Advanced action: jump to next slide if all text entry boxes are filled out. If not, pause project and show error message

Question

Hi there
Working with captivate 4 and advanced actions, which is a great new feature, I encounter the following problem:
I have a sign-in slide, where the user has to insert his name and several other data. For user-friendly handling, I have the text entry boxes appearing one after another, so when the user confirms his entry, the next text entry box appears and has the focus.
The button for jumping to the next slide works with an advanced action:
Only if the user has filled out all the text entry boxes, the action "jump to the next slide" is performed.
If not, an error message is shown.
It works well so far.
Now, I want the project to pause there, and not to jump back to the beginning of the slide (as suggested in another Thread in this forum), because then the text entry boxes dissappear again.
I tried to set the movie control variable rdcmndPause to 1 in order to make the movie pause, but nothing happens.
I tried it with an external playback control bar and without, it didn't work in either case.
I found the hint:
To control the project through the skin file, add the prefix cpSkinLoader_mc to the variables. This might be the solution.(?)
But how can I change the name of a MovieControl Variable?
If anyone knows, how this is supposed to work or has another suggestion to solve the problem, please let me now.
Thanks a lot.
Petra

Answer 1

Hi Petra,
I believe I can help you, but from a completely different angle than anything you've tried yet.  I try to find simple solutions to complex problems.  No advanced actions will be needed, just a little creative timing.  First, I need to be sure I correctly understand what it is you're hoping to accomplish.
If I understand you correctly, you've got a single welcome slide.  On this slide you've got several TEB's (text entry boxes), set up with variables to make your project more personal or gather some required information.  These TEB's have no right or wrong answers, they simply require an entry: such as an address which begins with a numeric key.  The TEB's are set to appear one after another, as one is completed the next one appears.  Once all have been completed a next button, set to "jump to next slide" takes them  to the next slide and on through your course.  You want the project to pause until the user clicks this button, and only proceed if all TEB's have been entered.  If not, you wish an error message to appear.
If the above description is correct, I'd do the following:
Leave your TEB's to show up one at a time as the previous is submitted, as you've described. (each one pauses the slide till info is submitted, then "continues" the slide and the next TEB displays)
Set each TEB to "display for rest of slide".
For the next button:  In the properties dialog box, options tab, name the button "Next_button" and uncheck the visibility box.
Open the properties for the final TEB that students will fill in and set the on success property to "show" then choose the Next_button by clicking the drop down arrow beside the "show" field.  This will hide the Next button until all TEB's have been filled in.
There is no error message, because there is no possibility of error.  Why tell a student they've messed up, just eliminate that possibility!    All TEB's only display after the previous is entered, and the Next button is hidden until the last TEB is entered.
I've tested this in a simple 3 slide project and it all worked fine, including some variables.  If you need more detailed info, or would like to see the sample proj. I created let me know.
Hope this helps.
randy