PadMail in Captivate-7

Does the padMail function still get called at the end of a quiz in Captivate-7?
Our current utility which captures the results via the padMail function, is no longer working.
Format of function I have been using up until now is;
padMail(strAddress, strSubject, strBody)

Not sure what triggers Captivate to use them, but there are template files, in the C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 7 x64\Templates\Publish:
email_attach.htm
email_body.htm
padMail functions are in these files. It looks like the first file has an active form and the second is hidden.
The function accepts the same arguments as in your post: padMail(strAddress, strSubject, strBody), but it looks like the arguments must be passed in to the function.

Similar Messages

Variables in email reporting or quiz variables in captions for captivate 4?

Hi,
Captivate 4, cp4
I have been all around the forums without getting an exact answer to what I want to do. Perhaps there isn't one but, anyway...
I am trying to collect quiz information. I just want a simple collection of data that shows that someone has completed the quiz, which just a set of multiple response statements, and who that someone is. I have started by using Text Entry Boxes (TEB) to collect their name and assigned a variable (v_Name) to this to reuse the information in a certificate. So far so good and this works. I have set up email reporting on the quiz and, providing users actually hit the button and accept both messages, the email gets sent. All I am looking for in the email is that a user has completed the quiz. The score and results do not matter. Now, here comes the issue. I would like to record the user's name (v_Name) in the quiz results that are emailed in. No matter how many reporting options or marks I give the TEB or what options for reporting I select the information will not appear in the emailed report. I can set up a question slide to ask for the name and this will appear in my emailed report but will not appear in my certificate.
Any ideas?
I have tried to play around with padMail in the resulting HTML to try and draw out the variables but had no luck (I am a JavaScript novice).
Is there a way of emailing a slide view? Or a widget to do this (I have been unable to find one).
LMS is not a solution at the moment and upgrading is unlikely to happen as I am still trying to get all Captivate users in the office up to 4 from 3!
Is it possible to take a quiz answer and use it like a TEB variable and put it into another slide via a caption? E.G., $$Interaction1234$$ or some action script to make v_Name = interaction1234?
I am looking for a simple solution. I have looked into all of the post to database articles and they have been somewhat helpful but I am only trying to capture simple data so as the users can just be ticked off as having completed it.
I am not holding out much hope. It seems quizzing in Captivate is good for self-assessment and to provide branching but the reporting feature is a bit of a failure.
Thanks very much to anyone who just reads this and gets this far!
Even more thanks to anyone who is willing to share ideas.
Greig

Email reporting has so many potential failure points that (in my opinion) it has to be considered one of those reporting options that you only use as a last resort when nothing else is open to you. LMS reporting is by far the best way to go, but that's just not an option for many people. Adobe kindly provided External Server Reporting as an option in Captivate 5, but that also requires access to a server running PHP and at least some technical exoertise.
In your case, the only things I can suggest trying are to make sure your publish folder location has been added to Flash Player Global Security as a trusted location, or to upload your published project files to a web server and test from there. Sometimes this email reporting issue turns out to be Flash security related.
The email reporting widget is definitely worth a shot and is very inexpensive when you consider how many hours you can spend trying to chase down these issues.
In the end, if you get email reporting to work reliably, consider yourself one of the lucky few.

Access LMS variables padMail(str_address, str_subject, str_body)

Hello once again,
I'm continually trying to manipulate Captivate quiz's to make more sense for my client's needs. However this has not been an easy task. Currently I have manipulated the padMail function to receive the values that Captivate passes when a user completes a quiz and select the "Send E-Mail" button. Although this is not a requirement from my client I see this as a future problem.
I'm thinking as a programmer which I find has been an ongoing problem with captivate. I would like to know how to call the padMail function and send all of the applicable quiz data without having to press the "Send E-Mail" button. In a perfect world all people would press this button and everything would be great, however this is not a perfect world. I wish to have the "Send E-Mail" button execute upon slide entry without having any user interaction.
If anybody has attempted and found a method where this is possible I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Michael Lantz

I have two comments on your code
1) Instead of using run with elevated privileges, use SPUserToken : http://soumya-sharepointblog.blogspot.com.au/2008/07/sharepoint-elevated-privilege-without.html
2) Run with elevated privilages uses the app pool account. Check if the app pool account has the permissions to access the user profile information.
Hope it helps !
Thanks Santhosh V
Santhosh, thanks a lot!
1 - I notify the developer to access the link and read the article.
2 - Where I supposed give the permission? I not found in Central Admin.
Thanks
Keny Schmeling

Using a custom menu button on the slide to open and close TOC in Captivate 7

HI
I have a custom menu button. When the user clicks I want to show TOC, ( I see there is a state to show TOC) but when the user clicks the same menu button again on that slide how can I hide the TOC. ie toggle between hide and show.
thanks

I described some possible scenarios: Toggle Shape buttons - Captivate 6 - Captivate blog

My animated gif keeps pausing in captivate and flash

Hi guys, thanks for your help.
I made an animated gif in Photoshop CS4 and inserted it as an animation into captivate 6. The animation works (I played it several times by opening it with internet explorer and safari). But when I open it in Captivate the animation goes black for a split second-several times, before it reappears-several times. It gives it almost a "reloading" or pause look when I play it. The same in flash, but in Adobe Flash CS4 Professional the timeline shows black dots once in a while, as you can see in the screen shot below.
See those black dots? I will insert a picture of what happens, when the player lands on one of those black dots:
It's the same animation, but only shows a little. Like I said, it plays fine when I open it with an internet browser, it plays fine when I play it in photoshop, but it just won't work with flash or captivate.
Any thoughts? Thanks so much!! I really appreciate your help guys!
Nat

No problem. Building a simple animation in Flash isn't that bad. You could save each "frame" as an image from PhotoShop and then import these into Flash and place one frame at the time on a keyframe in the flash timeline (press F6 to insert a keyframe).
If you want your animation to loop then you don't have to do anything as this is the default behavior. If you want it to stop at the last frame you insert a command in ActionScript to stop it. Select the last keyframe and hit F9 and type stop() in the ActionScript window.
Good luck!
www.cpguru.com - Adobe Captivate Widgets, Tutorials, Tips and Tricks and much more..

How do I create multiple TEBs with one submit button on one page in Captivate 7

I've read other posts on this topic (which refer primarily to earlier versions of Captivate) and am still at a loss as to how to put multiple text entry boxes on a page with one submit button. Here's my scenario:
I am creating test questions.
Each test question has multiple text entry boxes (for numbers only).
Student should be able to enter numbers into the textboxes in any order.
Then there is one Submit button that should initiate validating all the text entries, and move to a scoring page (so I can test it). (What would be best is if this button not only did the above, but also submitted scores to the LMS. But that is not my question at this time.)
I'd like this question to be set up as a template so that I can duplicate it, be able to add or delete text boxes and change the values required in the text boxes.
Here is an image of a sample question page with multiple TEBs. The yellow boxes tell the student where they need to enter text:
Any help or direction to help is appreciated!!

I think the problem here is that Arlhoolie wants all of the different TEBs to behave as if they were part of a single interaction that submits only ONE result to the quiz. Using multiple TEBs in Captivate means that you have multiple scored objects and therefore multiple results being submitted to the quiz.
If you want a single Success or Failure result submitted to the quiz based on the results from multiple interactive objects then there really is no simple way to do it. But you could try using the Infosemantics Interactive Master widget to combine all the TEBs as slave objects that report to the Master Widget, which then reports a single score to the quiz based on the results from the slave objects.
You can learn more about the Master widget here:
http://www.infosemantics.com.au/adobe-captivate-widgets/interactive-master
http://www.infosemantics.com.au/interactivemaster/help
You can download a free trial version of the widget here:
http://www.infosemantics.com.au/adobe-captivate-widgets/download-free-trial-widgets
One caveat you should be aware of is that this widget is not HTML5 compatible.

Is it possible to play two videos at the same time in Captivate 4

My idea is to create some e-learning material which shows a screencast of a powerpoint presentation and a video in the top left corner of the screen showing somebody presenting the slides.
Does anybody know if it is possible to do this with Captivate 4?
I know this functionality is provided in Adobe Director.
Any help regarding this will be greatly appreciated
Kind Regards
Jay

Hi Jay
Do you have the eLearning Suite? If so, you have Adobe Presenter available to you. If you don't, you should be able to download the Presenter installation file and evaluate it.
Presenter is an add in for PowerPoint. The neat thing about it is that it provides for a Table of Contents type of functionality as you see is configured in Captivate. But the twist with that is you are able to do something you cannot do in Captivate. You are able to insert videos inside the TOC area!
Just musing out loud... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form
Adobe Certified Captivate Training
SorcerStone Blog
Captivate eBooks

Why does captivate hang when it is closed in window 8.1 professional ? How is it solved?

Why does captivate hang when it is closed in window 8.1 professional ? How is it solved?

Hi,
Do you see the issue every time you close captivate or is it only in some scenarios? Does it show any error messages? What captivate version are you using (64 bit or 32 bit)? Can you provide some more information or screenshots which can help us reproduce the issue.
Tamish

Adobe Captivate has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

I am trying to use Adobe Captivate 5 and I am receiving this message when trying to open the application,
"Adobe® Captivate® has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."
Can you explain how this issue can be resolve!?

Hi there,
On which operating system are you using Adobe Captivate?
Please recreate the preferences of Captivate, following is the location of Captivate Preferences:
Windows 7: C:\Users\[user name]\AppData (hidden folder)\Local\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 5 folder
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 5 folder
Mac: /Users/[user name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe Captivate 5 folder
rename Captivate 5 to Captivate 5_old
and then try to launch Captivate 5
Thanks.

Twitter widget in Captivate 7 not working

I am using Captivate 7 to add the twitter widget to a course. I can publish it with no problem, however, it won't allow me to generate a pin. . When I click on the button "Generate PIN" it comes back with a message: "To disable twitter functionality, close window. To enable it, click Generate Pin". When I click it again nothing happens. When I click the red X to close the window, the course continues without the twitter widget.
I am not using preview. All files are published to a server.
I am using Windows
I tried Chrome and IE11
This is the link to the test course http://angelteachers.com/AngWIP/BookwormTwitter/BookwormTwitter.htm
Thanks for any help, Angela

Hi Angela, Sreekanth,
Twitter widget issue has been resolved.
I have verified with course :
http://angelteachers.com/AngWIP/BookwormTwitter/BookwormTwitter.htm
Thanks,
Krupesh Faldu
([email protected])

Adobe Captivate 6 in Windows XP is working very slow

I am working from a remote location. I have Captivate 6 installed on my machine which Has OS Windows XP. When I record the slides and click end, the Creating Slides pop-up window appears and it takes more than 2 hours to create the slides(even 2-3 slides). when the Captivate project finally opens up, it hangs frequently and I cannot work. Even saving the Project takes an hour or so. Please help me understand why is the software working so slow? Is it not compatible with the OS?

You mention you are working from a remote location. Does this mean that you are trying to work on a Captivate project file that is NOT saved to your local hard drive before you open it?
If so, then that is where your problem lies. Never work on project files stored somewhere on a network. Always copy the working file to your local drive before opening, and always close the file in Captivate before copying it back up to the storage location.

Adobe Captivate Flash Buttons in Moodle

I am using flash SWF files to control Captivate Course in Moodle and I have trouble with CLOSE pop up window flash button. It works in IE and FIrefox but not in Chrome and OPERA when course is opened via Moodle. I have created simple html page with link that opens pop up window containing the same course and this way the button works in all browsers. ????? Again, in MOOdle it doesn't.
In Chrome Developer Tools I have tracked this error when clicking on close pop up window flash buttom: Ignoring cross-frame javascript URL load requested by plugin.
The button itself is using this AS3:
pbcExit_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, myBtnClicked);
function myBtnClicked(e:MouseEvent):void {
navigateToURL(new URLRequest("javascript:window.opener=self; window.close()"), "_parent");
Does anyone have a clue what is the problem?
Thank you,
Vito

I am using flash SWF files to control Captivate Course in Moodle and I have trouble with CLOSE pop up window flash button. It works in IE and FIrefox but not in Chrome and OPERA when course is opened via Moodle. I have created simple html page with link that opens pop up window containing the same course and this way the button works in all browsers. ????? Again, in MOOdle it doesn't.
In Chrome Developer Tools I have tracked this error when clicking on close pop up window flash buttom: Ignoring cross-frame javascript URL load requested by plugin.
The button itself is using this AS3:
pbcExit_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, myBtnClicked);
function myBtnClicked(e:MouseEvent):void {
navigateToURL(new URLRequest("javascript:window.opener=self; window.close()"), "_parent");
Does anyone have a clue what is the problem?
Thank you,
Vito

Where can you log a complaint/let the developers of Captivate 5 know there is an issue?

I was on a call with the help desk for 2 hours and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with my project. When I publish it, it seems to publish fine but when I try to view it's just a black screen. I can't tell you everything they were having me do. Finally I decided to take 40 or so screens at a time and dump into a new project and publish. It worked, then another 40 pages, then another etc. and always published fine and I could view the project fine.
Then I copied in 6 pages of PPT and it was fine. My last page to copy in was the 1st page. I always have a graphic and then the title of the project come in as animated text. Publish and it's black. Took out the graphic, still black. Took out the text, everything was fine.
I created a number of different projects just a couple of pages long, had a regular screen, then a page with animimated text and black.
What I surmise is that you cannot have animimated text in a Captive 5 project. I want to let the developers know. I cannot tell you how frustrating this day has been, but at least I finally figured out why my 2 week long project wouldn't publish.

Greetings,
I'm having the same issue.
My Captivate project had one slide with animated text. First I tried deleting the animated text from the slide; then I deleted the entire slide from the project. Neither resolved the problem. I even tried removing all animation from the slides. Still no improvement.
My project was created in Captivate 4 and then converted to Captivate 5. Powerpoint was not used at all in the creation of the project. It uses extensive (but fairly basic) animation and video. Animated text is used on one slide only.
I am able to run the published file on another computer with Flash Player Version 10.1.85.3.
Like others, it is not an option for me to revert to a previous version since I cannot control the Flash Player version of my clients and learners.
I'm aware that Adobe is working on this issue and hope that they are able to resolve it VERY quickly. I have offered to share my Captivate file with Adobe if it would expedite problem resolution.
Kind Regards,
Sara

Is Captivate 4 the right tool for my purposes?

This posting should not be misunderstood as bad mouthing Captivate 4. For the most part, I really appreciate Adobe products and have invested a significant amount of personal money into many Adobe products over the years.
My current role involves designing a course curriculum using Adobe Captivate 4 and Adobe Connect Pro. Unfortunately, I am becoming increasingly concerned that I may be using the wrong tool, at least, in regards to developing all parts of a lesson. Perhaps my workflow will improve if I develop the front facing portion of my lessons with Lectora, and use Captivate solely for creating software simulations?
Because I have already spent a lot of time building my first lessons, and I have a subscription to Adobe Connect Pro, I would rather solve the issues I listed, rather than start over.
My question is... are my issues based on my lack of knowledge with Captivate 4, or am I experiencing real issues with this product? If it is my lack of knowledge, please tell me how to solve my issues.
At this point, I would like to give kudos to Rick Stone (known as Captiv8r) for all his help as a hired consultant. I highly recommend his services. Without him, I probably would not have gone as far as I have with Captivate.
Please correct or comment on the followin…
Minor annoyances
-    Too easy to accidentally move objects. Double clicking on a small graphic or a text caption can easily cause it to move or change size slightly. No way to lock their position only (e.g. lock text position but still allow editing).
-    Text caption boxes mysterious maximize (vertically) from time to time.
-    Grouping of objects is not possible.
-    Previewing “From this slide – F8” does not take into account (or initialize) persistent graphics (or otherwise) on the first slide or template; this results in missing objects when doing a quick preview.
-    Item names/variables are unwieldy. I have a number of graphics which I re-use throughout a lesson. I want to give each of them common names, such as ico_jobaid, img_core_splash, etc. Unfortunately, I cannot use identical names throughout a lesson. Each page requires a unique name for every object. This results in an item name like ico_interactive.png (as it is named in the library), appearing as TImageItem681 and TImageItem680 (copied twice) on a slide.
This is common for every object and makes it difficult to control objects.
Major issues
-    Occasionally I insert a graphics that can’t be made visible.
-    .cp file size seems to continuously increase in size, despite removing unused resources.
-    Text bullet issues (ending bullets occasional show up as a larger size)
-    Roll-over slidlets do not work as intended in AS3 mode. I must preview or publish in AS2.
-    Recording Software Simulations!
Captivate 4 allows recording of simulations in up to four modes (Demonstration, Training, Assessment, and Custom). Unfortunately, it appears to record these simulations are separate and distinct recordings. This is a problem because call-outs and other edits must be repeated for each simulation. Other simulation tools record once and can be edited once for passive and/or interactive viewing.
-    Buttons! Multiple buttons/text captions on a slide.
If I want to place multiple buttons on a slide, I must follow these steps to make these buttons/captions work properly. This is an unreasonable amount of work in order to use buttons on a single slide.
Step 1 - Determine the frame value. Note: It seems that if the frame value is not included, the lesson will move to the next slide, after clicking one button. Another caveat is that adding or removing slides may change the correct frame value.
1. Click Insert from the top menu,
2. Select Standard Objects,
3. Select Text Caption,
4. Click the Insert Variable button,
5. Select System from the Variable Type pull-down menu,
6. Select rdinfoCurrentFrame from the Variables pull-down menu.
7. Position the text caption appropriately on the screen. You may need an appropriate pause inserted in order to see the value.
8. Click Preview and select Project from the pull-down menu (or Click F4),
9. Step through slide show to the slide where rdinfoCurrentFrame text variable was inserted and record the displayed value.
Step 2 – Insert Button control
1. Click Insert from the top menu,
2. Select Standard Objects,
3. Select Button,
4. Choose appropriate button and button options (skipping steps),
5. Click Ok,
6. Position button appropriately.
Step 3 – Setting up advanced actions.
1. Click Project from top menu,
2. Select Actions,
3. Click the Advanced Actions tab,
4. Click the Edit / Create Action Pull down menu and select Create a New Action…,
5. In the new action name: text box, type action name (i.e. but_core_console),
6. Double click twice on Add Statement (sometimes it doesn’t behave as it should),
    – this feature seems error prone.
7. Double click twice on Statement (in red),
8. Select Standard Action from pull-down list,
9. Select Show from pull-down list,
10. Select object name (text caption) you wish to show,
11. Repeat (if necessary),
12. Select hide and the element name you wish to hide and repeat as necessary,
13. Double click twice on Add Statement (sometimes it doesn’t behave as it should)
– this feature seems error prone.
14. Double click twice on Statement (in red),
15. As the last step, select Assignment from pull down list,
16. Select rdcmndGotoFrame from pull down list,
17. Select Value from pull-down list,
18. Enter the frame value (as determined Step 1),
19. Click Save.
For the next buttons,
1. Click the Duplicate button,
2. Edit the New action name: name appropriately,
3. Edit the information in the Advanced actions for the this action. (skipping steps)
4. Click Save.
Repeat as necessary!
Configuring buttons
1. Double click on first button,
2. In the section, “If the user clicks on the button”,
    click on “On success” pull-down menu and select, “Execute advanced action”.
3. Click the Action pull-down menu and select the appropriate named action.
Repeat as necessary.
-    Building buttons for several slides will create a large number of advance actions. Even though these advanced actions are only applicable to a single slide, they are viewable from any slide in a lesson. The number of actions (or advanced actions) quickly adds up in a complex lesson.
-    Cannot find a way to edit the default look (object positioning/object sizes) of a quiz. The only attribute that seems changeable is the font size.
Lock ups and crashes
-    Double clicking on a .cp file will often result in Captivate freezing at the start up screen.
-    Captivate crashes and sometimes predictably, especially where animations are inserted.
I am using both a Windows 7 64 bit and a Windows Vista 32 bit OS. I have tried the following options with seemingly no difference: RUN AS Admin, XP Compatibility mode
Examples from Windows Applications log:
The program AdobeCaptivate.exe version 4.0.1.1658 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Problem Reports and Solutions control panel. Process ID: 16f0 Start Time: 01ca623e805d8f30 Termination Time: 81
The program AdobeCaptivate.exe version 4.0.1.1658 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Problem Reports and Solutions control panel. Process ID: 1654 Start Time: 01ca622b67764380 Termination Time: 70

The only one that can answer that question is yourself ;o)
I wrote my comments and suggestions with red text here. My company uses Captivate to develop courses and so far we have been very happy with Captivate. Earlier we used Flash to develop courses, but the development time was very long so Captivate has allowed us to speed up the development process with 2-300%. We still use Flash quite a lot to build interactions etc. and import these into Captivate to add extra features.
We did look at a variety of tools when we wanted to find an alternative to Flash but at that time (we started with Captivate 2) we found that the best option was indeed Captivate. I regularly check up on competing products and there are some interesting alternatives available now but they are not as advanced as Captivate imho.
When that is said. Captivate is (and has always been) full of weird bugs and things that aren't working properly. This is extremely annoying but we have learned to work our way around most of them. It also seems that the stability of Captivate varies greatly from installation to installation. We are 8 people in my department all working with Captivate. Our computers are all the same and the OS is a corporate standard. Despite this some people here have some weird problems with Captivate that I never experience. I can't explain why it happens (and neither can they) but it could be the installation or it could be the way people work. An example is "missing/corrupt" Captivate files. We have always been working directly on a network drive. This is something that is often recommended against doing because it can cause corrupt Captivate files. The interesting thing is that I have never once experienced a corrupt Captivate file even though i have opened, worked on and saved many thousands of them from/to our network drive. One of my colleagues had around 20 occurences of corrupt Captivate files in the same timespan and from the same network drive.
The biggest problem in Captivate is the quiz module in my opinion. The quiz module is probably the most important when we talk about E-learning development tools and that is where Captivate is the weakest. You can't really customize your quizzes, there isn't enough different question types and interaction types, you can't use video but worst of all - it is unstable and buggy. Users can get stuck in a quiz without being able to move forward or backwars, the review quiz is buggy etc.
One thing I often see with Captivate developers is that they try and do everything in Captivate. While most things are possible to do in Captivate then it might no be the best solution. Some things can be created in Flash and imported into Captivate saving you tons of time and grief and in the end give you a much better end-product. I know that everyone doesn't have access to a Flash programmer, but then you can buy your way out of the problem.
If you are looking for a tool where you can have full control of everything in your courses then the only real solution is Adobe Flash. This will allow you to build the courses exactly as you please but it comes at a big price. It gets way more complex to create courses, which results in longer development times and updating your existing course becomes much more difficult and time consuming.
Minor annoyances
-    Too easy to accidentally move objects. Double clicking on a small graphic or a text caption can easily cause it to move or change size slightly. No way to lock their position only (e.g. lock text position but still allow editing).
Doesn't really bother me but I guess it's different from person to person. You could just click on the object in the timeline instead to avoid moving the object.
-    Text caption boxes mysterious maximize (vertically) from time to time.
I never experienced that.
-    Grouping of objects is not possible.
I agree that this could be handy on slides with many objects.
-    Previewing “From this slide – F8” does not take into account (or initialize) persistent graphics (or otherwise) on the first slide or template; this results in missing objects when doing a quick preview.
Yes but if Captivate was to take into account everything that happened earlier than previewing from this slide you might as well click preview project (F4).
-    Item names/variables are unwieldy. I have a number of graphics which I re-use throughout a lesson. I want to give each of them common names, such as ico_jobaid, img_core_splash, etc. Unfortunately, I cannot use identical names throughout a lesson. Each page requires a unique name for every object. This results in an item name like ico_interactive.png (as it is named in the library), appearing as TImageItem681 and TImageItem680 (copied twice) on a slide.
I think this is the same in any application.. The whole idea of naming objects is that they have a unique name to be identified and manipulate later. I do however agree that the default naming in Captivate sucks. If the resource is named ico_interactive.png in the library, then Captivate should name it slide1_ico_interactive.png as the object name. It would make it easier and quicker to identify the correct resources.
Major issues
-    Occasionally I insert a graphics that can’t be made visible.
I never experienced that with properly configured graphics. Sure you can have problems if you insert a CMYK image or a 300 dpi image, but if you use RGB 72dpi images then it works fine. (at least it always have for me).
-    .cp file size seems to continuously increase in size, despite removing unused resources.
True but I never really experienced this as a problem. In Captivate 3 it could really get out of hand, but in CP4 it's much better. Alternatively create a blank Captivate file with the same dimensions and copy/paste your slides into that. (Don't know how it will behave with all your advanced actions though).
-    Text bullet issues (ending bullets occasional show up as a larger size)
It is because you have a different font size on the last line of the caption. Just do a CTRL-A to select all the text and select the proper font size. Alternatively adjust the default font and size to what you want in Captivate to avoid this in the future.
-    Roll-over slidlets do not work as intended in AS3 mode. I must preview or publish in AS2.
Didn't know that - you should probably report it as a bug if you haven't done so already.
-    Recording Software Simulations!
Captivate 4 allows recording of simulations in up to four modes (Demonstration, Training, Assessment, and Custom). Unfortunately, it appears to record these simulations are separate and distinct recordings. This is a problem because call-outs and other edits must be repeated for each simulation. Other simulation tools record once and can be edited once for passive and/or interactive viewing.
Agree - this is rather annoying.
-    Buttons! Multiple buttons/text captions on a slide.
From what I understand you have a whole bunch of buttons on a slide and then when the user clicks on one it shows some text / image? If that is the case then yes it will be a tedious process to build all this. I don't know if it would be easy in any other applications though (surely most of the other Rapid E-learning tools won't even be able to do it). Perhaps it would be better to rethink the way you build the course. Can't you use rollover captions / images instead?
Another alternative is to build these "interactions" in Flash and then import them into Captivate. Basically you would need to build a couple of different templates where you would be able to reuse the Flash framework and only change images/text in Flash and then importo it into Captivate.
-    Cannot find a way to edit the default look (object positioning/object sizes) of a quiz. The only attribute that seems changeable is the font size.
This is a major handicap in Captivate and one of the reasons why we don't use Captivate quizzes in our courses. We build all our course in Captivate (and add Flash and other interactions) but we always use a Flash Quiz. The Captivate quiz is simply too ugly and unstable. We deploy courses to 35.000 people worldwide so stability is our number one priority and sadly Captivate quizzes don't offer that at this point.
Lock ups and crashes
-    Double clicking on a .cp file will often result in Captivate freezing at the start up screen.
I never had that problem. I use Win XP, Vista 64-bit and Win7 64-bit.
-    Captivate crashes and sometimes predictably, especially where animations are inserted.
I am using both a Windows 7 64 bit and a Windows Vista 32 bit OS. I have tried the following options with seemingly no difference: RUN AS Admin, XP Compatibility mode
My regular development PC runs Windows XP Pro. I never have any problems here. On Vista 64-bit I have a ton of problems, but Captivate didn't crash or lock up - it simply didn't perform the actions I wanted it to do. So far on Windows 7 I haven't encountered any crashes or problems. However there is no doubt that Captivate 4 was designed with Win XP in mind and Vista and Win7 are not native platforms for it.
/Michael
Visit my Captivate blog with tips & tricks, tutorials and Widgets.

Detail Region as TOC for captivate (.swf) files

Hi All,
Not sure how to explain this, but i will do my best. I didnt like the TOC/Aggregator for CP 5. Thinking maybe to use Spry data using the Detail Region sample. I thought it would be simple to just combine the Detail Region code with the publsihed .swf and .htm code. But not sure what im doing wrong or if this is even possible to do. I was experimenting just using the exact same code and xml for Detail Region sample and modifying it a bit. See below...
Appreciate the Help! Thank you.
XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<products>
     <product>
          <name>Adobe Photoshop CS2</name>
          <category>Digital Imaging</category>
          <boximage>images/photoshop.gif</boximage>
          <bkgimage>M_1.swf</bkgimage>
          <descheader>The professional standard in desktop digital imaging</descheader>
          <desc>Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 software, the professional image-editing standard and leader of the Photoshop digital imaging line, delivers more of what you crave. Groundbreaking creative tools help you achieve extraordinary results. Unprecedented adaptability lets you custom-fit Photoshop to the way you work. And with more efficient editing, processing, and file handling, there's no slowing you down.</desc>
          <features></features>
     </product>
     <product>
          <name>Adobe Illustrator CS2</name>
          <category>Print Publishing</category>
          <boximage>images/illustrator.gif</boximage>
          <bkgimage>M_2.swf</bkgimage>
          <descheader>Vector graphics reinvented</descheader>
          <desc>Adobe® Illustrator® CS2 software gives you new creative freedom that lets you realize your ideas quickly and powerfully. Instantly convert bitmaps to vector artwork and paint more intuitively. Save time with intelligent palettes and optimized workspaces. Plus, tight integration with other software allows you to produce extraordinary graphics for print, video, the web, and mobile devices.</desc>
          <features></features>
     </product>
     <product>
          <name>Adobe InDesign CS2</name>
          <category>Print Publishing</category>
          <boximage>images/indesign.gif</boximage>
          <bkgimage>M_3.swf</bkgimage>
          <descheader>A new standard in professional layout and design</descheader>
          <desc>Join the growing ranks of creative professionals discovering new levels of creative freedom and productivity using Adobe® InDesign® CS2 software. Tightly integrated with the Adobe applications you use most, InDesign CS2 delivers faster production workflows and a more fluid creative environment for designing professional layouts with sophisticated graphics and typography.</desc>
          <features></features>
     </product>
     <product>
          <name>Adobe GoLive CS2</name>
          <category>Web Publishing</category>
          <boximage>images/golive.gif</boximage>
          <bkgimage>M_4_1.swf</bkgimage>
          <descheader>Professional, standards-based Web and mobile authoring</descheader>
          <desc>Adobe® GoLive® CS2 software lets you unlock the power of CSS with intuitive visual tools such as prebuilt CSS objects that you can drag and drop to build sophisticated sites. Jump-start your designs by easily converting Adobe InDesign® layouts into Web pages. Or, design Web and mobile content in an advanced, standards-based coding environment.</desc>
          <features></features>
     </product>
     <product>
          <name>Adobe Dreamweaver 8</name>
          <category>Web Publishing</category>
          <boximage>images/dreamweaver.gif</boximage>
          <bkgimage>M_5_1.swf</bkgimage>
          <descheader>Dreamweaver 8 is the industry-leading web development tool, enabling users to efficiently design, develop and maintain standards-based websites and applications.</descheader>
          <desc>With Dreamweaver 8, web developers go from start to finish, creating and maintaining basic websites to advanced applications that support best practices and the latest technologies.</desc>
          <features></features>
     </product>
     <product>
          <name>Adobe Flash 8 Professional</name>
          <category>Web Publishing</category>
          <boximage>images/flash_pro.gif</boximage>
          <bkgimage>M_6_1.swf</bkgimage>
          <descheader>Introducing Macromedia's biggest Flash release to date.</descheader>
          <desc>Flash® Professional 8 is the industry's most advanced authoring environment for creating interactive websites, digital experiences and mobile content. With Flash Professional 8, creative professionals design and author interactive content rich with video, graphics, and animation for truly unique, engaging websites, presentations or mobile content.</desc>
          <features></features>
     </product>
</products>
HTML Code:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:spry="http://ns.adobe.com/spry">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Detail Region and Effects Sample</title>
<link href="files/samples.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<style type="text/css">
.product {
     cursor: pointer;
.hover {
     background-color: #FFFFCC;
.selected {
     background-color: #CCCCCC;
#description {
     opacity: 0;
     filter: alpha(opacity=0);
     background-color: white;
</style>
<script src="files/xpath.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="files/SpryData.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="files/SpryEffects.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">

</script>
<script src="files/standard.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Detail Region and Effects Sample</h3>
<hr />
<table width="100%" border="0">
     <tr>
          <td width="21%">
<ul spry:region="ds1" spry:repeatchildren="ds1">
                    <li class="product" onclick="fadeOutContentThenSetRow('{ds_RowID}');" spry:select="selected" spry:hover="hover">{name}</li>
            </ul>
          </td>
       <td width="79%">
   <div id="description" spry:detailregion=" ds1">
<div id="CaptivateContent">
   </div>
   <script type="text/javascript">
      var so = new SWFObject("{bkgimage}", "Captivate", "100%", "100%", "8", "#CCCCCC");
         so.addParam("quality", "high");
         so.addParam("name", "Captivate");
         so.addParam("id", "Captivate");
         so.addParam("wmode", "opaque");
         so.addParam("bgcolor","#F1F4F5");
         so.addParam("menu", "false");
         so.addParam("allowScriptAccess", "always");
         so.addVariable("variable1", "value1");
         so.setAttribute("redirectUrl", "http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash");
         so.write("CaptivateContent");
   </script>
        <script type="text/javascript">
      document.getElementById('Captivate').focus();
      document.Captivate.focus();
   </script>
      </div>
      </td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
Message was edited by: drodax

Hi,
I think you will need a third party convertor - a quick
google sent me to this one
http://www.winavi.com/swf-to-avi.htm
which is free.

PadMail in Captivate-7

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for