Captivate 2 right-click and drag and drop in simulation

Question

Captivate has been suggested as a suitable replacement for
Authorware since the announcement that Adobe doesn't plan to
continue with Authorware. I find myself in the position to put this
to the test. I'm in the process of recreating a course that had
been created in Authorware in a toolset comprised of Artuculate
Presenter, Articulate Quizmaker, Articulate Engage, Captivate, and
PowerPoint.
The simulation created in Authorware has these feautures:
-learner right clicks on items on screen to see a context
menu then selects option from the context menu
-learner drags toolbar and other items on screen to another
screen location
-learner selects item from Windows Start>>Program and
other application menus. As the learner's mouse moves over the
menu, menu options highlight and flyout menus appear even if
they're not directly involved in the simulation
-learner logs into course with an employee ID number. This
information is stored and is used in the simulation in which they
log into the system being simulated.
Can I do any of these things in Captivate?
I suspect I can simulate the flyout menus with a number of
mouse over hotspots - exactly the way it's done in Authorware.
However, I haven't found any way to do simulate the other items:
-use of drag and drop where the learner performs the action
-use of a variable value to check validity of what has been
entered in the text field
-use of right click to advance Captivate simulation.
I'd appreciate any help you can give me. After all, I've
heard many people claim that Captivate can replace Authorware.
Thanks
Grace Daminato

Answer 1

Hi Grace,
Captivate is indeed a replacement for Authorware, but only in
the way that an Audi is a replacement for a Ferrari. They do the
same basic job, but you need to do some after market modifications
to the Audi to level the playing field somewhat.
1) Flyout menus are indeed possible, if you're willing to
create "rollovers" that display a picture of the expanded menu when
the user mouses over. You are limited to exposing only first-level
menus, however. Captivate does not allow for rollovers on
rollovers, except possibly via Captivate 3's Slidelet
functionality.
***EDIT***: You can also use Paul Dewhurst's rollover widgets
to fake multi-level menu behavior. They are available from Paul's
site here:
http://www.raisingaimee.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=29
2) Drag-and-drop in Captivate is currently only available as
an add-in Flash object, each of which must unfortunately be built
by hand in Flash. Adobe Community Expert Paul Dewhurst offers
source files for such interactions on his website:
http://www.raisingaimee.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=29
3) Captivate has built-in checking of field values, but you
are limited to hardcoded values only. If you need variable-based
input checking, you must create it yourself in Flash and insert it
as an animation.
4) Right-click is possible in Captivate, but must be added
manually. Captivate community contributor William Heinz has created
a nifty right-click solution for HTML/SWF publication and Paul
Dewhurst again comes to the rescue with a solution for .EXE-based
output:
HTML/SWF-based Output:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/captivate/articles/rightclick.html
EXE-based Output:
http://www.raisingaimee.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=29
Unfortunately, making these modifications to Captivate files
comes at a cost. First, there's the overhead of tracking down and
implementing the custom enhancements. More importantly, Captivate
has no way of "scoring" custom enhancements, so any such
interactions will not be reflected in the user's reported results.
If you're willing to live with these limitations, and a few
others, Captivate can indeed be a suitable replacement for
Authorware.