In Captivate, how to effectively control the movement of objects on the stage?

Question

How to, say, make a shape (an arrow, for example) which points to a certain location move (and maybe rotate at the same time) to another location (another point on the stage) one second later. I know I can "apply effect" to it, but still I don't find it very easy to control the start position and end position of the arrow and the way it rotates (for example, how to make it rotate along the X, Y and Z axis respectively?)
Or, how can I make an image fly into the stage to a specific location from a certain direction, linger for a specific time, and then fly out in a specified direction? And while setting up this animation, is it possible to scrub across the timeline to see the effect of the animation, as you do in Flash Professional?

Answer 1

An old pain, efficient control of motion paths and motion effects, I know.
All motion effects are relative to the start position of the object, that can allow you to realize the fly in and fly out: time both effects and leave the necessary 'linger' time between the effects. The motion paths can be edited. To have more precise coordinates you can either edit the XML that describes the effect, or create a motion effect in Flash Professional and save it as XML to be used in Captivate, or use my approach: I create a crosshair group with a perfect vertical and horizontal line object, that you can position exactly using the X and Y coordinates and then drag start or end point of the motion path over that cross hair. I have been pleading to have at least a snap function or a serious improvement that allows to enter coordinates but apparently not many users are wanting this improvement. I used that approach here in the first movie: Reset Effects in Captivate 6 - Captivate blog
And no, Preview slide (which is what you do when scrubbing the timeline) is not a real preview, you cannot see those effects.
Please, next time mention the version you are using. In CP7 and before effect duration was relative to object duration, in CP8 it is (finally) absolute timing.