Tutorial - how to track user progress in a Captivate movie

Question

I wanted to start working with the new scripting capabilities
in Captivate 4 and thought a good first project would be to create
a set of variables and custom actions and execute the actions based
on the state of the variables. I wrote up a description/walkthrough
with screenshots and the source .cp is downloadable here:
http://elearninglive.com/wordpress/2009/01/tracking-user-progress-in-captivate-4-using-var iables-and-actions/
Hopefully it proves useful to others!
A couple of things I mention at the bottom of the post in
regards to the new features in CP4:
1. The actions window is amazingly slow once you add more
than a handful of actions. Perhaps it's just my machine? I have a
very fast machine with lots of ram, but perhaps it's something
unique to my environment?
2. You can't 'chain' actions. In other words, you cannot use
'execute multiple actions' setting to execute user-created actions,
just the built-in ones, which seems to me a pretty big limitation.
I had to work around it.
3. As an add-on to #1 above - there is no way to
import/export code. Since the actions window is so slow it would be
ideal if we could just import code written in a text file, or
better yet, have a simple code editor (like the actions panel in
Flash).
My 2 cents, fwtw, as a new CP4 user....
mark
www.elearninglive.com

Answer 1

> But I didn't really know what AuthorWare was actually
> capable of producing until this past year when I
happened to subscribe to
> the
> AWARE list (AuthorWare Developers) and over time read
about the
> capabilities it
> had. It was an excellent tool - and it seems, the best
there ever was for
> our
> needs, and it amazes me that there isn't anything to
replace it yet that
> matches it. Of course, the problem was the shockwave
plugin. Which is a
> big
> problem and the real original reason I never looked into
it in the first
> place.
The biggest problem Authorware had was poor marketing. Second
was it had no
way to natively create the eye-candy that Flash was wowing
the world with.
Third, there was no attempt by Macromedia modernise
Authorware with a lot of
very basic things that would have made a huge difference to
everyone's
perception of the tool
Fourth, Marketing kept telling people Authorware was dead,
from about
Authorware 5. I think the Flash team was on a bonus for
converting people
>
> I don't understand why Adobe is now making Captivate the
next AuthorWare.
> That's basically what they're doing it seems. It's like
saving up to buy a
> ferrari when you have on sitting unused in your garage!
They already had a
> great elearning development tool in AuthorWare and just
needed the one big
> piece: output to flash swf and not shockwave. I guess
there were technical
> reasons why that wasn't done?
I think it is clear to those of us that have had to move to
Captivate from
Authorware that Captivate is *very* lacking in specific
advanced features
and functionality that old hands are used to. As with any
product, users are
bombarding adobe with requests that boost the power and scope
of Captivate.
It's a natural progression.
>
> As much as I like Captivate 4, it's a few major releases
away from coming
> close to what we *really* need.
I agree - but it is a lot closer this time around :-)
Steve
http://twitter.com/Stevehoward999
Adobe Community Expert: eLearning, Mobile and Devices
European eLearning Summit - EeLS
Adobe-sponsored eLearning conference.
http://www.elearningsummit.eu