the specific square. In the fact sheet, I created a button YES and NO.

The button YES has the shared action to:

1) hide the button with the square image with a cross;

2) hide the button with the original square image;

3) show the button with the positive tick;

4) jump to the initial slide of the mind map.

The button NO has the shares action to:

1) hide the button with the square image and the positive thick;

2) hide the button with the original square image;

3) show the button with the cross;

4) jump to the initial slide of the mind map.

What I want: Once the person decided about each option (YES or NO) and has the final mind map with her/his choices made, he/she should be able to generate a PDF with this final screen. I want the person to take home the result of her/his choice in a beautiful mind map. For that, I do not know if I should change my entire way of structuring the project or if there is a trick that I can use to allow this type of action.

If you read until here and understood everything I said, I am already thankful. I am not a good writer and I think that the explanation may be quite confusing.

In any case, I would like to thanks in advance for any help!

Erica.

[RodWard]

You don't seem to be aware of how Object States work in Captivate. 

You don't need to create three buttons for each box.  You just need to create three custom states for each button and set them up as needed.

There is no default option in Captivate to generate a PDF output of a single slide.  The best you could hope for would be to suggest that they print out the final slide.  But that also usually comes with some complications because the default print options are often not suited to the orientation of the slide.

[ericaverza]

Hi! Thank you for your reply! I do not know much about the Object States in Captivate. I would like to explore it but, unfortunately, my Captivate is not working properly anymore. I will open another discussion topic in the forum, so other people who have the same problem can see it also.

Once this problem is fixed, I will explore the Object States in Captivate and, probably, I will return to this discussion with some questions.

Thank you one more time!

[Lilybiri]

Each button: text button, transparent button, image button, Shape used as button has by default 3 InBuilt states:

• Normal state: shows up when you don't hover over the button
• Rollover state: shows when you hover over the button
• Down: shows when you press the button

There is a 4th InBuilt state, 'Visited' which is not automatically created but when you create it,, it will automatically appear after the button has been pressed.

You can add Custom states as well. All states are visibel in the Object State panel which you open with the State View button in the Properties panel of teh button. It will appear in the left docking staton where normally you see the Filmstrip. You leave that panel with the Exit State button in the Big Button Bar (last button).

[ericaverza]

Hi Lieve,

Thank you for your message. I understand the 3 states of the buttons, and I was already using it in my project before. However, I am trying to understand how can I do what I said in my original message with the use of Object States. For example, I selected one of my little square images and I introduced two other different states as you can see in the image below:

The idea is that the person clicks on the image with its normal view (first one of the left column in the pic above) and is redirected to a slide with a fact sheet about this image. In this fact sheet slide, the person can choose between Ja (yes) and Misschien Later (maybe later). If he/she decides for Ja, than the second state with a green symbol should be visible. If the person chooses Misschien Later, the second state with a red symbol should be visible. The thing is that I cannot attribute the function "Change State Of" to any of the buttons in the other slide (see figure below). In this sense, how can I still use the Object States to do this thing?

[ericaverza]

What I see here is that a button can only change the state of an object if this button is located in the same slide of the object, which is not my case. I am doing something wrong?

[RodWard]

You need to learn about Variables and Advanced Actions, especially Conditional Advanced Actions

You can add Custom User Variables to Captivate that allow you to save values and then use these values to determine how something happens, perhaps as in your case, on another slide.

When clicked, your button needs to ASSIGN a value to the User Variable.  Then on returning to the slide with the images, the On Slide Enter event of that slide needs to execute a Conditional Advanced Action that will look at the value stored in the User Variable to decide the appropriate action to take.  In your case, the value of the User Variable will determine which Object State should be shown for that image.

These are somewhat advanced concepts that are normally beyond the capabilities of new Captivate users. If you do not understand what I have outlined above, you would be well-advised investigate the online and face-to-face training that is available and schedule time to participate.

Please consider that it is not really the role of this user forum to deliver basic Captivate training to every new Captivate user. We willingly help with problems encountered, but have limited time for anything else. I realise that you have an urgent deadline, but that's also the situation of just about every other user on this forum.  Our deadlines matter too.

[Lilybiri]

Spreek maar Nederlands, zou voor mij ook veel makkelijker zijn.

You can change the state of objects which are located on another slide than the event triggering the action only with an advanced or a shared action. In this case you could use the two buttons on the second screenshot to trigger the same shared action, or it may be easier in your situation (newbie) to use advanced actions. Een voorbeeld:

Voor de Ja-knop creëer een advanced action met twee commando's:

     Change State of :Image_1 to Ja

     Jump to slide....    where you indicate the slide with the image_1

Voor de 'Misschien later' knop

      Change State of :Image_1 to Nee

     Jump to slide....    where you indicate the slide with the image_1

Je kan van mij zelfs training in het Nederlands krijgen.

[ericaverza]

Hi RodWard, thank you for your message. My sincere apologies if I am being inconvenient with so many questions. I understand that you all also have deadlines and I truly appreciate your time and help offered in this forum. I am reading about the concepts you've explained and I think I kind understand it! Thank you so much for suggesting the Object States!

Hi Lieve! After RodWard's message, I sort of figured it out the exact procedure that you described above! It is, as you said, an easier solution to use advanced actions, but for now it fits perfect. Later on, when I have more time, I will figure it out better the concepts and functions of captivate. Thank you so much!