Custom Review

Goal

This question recently appeared on the forum (thread):

"I'd like to customize the results page at the end of a quiz to display the numbers 1 to 20 (representing the 20 questions in the quiz) and indicate if each question was answered correctly or incorrectly."

Although I posted an answer, the user never returned to check it. Since I have spent some time to work out that solution, I also discovered that it could be very useful in two situations that are often mentioned as failing in the normal Captivate design:

  • To show the user an overview of answers on a test with Knowledge Check slides: which anwsers were  correct/incorrect? If you are not sure about the differences between KC slides and normal quiz slides, have a look at this article.

  • To create a Review slide, where the learner would see the same information for normal quiz slides. Captivate has a great Review feature for quiz slides (not for KC slides) but it has some shortcomings. It will not only show the answers by the learner but also the correct answers. Moreover, clicking the Review button will cancel all remaining attempts on Quiz level for apparent reasons. With the solution I propose the user would not see the correct answers, only which questions were answered correctly or incorrectly, and the Retake attempts would still be available. 

The work flow is based on a couple of simple shared actions, use of multistate objects (for the feedback checkmarks) and some advanced actions.

Example movie

Watch this embedded movie or use any device to open this link (it is a rescalable, non-responsive HTML5 project). 

You will first see a test with two Knowledge Check slides, followed by a 'Review' slide. You will be able to retake this test, or to continue.

Second part is a realy quiz, with 5 question slides. Question slides are followed by a Review slide. In Quiz Preferences I provided 3 attempts. When the attempts are exhausted or you succeeded passing the test, the Next button (was formerly a Retake button) will take you to the official Score slide.

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Set up

Checkmark - multistate object

The checkmarks, both on the Review slide for the KC question and for the real quiz, are shapes with 3 custom states:

  1. Normal state: shape is invisible because Alpha for Fill and Stroke for Width are both set to 0.
  2. Correct state: shape is filled with a PNG representing a green tick symbol. This can of course be all you want: text, text + image, text + image + audio. I kept it simple. 
  3. Wrong state: shape is filled with a PNG that is the Cross symbol.

Here is a screenshot of the Object styles for the checkmark:

The checkmarks are labeled: Check_KC1 - Check_KC2 for the KC slides, and Check_1, Check_2.... Check_5 for the Quiz slides. The numbers make it easier to select them by filtering in the Parameters dialog box, because they are used in the shared actions.

Retake button Quiz Review - multistate object

That button on the Review slide for the Quiz, is used to start a new attempt because the user will not see the Score slide. I had to reproduce he functionality of that Score slide, where the Retake button automatically disappears in two situations: either the learner has passed the quiz, or the Quiz attempts are exhausted. I solved that by adding a custom state to the Retake button, where the label changes to 'Next'. To have a non-confusing Rollover and Down state, which would be valid for both the Retake and Next button, I used the text '>>'. This is the Object state panel of this button, type Transparent button like the Quiz buttons and buttons on the Score slide: The advanced action (see below) EnterReview will take care of switchnng beteen the Normal and Passed state.

The Review slide for the KC questions doesn't need that type of button. It has two buttons: Retake for those who want to retry the KC test (answers are always reset for KC slides when leaving them) and a Continue button.

KC/Question Slides - variable v_KC

I changed the default setup to only one attempt for the KC-slides (default =  Infinite attempts). That change made the Last Attempt event availalbe. Contrary to Quiz slides the results of the KC-slides are not stored in exposed system variable. I wanted to show a 'trophy' on the Review slide to learners who correctly anwered all KC-questions. To track the correct answers, I created a user variable, labeled v_KC  which starts with a default value of 0 and is incremented for each correct answer. For the same reason, the shared action triggered by the Success event is different from the one used for normal quiz slides. If you import the shared action to another project, the variable will automatically be created. 

Quiz slides kept the default setup: only one attempt allowed.

Events for Actions

On KC-slides Success event (Quiz Properties) is used for Shared Action 'CorrectAnswerKC'

On KC-slides Last Attempt  event (Quiz Properties) is used for Shared Action 'WrongAnswer'

ReviewKC slide On Enter event triggers Advanced Action 'EnterReviewKC'

Continue button Success event (on ReviewKC slide) is set to simple action 'Go to Next Slide'

Retake button Success event (on ReviewKC slide) is set to simple action 'Jump to slide  KC1' (first KC slide)

On Question slides Success event (Quiz Properties) is used for Shared Action 'CorrectAnswer'

On Question slides Last Attempt  event (Quiz Properties) is used for Shared Action 'WrongAnswer'

Review slide On Enter event triggers Advanced Action 'EnterReview'

Retake button Success event (on Review slide) is set to simple action 'Go to Next Slide'

Score Slide On Enter event triggers Advanced Action 'EnterScore'


Shared actions

WrongAnswer triggered by Last Attempt event (KC slides and Quiz slides)

It is a very simple action with two commands: changing the state of the associated checkmark to the Wrong state and going to the next slide. There are two parameters: the checkmark (which is different for each slides) and the state. Although the state always has the same name (Wrong), there is no way to turn it into a 'fixed' parameter (one of my feature requesnts). Here is the action with filled in parameters

I like the way it is possible to track shared actions in the Library, look at the Usage panel for this action/ You see that this shared action is used both for the two KC slides and for the 5 Quiz slides.

CorrectAnswer triggered by Success event Quiz slides

It is a similar action, now showing the state Correct in the first command:

CorrectAnswerKC triggered by Success event KC slides

I used the CorrectAnswer from Quiz slides as template to add an extra command that will increment the variable v_KC.

Advanced Actions

EnterReviewKC triggered by the On Enter event of the ReviewKC slide

This is a simple conditional action, to decide if the trophy will show up or not.

EnterReview triggered by the On Enter event of the Review slide

This conditional action has two decisions. The first decision will change the state of the Retake button to have a Next button if the quiz has been passed or the Quiz attempts are exhausted. The second decision is about showing an image if the quiz has been passed. It also shows or hides the text mentioning the number of the present attempt.

EnterScore triggered by the On Enter event of the Score slide

This is the 'trick'. To have the functionality of a Retake button on the previous slide, which is the Review slide, the playhead visits to the score slide, but will immediately jump back to the first question slide. All quizzing system variables are reset in that case. Only when all attempts are exhausted or the learner passed the quiz, will the score slide become visible to the learner.

More is possible...

Several enhancements are possible based on this approach:

  • You can have multiple review slides, if there is not enough space on one slide

  • You can have a review side after a chapter which has some question slides or KC slides; in that case you'll have to tweak the advanced actions; if you want to track different bunches of KC slides you can either reuse the variable v_KC or use several variables. In the last scenario you'll have to turn the variable in the shared action into a real parameter.

  • I used a simple checkmark to indicate correct/wrong answers. It is not limited to that: in custom states you can also have audio, text etc...

More ideas? Suggestions?






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Fluid Boxes Or Breakpoint Views?

Intro

Captivate 2017 added a new workflow to develop a responsive project: Fluid Boxes. It doesn't mean that the existing workflows to make projects accessible with all devices are no longer important. In this post I will try to explain my way of choosing a workflow for such a project. It is possible that not everyone will agree with my point of view and I would welcome all discussions. At the same time I believe that the current work flow for those Fluid Boxes will be optimized in the future by the team as well, which will probably lead to editing this text. It is valid today, November 2017, about half a year after the launch of the Fluid Boxes method. More than ever, this post is valid today, November 2017 and will certainly change in the future.


Overview Workflows 

If you want to publish a project to be watched on any device, you have to forget about SWF output! Only HTML5 output can be used. presently Captivate offers 3 workflows:
  1. Scalable Projects: you can publish a blank (normal) project to HTML5 with the option 'Scalable HTML Content' activated. 
    This will not result in a real 'responsive' project, because the layout will be the same on all screens. Another word sometimes used for this type of project is 'adaptive'.

    Advantage of this workflow is that the development time will not increase compared with a project that is meant only for desktop/laptop. It can be a good choice for courses that will rarely be viewed on smartphones, and you don't mind to have only landscape mode. I just wanted to mention this easy workflow, but the rest of this post has its focus on the two other workflows.

  2. Responsive Project with Fluid Boxes which is the work flow introduced with CP2017. I see the result as a solution between the Scalable HTML projects (same layout on all screens) and a  esponsive project developed with Breakpoint views. Such a full responsive project can  have different layouts for diferent screen sizes corresponding with the Breakpoints. When using Fluid boxes the layout will be rearranged by the application depending on the screen size and the settings.  Some items can be left out for small screens but you will not have full control over the design for each size. Moreover there are some limitations which I will explain later on (with possible workarounds and tips). Developing time for this type of project will be in between time needed for scalable project and for a  Breakpoint Views project. Fluid boxes have a great way to make font size changing in a 'fluid' way.

  3. Responsive Project with Breakpoint Views is available since version 8. It is no longer the default approachn when starting a responsive project.  You have to switch to this workflow from the Project menu.

    This workflow allows fully responsive projects: you have control over the design for a maximum of 5 resolutions. You can not only leave out items, but also replace them by other items, like replacing an animation or video by a static image or even an icon to cope with smaller screens. Control over the design means control over size and position of each item in each breakpoint. However developing time for such a fully responsive project will be much larger.

Example Movies

I published two responsive projects, one developed with Fluid Boxes and another with Breakpoint views. They have the same content, but show limitations and workarounds for the Fluid Boxes, compared with the Breakpoint views development.
Both projects have 4 slides:
  • Titlee: not all  images which in the Breakpoint example could be used on the Fluid Boxes version because you cannot stack items. I could have combined the images in a graphical application to have one image for Fluid Boxes, but the different effects and timing didn't have a workaround.
    The images used for the mobile screen (Breakpoint) are different and smaller than for the other breakpoints. Not so for the Fluid Boxes example.

  • Buddies: similar: the ruler cannot be used for Fluid Boxes, at least not when stacked with other images. 

  • Content: different items can be clicked to show more information. For the Breakpoint version that information is stacked and Hide/Show is used. Text and images are combined in a group. For the Fluid Boxes I used the workaround by creating one object with different states. Grouping is not possible here.

  • Comparison: maybe less apparent, but I used an effect on a group (image + shape with text) for the Breakpoint view version, since grouping is not possible for Fluid Boxes I had to use separate effect on the items. 
Responsive projects cannot be embedded, use these links with any device please:

Breakpoint Views

Comparing setup Theme Breakpoints vs Fluid Boxes

As described in this article, setting up a theme means the creation of a Theme Colors palette, Object Styles, Master Slides, Skin and eventually Recording defaults. The main differences between Breakpoint Views and Fluid Boxes are in the Object Styles for Text containers and in the Master slides:

Object Styles

Design of Breakpoint Views for text, when decreasing the width of the screen, will keep the font size fixed until the width of the next Breakpoint is reached. That means that for any text container, caption or shape, and for button labels, you need to define a font size for each used Breakpoint. That can be a tedious process, because you have to test it out for all possible screen resolutions. A lot of text styles are needed, both for Standard and for Quizzing Objects.  To improve the readability I will often also increase the leading (distance between lines) since it is set to 1 (term used in Captivate for leading is Spacing).

For Fluid Boxes this is not necessary, because font size will adapt to screen size in a 'fluid' way when changing the screen width. It is limited by the 'minimum size', which is set at 14pt, which is IMO too high. In previous versions the minimum font size was 10pt which still leads to readable text on smartphones.

Master Slides

Since I am working in the Expert UI, I created two separate workspaces for Fluid Boxes and for Breakpoint Views because the work flow is quite different especially when editing master slides. In both workspaces I have Master slides and Filmstrip visible at the same time, which means they have to be in two different docking stations. For both workflows I will have Rulers active on the stage to be able t use guides for a consistent design.

Breakpoint views: the most important panel here is the Position Properties panel. In combination with Rulers/Guides you can size and position all items on the master slides, including the placeholders. For Breakpoint workflow all master slides can be used, including the main master slide. Main master slide is a great tool for items that are common to most slides, including daughter master slides.  The object styles defined in the previous step will be used automatically provided you defined them as default styles! If you plan to use quizzes, do not overlook checking the default quizzing master slides. Labels to be used on quizzing master slides  have to be defined in the Quiz Preferences.

Fluid Boxes do not need the Position Properties panel, except for Static Fluid Boxes. Fluid Boxes are defined with the Properties panel. You cannot use the main master slide for Fluid Boxes, because all default themes with the exception of the Blank theme, have fluid boxes set up.  Even when editing the Blank theme the option Fluid Boxes is unaviailable for the Main master slide. In two previous posts I described the work flow for quizzing master slides and content master slides. Do not forget to have a look at the post about Fluid Boxes and Guides, because those Guides are indispensable to set up a consistent design spanning all master slides.

Limitations and workarounds - Fluid boxes

Do not use objects on the main master slide. Most other limitations are due to the fact that fluid boxes have to be "twodimensional", which means that you cannot have objects overlapping or stacked in the same location, even if they don't appear at the same time in the timeline. Here are some of the the results of that 2D paradigm and possible workarounds::
  • Grouping of objects is impossible
    That is not only disappointing for management of crowded timelines, but it also means that group effects are impossible. THse group effects can be very useful, look at this article.
    A widespread workflow consists in having different texts, grouped and  stacked in the same location. Based on a click to show one out of the group can be done with a shared action with two commands: first hides the group, second  shows one text. That work flow is impossible in fluid boxes. You'll have to create duplicate advanced actions with a lot more commands.
    Lightboxes are also impossible with fluid boxes. 
    In many cases a workaround is possible by using one multistate object instead of the group. In the movies for which I posted the links, that approach has been used on slides 3 and 4. Compare both movies. A multistate object can also be an alternative for objects appearing staggered on the timeline, but in the same location. Using an On Enter action with the command Delay Next actions can be a workaround (see Autolists).

  • It is not possible to have an object timed for the rest of the project
    This is often used as alternative for objects like toggle shape buttons or a logo on the master slide. Since such a object has a unique ID, it can be controlled, hidden on some slides and shown on other slides. Controlling objects on master slides is not possible because they do not have an ID. You'll need perhaps more master slides when working with Fluid Boxes as workaround.

  • Some types of objects cannot be used: Zoom object, mouse object, highlight box, click box over another object and line object.
    Many users still stick to the the old work flow of putting click boxes over images to create a hotspot. Workaround is to  use a shape filled with the image, a workflow that is available since many years but apparently not well-known.
    For a highlight box: use a shape as well with multistates, one having a thick border and eventually a semi-transparent fill. No workaround however for the outer fill which exists only for a normal highlight box.
    The Line shape is a rebel, often causes issues (only shape that cannot be rotated in Options). You can replace it by a rectangle with a minimum width of 4 px which is the minimum.
If you really need to use a zoom object, mouse object or stacking items in the same location: use a static fluid box. That is the case for the default fluid box where feedback messages are stacked on the Quizzing Master slides. You have to be aware that static fluid boxes will just keep the width/height ratio, but are not really 'fluid'.

Conclusion

Do not misunderstand my post, because it sometimes looks like I don't like Fluid Boxes workflow. It is a great way to create responsive projects in much less time than with Breakpoint views, but you need to be aware of what is possible. I am confident  that some of the present limitations will disappear in future releases. Use your design skills and knowledge to judge if a project is suitable to be developed with Fluid Boxes or if you need Breakpoint Views workflow. 

If you like Fluid Boxes, do not hesitate to enter feature requests for those present limitations that bother you most of all. It will be a big help for the Adobe Captivate team.

Timeline - Advanced Workflows

Intro

At the Adobe Learning Summit (Las Vegas - 24 October 2017) I was invited to present a session about the Timeline for advanced workflows. It is one of my favorite subjects (bit below my most preferred topic 'Advanced/Shared actions') because I see so many questions on the forum that are due to not or misunderstanding the Timeline functionality.

Tutorial

For those users who were not able to attend ALS2017, I converted my Captivate presentation into a self-paced learning tutorial.

It has been published as Scalable HTML5 project. Autoplay is turned off (not allowed in some OS), just click the triangle button to start the movie (with narration). You can watch it directly on any device from this link

Or you can watch it below:

The tutorial has at its end links to different published movies, examples using the described features of the Timeline. Several features are used in the movie itself: skipping audio on the dashboard (second slide) on later visits, Delay commands for automatically building lists on different slides. Be sure to use the circular button at the bottom to show the value of the system variable cpInfoCurrentFrame, to discover (some of) my secrets.

Feedback

I would appreciate feedback and welcome questions. Are you interested in learning more about the examples? Are the mysteries not totally clear to you? Please let me know... If you want a copy of the handouts created for this presentation, send a mail to info@lilybiri.com.




Power of Shared Actions in Captivate

Intro

Shared actions were a new feature in Captivate 7 several years ago. They were improved with Captivate 8.  I never understood why almost no one talks about them, even self-labeled experts seem never to use them. This is a real pity because their power is much underestimated. In most projects I open an external library (have a look at Internal and External Libraries) which has frequently used shared actions. It saves me a lot of time in each project. I will try to summarize in this blog post the results of my almost 5 years of experience with Shared actions. As usual my goal is to get more CP-users to understand when and how to use them.   More users could mean getting enhancement feature requests on the priority list of the developers :)

Example movie (CP2017)

Please watch this movie, one of the examples I will explain at the Adobe Learning Summit, session 202 'Make the most of Captivate's Timeline for Advanced Workflows'. You will see in this movie how one shared action can be used both to skip slide audio on revisiting a slide, or to force to view the entire slide on first visit. This is a use within one project. That action certainly has its place in a common external Library. To have an explanation of the shared action, you'll have to be patient, because I want to give 'First View' to the participants of the session in Las Vegas, 24 October.

Published Tutorials Shared Actions

These posts were published 4 years ago (yes, have over 4 years experience with SA :-)). If you are on CP2017, the screenshots may be a little bit different because of the change to the Advanced Actions dialog box (see AA Dialog in 2017). However the work flow and terminology for Shared actions is still the same.

Use cases

Following on those tutorials I explained a bunch of use cases where shared actions were used. Examples are the way to explore new features, and you'll find a list with links here:

1 (shared) Action  = 5 Toggle Buttons

This blog post has a unique shared action that you'll be ablefor several toggle button in all your projects. The post was written  for Captivate 8. If you are using Fluid Boxes work flow (responsive projects) in CP2017, you can have the toggle buttons in a fluid box on master slides, not timed for the rest of the project (unless in a static fluid box):


Dashboard, using shared actions

The advantage of shared actions when setting up a menu or dashboard

Drag&Drop Tips

When using object actions for Drag&Drop slides, shared actions can be an excellent choice over duplicate advanced actions


Custom Hotspot Questions

Using shared actions to create a custom controlled hotspot question which has lot of advantages over the default type of Hotspot question.


Forcing First View

This is an older version of the Example that you watched above. It did already use Shared actions.

Matchstick Game

Games often need repetitive actions and that means that shared actons are the way to go.


Playing with Captivate 9

Another version of a dashboard created with shared actions, to celebrate the arrival of CP9.

Myths and tips

Strange myths exist about Shared actions. Lot of users believe they are only useful  between projects, not in the same  project. Personally, with the exception of the external library mentioned at the beginning, I always give priority on shared actions within one project over advanced actions if appropriate. If an action is used at least twice in a project, and it is possible to use a shared action, I will not use duplicate advanced actions.

Half-myth is that you cannot edit a shared action. That is partially true. You cannot edit a shared action which is already assigned to events and have it changed automatically. However you can use the original shared action as template to create a new shared action. You will have to assign it to all events after completing the new shared action. At that moment you will appreciate the fact that the shared action appears in the Library and has a Usage button  -  like any other asset. Contrary to advanced actions you can even reuse the same name for a shared action, provided the older action is no longer present in the file. That is one of those annoying things, that you can never reuse a name for an advanced action, even if it has been deleted. Keeping track of Usage of advanced actions is also very cumbersome.

Shared actions cannot replace advanced actions in all circumstances, and they need a different set of mind when preparing the actions. You have to be very careful with the candidate parameters: variables and literals.  I could tell a lot about spectacular results when replacing advanced by shared actions that are set up in an efficient way: courses that couldn't be published anymore because of the number of variables and advanced actions that now run very smoothly, decrease of file size and loading time when using shared instead of advanced actions. Once lot of Captivate users gave me the title 'Queen of Advanced Actions'. At this moment I feel more like the defender of Shared Actions, not the first ignored and underestimated stepchild of Captivate.  Too often I hear comments like: 'I cannot see any advantage in using shared over advanced actions'.  Sorry, but that means you never tried them out. This article proves that I have explored them.... and they are on my top feature list of Adobe Captivate.

Conclusion

I would love to organize an online training with focus on use of shared actions. If you would consider such a course a valuable add-on to your skillset, please send me a message using info@lilybiri.com.



Guides and Fluid Boxes: Best Buddies!

Intro

If you do follow me since a while, you are aware of the fact that I am a big fan of the Rulers and Guides which appeared with version 9.0.1. They have a lot in common with the same feature in other Adobe applications (Illustrator, Photoshop to mention two). Shortly after the release I wrote an article about possible use cases in normal (blank projects): Guides Rule!

Using Fluid Boxes as alternative for Breakpoint views is an added feature with CP2017, about which you'll find a lot of articles, webinars and videos.  I am always stumped because none of them ever shows the use of Rulers nor Guides. This article will try to convince you that Guides are even more important for Fluid Boxes design than for normal projects.

Fluid Boxes and Themes

There are some limitations when using Fluid Boxes. Some objects cannot be used: zoom object, highlight box, click box (if placed over another object), line shape and some possibilities for multistates. You cannot use groups neither. Most of those limitations are linked with the 2-dimensionality of Fluid Boxes. Static Fluid boxes are a workaround, but you'll lose a lot of 'fluiditiy4. I will talk about my personal workarounds for those limitations in a later post.

Less known are the limitations for Themes. I start every project, even a small one, by customizing an existing theme or creating a theme (based on the Blank theme). Such a custom theme will save a lot of time later on, if small design changes have to be done. THe components of a Theme are described in more details here.

Object Styles

Fluid Boxes workflow will save you time when setting up object styles for Text containers: captions and shapes. You don't need to set up the font size for different screen resolutions, as is necessary for Breakpoint views. Text will rescale automatically when the screen resolution changes. Maybe you'll have to decrease the minimum font size which is set to 14p (for Breakpoint Views it used to be 10p, still readable on smartphones). 

Master Slides

All the included themes in Captivate have Fluid Boxes on the master slides (the 'virgin' Blank theme has them only on the quiz/score masters) . Two exceptions: you  will not find Fluid Boxes on the main master slide, nor on the Blank master slide. You'll see a lot of informational stuff where every presenter starts always with a slide based on the Blank master slide because it is also 'virgin'. Be careful when editing the Blank master slide, because it is needed for PPT-import and software simulation slides, edit only a duplicate).

I found it clarifying to explore the Fluid Boxes on the master slides of the included themes. Result of that exploration were two blog posts :

  • Fluid Quiz Slides: describes the setup of Fluid Boxes for the Quiz slides; interesting is the use of the static Fluid Box for feedback messages. The Blank theme has the same setup as the other themes.
  • Fluid Boxes and Master Slides: explores the content master slides in the themes, and how to use them. 

During the research for this post I discovered that it is not possible to insert Fluid Boxes on the Main Master Slide. I am used to have some information on that Main Master slide, which I want to show on all slides. Here is an example of the bottom part of the Main Master slide:

That is not possible within a Fluid Box. I tried to set up the Position Properties (which are available) but often weird positioning showed up when published. It is not possible to have different font sizes: either you let everything rescale proportionally and get very small text on phones, or you have to keep the size in px which will maintain the objects and font size fixed. Not really a workable solution.

Alternative for objects which you want on all slides, is to put them on the first slide and time for the Rest of the Project. However you cannot time objects for the rest of the project when using Fluid Boxes, not a workaround in this case.

My solution: insert the objects on each master slide you'll need in the project in Fluid Boxes. That is where Guides are indispensable to me.

Fluid Boxes and Guides

Turn on the Rulers under the View menu and you'll see that they are in percentage, not in pixels as for normal projects? 

For all to be used master slides, I want a setup, with a Fluid Box at the bottom to accomodate the text and button(s) as shown above. That FB should have a height of 10%. That FB will be divided in two: 70% width to the left (text), 30% to the right (buttons). To achieve that, create two Guides

  1. Horizontal Guide at 10% from the bottom by double-clicking on the 90% mark of the vertical ruler
  2. Vertical Guide at 70% by double-clicking on the 70% mark of the horizotal ruler
  3. Lock the Guides (View, Lock Guides)
  4. Turn on "Snap to Guide" in View menu

The guides will be visible as well in Master Slide as in Filmstrip view. You can change guide color in the Preferences, Be sure to change the Guide% color.

Switch to the Master slide panel. You'll get the step-by-step work flow to add a 10% Fluid Box at the bottom of two master slides (Title and Custom master slide), and have two child fluid boxes in that first FB.

Edit Title Master Slide

All included themes (also the OldPaper theme I use in this example) have one Fluid Box on the Title master slide, filled with one Title Placeholder. It is not possible to add a Fluid Box, the button Fluid Box on the Big Button Bar is dimmed. To solve this and be able to recover the placeholder:

  1. select the placeholder
  2. check the option 'Unlock from Fluid Box' on its Properties panel
  3. drag the placeholder off the stage in the scratch area
  4. uncheck the option 'Unlock from Fluid Box', later on we'll drag it back on the master slide

Select the parent fluid box (drag a rectangle half off the stage). You can now insert two vertical Fluid boxes. You will have to change the setup of the Parent Fluid box. The wrap option 'Squeeze in a column' is fine as are the alignments, but in order to use all available space you need to activate the options Stretch to fit, both Horizontally and Vertically.

Use the horizontal guide to change the height of the bottom Fluid box. This Fluid box needs these settings:

  • Flow: Horizontal
  • Wrap: Squeeze in a Row (to have text and buttons alwas next to each other), 
  • Horizontal: Space Around (eventually define some padding) and Stretch to fit
  • Vertical: Middle Align and Stretch to fit

The top fluid box: I choose vertical Flow, kept all the other default settings.

You can now insert two horizontal Fluid Boxes and change their width using the vertical guide, Flow horizontal for both.

The left Fluid box needs to have Left Align horizontally and the right one Right Align. I choose a horizontal padding for both and a vertical for the right Fluid Box. You can now insert the text (doesn't have to maintain the aspect ratio) and the Next Shape button.

I dragged the Title Placeholder back on the slide and created this Title slide from the edite Title slide:

Custom Master Slide

If none of the content master slides fits your purpose, you can start from a duplicate of the Blank Master slide. Insert two vertical Fluid Boxes. Although that master slide doesn't have a starting Parent Fluid box, it will be automatically created when you insert fluid boxes. The work flow to set up the bottom fluid boxes is pretty much the same as for the main master slide. You can now add a Back button as well. If you want more fluid boxes, go ahead. Here is a example of a custom master slide, which you could try to reproduce: And get a (Belgian) beer after success.

Conclusion

Now it should be clear why I love the Rulers and Guides for designing any project, but especially when using Fluid Boxes workflow. The Guides which you set up are saved with the project, you can hide them from the View menu and they'll always be ready to help you out when necessary :)




Fluid Boxes and Master slides

Intro


A while ago I published a post explaining the setup of the Quizzing Master slides, compulsory parts of each theme, even the almost empty Blank theme. In this article I will try to explain my experiences using Fluid Boxes on Content Master slides. Most themes shipped with Captivate have several content master slides (exception = Blank theme). Let us first start with the master slides that are not behaving like the content or quiz master slides

Main master slide, Blank and Title master slides

Main Master slide

It is not possible to insert Fluid boxes on the main master slide: the button seems active but both options (Vertical and Horizontal) are dimmed. Objects placed on that Main master slide, and inherited by the daughter master slides, are to be set up using the Position Properties panel. Example: the text container with my name and copyright in the example movie.
However after some more testing on iOS devices, the Position properties set up for those objects are not correctly displayed in portrait mode. 
TIP: at this moment avoid putting objects on the Main master slide, since they don't display at the correct location on some mobile devices.

As you probably know, it is not possible to have shape buttons timed for the rest of the project when you use Fluid boxes. You could put a shape button on the main or one of the other master slides but you cannot control it because it has no ID. In the example movie I preferred to have a Next button on the individual slides, because ton most slides it is hidden until the learner has visited everything. However a toggle shape button for Audio, for CC, for the TOC could be on the Main Master slide. They will not behave like objects in a Fluid box however, but act as defined on the Position Properties panel for size and location.

Blank Master slide 

This master slide has no Fluid boxes by default but you could add them. As I have explained in previous articles, you should prefer to duplicate the master slide for editing, don't edit the original slide because it is used for Powerpoint import and for software simulations.

Title Master slide

That master slide has one Fluid box (parent fluid box) but no child fluid boxes. It is set up as 'Squeeze in a Column', and vertically and horizontally centered. Because the title placeholder is inserted directly in that parent fluid box, you are not able to insert child fluid boxes.  Because each new project, using the default theme White will start automatically with a Title slide, this has caused already many frustrations when starting with the use of Fluid boxes. If you want to use fluid boxes on the first slide, you have to change the master slide from Title to Blank (exception Blank theme which starts with a Blank slide).

TIP: if you want to add objects on the Title master slide, first take out the Title Placeholder, to be able to insert child fluid boxes. Then put back the Title Placeholder in one of the child fluid boxes.

Content master slides

It can be a time saver to use a content slide that has already Fluid boxes. In a future next article I'll explain how to create a custom content master slide with the help of Guides, but for now let us focus on an existing master slide, and see how we can tweak it.
In the example movie, the second slide is based on the Content04 master slide from the Theme 'OldPaper'. I didn't customize the theme, just applied the correction explained in my last post

Look at the setup of the Fluid boxes on the master slide: the parent fluid box (FB_15) has two vertcial child FB's (FB_16 and FB_17). The top one is meant for the Title placeholder: 

The bottom Fluid Box has 4 child FB's, (FB_19,FB_20, FB_21, FB_22), which are set up to wrap Symmetrically (when width is too small, two FB's will move to the next row), and have a padding both vertically and horizontally to have some spacing between the FB's. Each of them has a placeholder for an image.

Example movie

Play with this responsive movie (will open in a new window) which has only 3 slides: Title slide (with inserted Next button, and taking over my name from the main master slide), a slide based on Content04 master slide, with a lot of tweaking, and an End slide. The Next button on the second slide will only appear when you have clicked all available shape buttons and seen all the content. 

Refining slide based on Content master slide

The FB setup on the master slides can be tweaked on a slide based on that master slide. You can remove all fluid boxes, but that is has not much sense. To demonstrate I did a lot of tweaking for the second slide of the movie which you just watched:
  • I deleted the image placeholders



  • I decreased the height of the top fluid box (FB_MS2_16) to 10%, originally it was 15% (edited font style as well)

  • I added a third vertical child FB under the parent FB_MS2_15, it is labeled FB_9
    TIP: this will not affect the master slide, if you use Reset Master Slide button in the Properties panel of the slide, you'll get the original layout



  • That last FB_9 got two horizontal FB's, FB_37 (70% of the width) and FB_38 (30% of the width); the last one will be used for the navigation buttons (Back/Next)

  • The setup for FB_38 is visible in this screenshot

  • Each of the four FB's in the center (FB_19,FB_20, FB_21, FB_22) has no longer any object (see 1) and can be divided in two new vertical child FB's



  • As you can see on the screenshot, the top FB will have the button and explanation text (originally hidden, but cannot be grouped in FB's), the bottom one has an example of the style (also initially hidden).

  • Setup for the top FB's here is visible in this screenshot; for the Shape button ('Normal') the option Maintain Aspect Ratio is kept, but not for the Text container, so that it can change for smaller screen sizes (especially in portrait mode).

More questions?

You will have seen that I always had Rulers and Guides activated. My next blog post will focus on the use of that great tool, which almost no one seems to use?

Sure, I have several advanced actions in that movie, but that was not the goal of this post. No explanations here about those actions.


Feedback shapes in Captivate 2017

Why this short post?


If you have read my article about the 3 most important stumbling blocks for Captivate (newbie) users, you'll know that Themes are amongst them.  The components of themes are described in What's in a Theme/template. and in this post you'll learn about he use of Theme colors. Almost daily I see questions, comments on the forums like "I don't use a theme" which is  - sorry for the word - nonsense because every project is based on a theme. The theme with the least intrusive design is the Blank theme, which has no color palette and only offers the minimum set of 6 master slides. 

The themes packaged with Captivate 2017 have some issues with the feedback messages:
  1. Hint shape is using the Success Shape Style, should use the existing Hint Shape Style

  2. Failure shape is using the Success Shape style, should use the existing Failure Shape Style
Shapes are set as default for feedback messages, not captions 

The feedback captions use an appropriate style in the themes Easiest way to solve the problem would be to change Preferences, Defaults and choose for captions if that is not messing up your design.  Below you'll read how to ecit the themes.

Where are default Themes stored?

The original themes can be found under the installation folder, in the Gallery\Layouts for the language you used when installing. I am on Windows, installed the US version of Captivate and the path on my Win system is: 
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 2017 x64\Gallery\Layouts\10_0\en_US. 
You'll also find the ThemeColors folder in that location. The included themes are: (Blank), Blue, Clear, Clean, OldPaper, Poise, Suave, White (which is the default theme). All themes are responsive, but can be used for normal, blank projects.

However, while working with Captivate, you will use the themes from a copied folder. In Windows that copied folder can be found under 
Users\Public\Public Documents\Adobe\eLearning assets\\Layouts.  
Reasons for this work flow are possibly:
  •  you cannot mess up the original themes
  •  the Public folder is accessible for developers which do not have administration rights. 

If a theme seems corrupted or is too messed up, you can always restore it by copy/paste from the Gallery (need for administration rights). If you have both CP9 and CP2017 installed, you'll see both Layouts in the copied folder. But the layouts folder for CP2017 has a subfolder 'bpthemes' containing all the CP9 themes on my system (not sure if that is the case when you only have a CP2017 install).

TIP: don't put custom themes in the sames folder as the default themes (Public). If you have to restore all themes by deleting the Layouts folder you will not lose the custom themes. I store them mostly with the project(s) they are used for.


Editing Default Themes 

Restoring the correct object style for the Failure and Hint shapes is pretty easy: open the Object Style Manager (SHIFT-F7), and replace the Success style by the appropriate style (which does exist) as you can see in this screenshot
image

I suspect you will want to keep the correct object styles for the feedback messages for future projects as well. Use the menu Themes, option Save Theme.  The result will be that the theme is edited in the copied folder, in the Public documents To change the original theme in the Gallery, you'll need to do it outside of Captivate, using Explorer and needing administration rights. However a user yesterday reported that the option 'Save Theme' was dimmed(?).  Reason was that he was working in a blank, normal project. All default themes in CP2017 are responsive. To protect the responsiveness, you have to edit the theme from within a responsive project. The option 'Save theme' will be available in that case. You can always use a responsive theme in a normal project.

Internal and External Libraries

Intro

Reusability in Captivate is one of this tool's most amazing features,  but a lot of the (often time-saving) possibilities are not well known by (starting) users. When I mention the word  'external library' in a presentation I see a lot of confused eyes among the participants.  Even recently, based on an answer on the forums, someone sent me a message: 'What are you talking about, never heard about external libraries in Captivate, where can I find them?'. Time for a short blog post, with some efficiency tips about using the Library. Contrary to the Timeline panel which is hidden in the newbie UI (I consider this a great mistake), the Library panel has a big button on the Big Button Bar in the newbie UI. I'll take you on an overview of that panel.

The Help documentation is very concise about Library: https://helpx.adobe.com/captivate/using/captivate-library.html It has a description of the columns in the Library panel, which I will not repeat in this post.

Internal Library


Each project has its Library, I use the term 'internal' for the Library which is created with each project. In that Library several assets will be stored automatically in different folders when you insert them in a project (on the stage) or import them directly to the Library. Even when you delete the items from slides (stage), they will remain in the Library and can be reused. These are the default Library folders:
  • Audio: will have all audio clips, whether imported or recorded in Captivate; whenever you edit an existing clip, the original and edit clip will be in this folder. If you import a (compressed)mp3 file it will automatically be converted to a 'raw' wav-file which will also be in this folder. It is recommended whenever possible to import a wav file, when published it will be compressed to mp3 by Captivate.
  • Backgrounds: backgrounds used in project, master slides or created when recording a software simulation.
  • Equations: only for the versions that have MathMagic included (if you see it still in CP2017, which has no longer MathMagic, this is a bug). That folder will store the images created with MathMagic.
  • Images: has all used bitmap images of any format; exception are the images created from layers in an imported Photoshop file. When importing such a file an individual folder will be created (under the root, not under Images), with the same name as the PS-file, and having all the layers converted to PNG images. If you insert Characters (Media button) they will appear in this folder as well. Later on in this article you'll find a screenshot with an imported Photoshop file.
  • Media: will store video, animations...
  • Shared Actions: contrary to advanced actions, shared actions are in their dedicated folder in the Library, and they have all the possibilities offered to all assets.
  • SVG: stores all SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) images
  • Web: for web objects
Under the Preview part, you'll find a Control panel with these 9 buttons:

  1. Open Library: is an alternative for File, Import, External Library (see sbelow)
  2. Import: you cannot import folders, but you can select multiple assets to import in one action. They will be placed in the folder for their type. You cannot import layers from a Photoshop file with this button, you need to use the menu File, Import, Photoshop File.
  3. Export: it is possible to export a number of assets to one location. Each will get its appropriate extension. If you never used shared actions, know that the extension 'cpaa' will be added for them. 
  4. Edit (CTRL-U): If you have associated an application for the asset, using this button will open the asset in the associated application. Examples in my situation: audio clip will open in Auditon,  SVG' in Illustrator, bitmap images in Photoshop. Alternative is using the right-click menu (but you'll have to use two clicks in that case), Edit with....If you have the asset Properties window open, you'll find an Edit button as well (see screenshot below)
  5. Properties: will open a window with asset properties; I almost never use that button but will double-click on the name of the asset (see Properties in the screenshot below). 
  6. Usage (CTRL-ALT-U): there is a column 'Use Count' as well, but this button opens immediately a list with all the locations where the asset is used. Alternative is option Usage in the right-click menu on the asset, or the Usage button in the Properties window (see screenshot below). In the screenshot you see that Usage counts also images used in object states.
  7. Update: if source files have been changed externally, you can update the assets in Captivate with this button. Need for updating is visible in the column 'Status' (red bullet)
  8. Select Unused Items: contrary to what some people 'believe' deleting unused items will only decrease the file size of the raw cptx file, not the file size of the published file. I prefer not deleting unused items until the project is finished.
  9. Delete

TIPS

  • Captivate users tend to insert assets one by one on slides using the Media Button. An alternative way is to import first (all) assets to the Library. From the Library you can drag them to the stage (or to an object). For audio clips, when dragging to the stage you'll have it inserted as slide audio, dragging to an object will create object audio. Same is valid for shared actions: dragging a shared action to the slide will create an On Enter action for the slide, dragging a shared action to an interactive object will create a Success action for that object.
  • You are not limited to the default folders described above. It is perfectly possible to create folders under the root and to create subfolders under existing folders. For complicated projects with lots of assets, I sometimes set up folders for each slide or slide group. Another approach if you take advantage of the great roundtripping possibility with Photoshop is to keep image assets for a slide or slide group in one Photoshop file. In that case I'm only talking about the bitmap images of course. For large, complicated projects both work flows will help to manage assets when the clients is asking for (last minute) changes. In the screenshot above Tips, you see an imported Photoshop file (Libraries_Small.psd), where I indicated 4 layers which have been converted to PNG-images
  • Even if you don't use custom folders/subfolders think about labeling assets that got generic names. A relevant example are audio clips generated by TTS. 

External Library

The Library of any project (has to be closed in Captivate) can be opened as a floating Library panel in a new project. You can open multiple libraries. You have two work flows to open such an external library:
  1. Use the first button in the Control panel of the Library panel (see above) and browse to the project (cptx)where the Library you want to use is stored.
  2. Use the menu File, Import, External Library and point to the project (cptx).
Opened External Libraries will appear in a dropdown list under the Open Library button:

In the screenshot below you see such a floating External Library to the left of the docked Internal Library. If you are using the Newbie UI you'll not be able to dock that External Library in any docking station (always recommend to switch to Expert UI). Its layout is totally similar to the Internal Library. The only way to recognize it as external, is the name of the Captivate file from which it was opened, and the presence of that same name in the dropdown list under Open Library button.


If you are not used to floating panels because you are in the Newbie UI, here are some warnings. 

  • Do not reset the Classic workspace while an external library is opened, or you'll lose it.
  • External libraries do not appear in the Window menu where you find most of the default panels. Only the internal Library (CTRL-ALT-L) can be switched on/off using that Window menu. 
  • The only way to close an external Library is with the Close button. That button is in the top right corner of the panel and pretty tiny, moreover the colors are grey on black which is not a very good combination for tired eyes:

You can use an external library (or multiple external libraries) exactly in the same way a the internal library: drag an asset to a slide, or to an object (for audio clips). However I will offer one recommendation for Shared actions (see more details in this blog post): I prefer to drag those actions first to the Internal Library, instead of attaching them directly to a slide (On Enter) or an interactive object (Success event). As you probably know, if a shared action is using a variable, this variable will automatically be created when using that action in a new project. To avoid problems with duplicate variables follow the recommendation of that mentioned article.

For all the copy/paste lovers: believe me, using assets from an external library is a much safer work flow than copy/paste objects between projects (one of the causes of corruption). 

Using external libraries can save time and help to achieve design consistency. For much used shared actions (like the toggle action described in this post) I have a dedicated project ready which I open as External Library in any new project. Images and SVG's, which I use all the time, are stored in another Libarry. I have an external library with sound clips that are useful. If you are a developer in a company, you see the advantage of using external libraries for sure!

(CC Libraries) 

This last part is 'wishful thinking': if you are a CC user like me, it would be a relief if we got access in Captivate to the CC Libraries. It would make the transfer of assets created with Adobe Color, Photoshop, Audition, Illustrator, Animate, Adobe mobile apps.. so much easier. Same is valid for managing Adobe stock assets, which can be inserted in CP. 

Captivate Draft has access to the CC Libraries, and could be used as an intermediate player: use it to retrieve custom color palettes, image and other assets. Once the Draft project is exported to Captivate, you'll have them in the Internal Library. But if you don't have an iPad, this work flow is impossible. Same when you don't use Draft for storyboarding but another application.

Please, log a feature request to support (one of) my Captivate dream(s)! 

1-2-3 Eye Buttons Mystery

Title is not an nostalgic reference to the best spreadsheet application ever (Lotus 1-2-3) but is related to... Captivate.

The THREE 'eye buttons' in Captivate are a source of confusion because they have exactly the same look (contrary to my image above) but show very different functionality. 
Questions due to that confusion appear not as frequently as the timeline misunderstanding questions, but nevertheless think that a clear explanation could help to dissipate confusion:

1. Eye button on the Timeline

This button appears in the timeline panel in the first column, on top, next to the lock button. If you click the top button all objects on the stage are hidden. To hide individual objects, click a radiobutton left of the object timeiine. A red cross will appear (see screenshot below). A full explanation of this and other timeline features and can be found in this article. Hiding an object on the stage has no effect whatsoever on the presence of that object when publishing (or previewing) the course: the object will be visible. What is the goal of this eye button? As you know (if you did read the article about the timeline), contrary to normal video timelines (included the Video Demo Timeline), a cptx slide will show all objects on the stage, whether they are scheduled to appear from the start or later on. That makes aligning a lot easier, but can also lead to a very crowded stage where objects are covering up other objects (except in the case of Fluid Boxes). To facilitate editing, it can be useful to hide some objects using this first Eye button.

This screenshot, taken from the game explained in 'Using the While loop' shows several hidden (on stage) objects and even a group. Since the topmost group still has one visible object (click box), its bounding box is visible on the stage. For the other group even the bounding box has disappeared.

There is one exception: you can also click the radio button left of the slide timeline. In that case the slide will be hidden (with all its content) and it will not appear when previewing/publishing. It is an alternative work flow for using the right click menu on slide(s) in the Filmstrip, option 'Hide Slide'. With both work flows you'll see a dimmed slide in the Filmstrip and an eye icon (not a button) as indicator.


Eye button in the Properties panel: Visibility in Output  

If you want an object to be initially invisible in the published course, you need to click this button in the Properties panel (inspector) of that object, top left. It is almost the opposite button of the first because the object will not disappear on the stage at all. Why would you hide an object in a published course? Maybe because you'll want to make it visible later on.  Example: you want to allow navigation to the Next slide only after certain actions have been performed by the learner (like clicking hotspots, or entering text in fields). Showing an object will be done with the command 'Show'. Making an object invisible by using this second Eye button can also be done on runtime by the action 'Hide' and that is often a better approach.  Since you can show a hidden object, it means that the object is included in the published version which is not the case with a hidden slide. A hidden slide is not included in the published course.


Eye button in the Drag&Drop panel

When this button is set to 'active', and you did set up the Drag&Drop interactivity by defining the drag sources, the drop targets and the links for correct answers those three components are made visible: green rectangles for the drag sources, blue rectangles for the drop targets and blue arrows for the links. When you deactivate this eye icon, those indicators will disappear. Since it happens that Captivate deactivates that button without your consent, it is good to know how to make those indicators visible: click on the barred eye icon: 

Tips for 'Fluid' Quiz Slides

Intro

When publishing my first reflections on Fluid Boxes work flow versus Breakpoint View work flow I didn't mention my expectations for a smoother creation of Quiz slides using FB's. In my experience with responsive projects in previous versions, the most frustrating part were those (damned?) quiz slides. You are probably aware of the very strict rules to honor for quiz slides: need to be careful with 'embedded' objects which include functionality that can be broken. Styling quiz/score slides is tough even in normal (blank) projects and turns into a nightmare when having to do it for up to 5 breakpoint views. Every post I published about quizzes gets a lot of visitors. Many questions about quizzes are posted on the forums as well. This explains why I listed Quizzes as second most important stumbling block for Captivate users in this article.

The present post is not (yet) the promised upgraded version of the most popular article I ever wrote about questions, only a summary of tips I discovered while exploring the Fluid Boxes work flow for quiz slides (score slide will be subject of a later post). If you are new to Fluid Boxes, please take some time to read the articles posted by Zeeshan. Up till now, he published 3 but promised more on their way:

Using Fluid Boxes - Knowledge Facts 3

Quizzing Master Slides -Setup Fluid Boxes

All quiz slides, and the score slide, are based on a dedicated Master slide. Master slides have embedded objects (no individual timeline): Title, Question, Answer Area with Answers, buttons, feedback messages, progress indicator to mention some. The functionality of the quiz is embedded in those master slides (two-step Submit process, updating quizzing system variables, tracking attempts on question/quiz level, review and retake on score slide, etc). 

if you choose the Fluid Box work flow for a responsive project in Captivate 2017, the included themes will also have Fluid boxes on the quizzing master slides. There is one exception: the Likert master slide has no Fluid Boxes because Likert questions are not supported for responsive projects. Each theme needs to have at least a main master slide and 6 daughter master slides. Besides the Blank master slide which is essential for Software simulations and PPT-import, the other 5 daughter master slides are all about quizzes: MCQ,T/F,FIB,Sequence; Matching; Hotspot; (Likert = not supported in responsive); Result. 

The Setup for the quizzing master slides is common for all included Themes. I will explain extensively the most used master slide (MCQ, T/F...) and summarize only the differences for the other quizzing master slides. The score slide, which causes a lot of issues at this moment, will be explained in a future blog post, hoping that some of the problems will already have dissipated by a patch?

Setup Fluid Boxes in MCQ,T/F,FIB,Sequence Master slide

This is the most used master slide for sure. You have the Root fluid box (ID/ FB_8) containing 6 child Fluid Boxes. The ID's I mention for the Fluid boxes are from the master slides. Apparently the ID has to be unique as usual. When a quiz slide is created based on a master slide the ID will change: 3 characters will be inserted, referencing to the slide number. Example: FB_MS5_10 is the fluid box for a question based on the MCQ master slide, originally on slide 5. Beware: that ID will not change when you reorder the slides, which can make it quite confusing if you are used to reorder a lot. The Root fluid box (ID/ FB_8) is set up this way.

  • Flow: Vertical (has 6 child fluid boxes)
  • Wrap: Squeeze in a column , which means the child fluid boxes will never be rearranged. the 80% has no consequences, because stretch to fit is activated.
  • Horizontal Alignment: Center with Stretch to fit activated
  • Vertical Alignment: Space around
  • Padding: none, which means the space around has no effect on the child fluid boxes

The 6 child fluid boxes, from top to bottom,have this content and setup:

Title Fluid Box (ID: FB_9)

  • Flow: Horizontal - has mostly only one item, the title shape or caption
  • Wrap: Wrap to Next Row
  • Horizontal Alignment: Space around with 'Stretch to fit' activated
  • Vertical Alignment: Middle Align with 'Stretch to fit' activated
  • Padding: none, which means theoretically the title could touch the left and right side of the fluid box/slide. Personally I avoid that by adding a small horizontal padding (5-10px).

Tip: in theme 'Clear' the title overlaps with a design element. You can change the Vertical alignment to Bottom, and eventually increase the height of this first child fluid box to fix that. Another solution is to turn off that design element by unchecking the option 'Show Main Master Slide Objects.

Later on you'll see that the Advanced answers feedback messages will cover up this FB. Be careful when resizing and moving those messages. You could mess up the arrangement of this Title fluid box. Best way is to unlink those messages from the FB before touching them.

Question Fluid Box (ID: FB_10)

  • Flow: Horizontal (but has mostly only one item, the question shape or caption); text in that container is vertically aligned to top, to allow wrapping of longer text questins
  • Wrap: Wrap to Next Row
  • Horizontal Alignment: Space around with 'Stretch to fit' activated
  • Vertical Alignment: Middle Align with 'Stretch to fit' activated; for the inserted text placeholder text is aligned at the top; you could eventually change that to middle as well if you don't have long questions.
  • Padding:  50px horizontal (text placeholder is indented from left and right side of the slide/fluid box). If the focus is on smartphones, this padding could be too big (lot of smartphones have only a width of 320px).

Answers Fluid Box (ID: FB11)

  • Flow: Horizontal 
  • Wrap: Wrap to Next Row
  • Horizontal Alignment: Space around with 'Stretch to fit' activated
  • Vertical Alignment: Middle Align with 'Stretch to fit' activated; 
  • Padding:  50px horizontal (placeholder is indented from left and right side of the slide/fluid box); 20px vertical, the inserted answer area doesn't touch the top and bottom of the Fluid box. Comment about this being maybe too much for small screens is valid here as well.

Tips: the individual answer placeholders cannot be resized in the master slide (as is the case since CP6). They are designed to have only one line (contrary to the question placeholder which has space for multiple lines). If you have answers that are pretty long, font size will be decreased to squeeze the answer in the available space. If answers have different lengths, this could result in  different font size for the answers which is certainly not wanted (see image below). Here are two workarounds:

  1. If you don't mind the font size to be decrease but want the same font size for all the answers on a slide, check the option 'Enable Uniform Text Scaling' in the Properties panel for the slide. Eventually you can decrease the mininum font size which is set pretty high in 2017 (14p, minimum was 10p in previous versions).

  2. If you don't want to have the font decreased, but prefer text wrapping, you have to resize the individual answer containers on the side (not possible on the master slide). Start by increasing the container height for the longest answer, use the Align menu ro resize all to the same height, move them as far away from each other and Distribute vertically. Eventually you can decrease the vertical padding to have more space, and/or make this Fluid Box higher, which will decrease the height of the other boxes. This work flow is certainly necessary if you allow shuffling of the answers. Whenever the answer cannot fit in the container anymore the usual icon 'read more' will appear. 

In this image you'll see the result: Default setup on top, in the middle the result when 'Enable Uniform Text Scaling' is activated and at the bottom the same answers after manually resizing, moving and distributing vertically.

If your goal is a good experience on smartphones, I would recommend to reduce the padding in this Fluid box: 2x50px horizontally is a lot if the browser has only 320px in the width. 

Messages (ID: FB_15)

Since the Feedback messages are all in the same location, this had to be a Fluid Box of the Static type to allow overlapping objects. 

Issues: The usual problem for editing those messages remains: to edit a message you have to get all other messages out of the way, since they are embedded (they don't have a separate timeline). which means you cannot hide them on the stage  If the messages are the same on all quiz slides, you can edit them - before inserting quiz slides - in Preferences, Quiz, Default Labels (same for the button labels).
However if you want individual messages on the quiz slides themselves, I used to move each message to be able to edit the one below. Problem is that they will be moved over another Fluid box, and that means you cannot select them anymore.  I thought to use the Arrange menu but.... it is not available on quiz slides, only on the quizzing master slides! Not available in the right-click menu, dimmed in the Align toolbar. I tried to move the message in the scratch area (horizontally) for editing, but with the focus loss when zooming in, this is a real pain. Best way I detected (time consuming) is:

  • Edit the top most message in place (mostly Correct); since most of the messages are in a (semi) transparent shape/caption, increase the Alpha to cover up the other messages for editing.
  • Move the top message out of the way (I use shortcut keys like Shift-Up)
  • Edit the next message (same for Alpha as for the first one)
  • Move it also out of the way
  • Do not forget the Retry message if you have multiple attempts
  • When finished, use 'Reset Master Slide' to move all the messages back in their Fluid Box (FB_12). Since the object styles will be reset as well, the Alpha of the shapes/captions will be reset to the initial value. Beware: be careful not to override object styles in this case (indicated by + sign next to style name).

Here is some good news: if you choose multiple Failure messages (up to 3 still) because you have multiple attempts, those extra Failure messages (#2 and #3) will appear over the Answer FB. Contrary to messages moved over that box, these can be selected and edited easily. When previewing/publishing the slides all Failure messages will appear in the same location although being in different locations on the stage.

When using Advanced Answer options for MCQ, one correct answer, to show feedback messages for each answer, another problem appears.The text captions for the feedback are very small, and in the top right corner (over the Title Fluid Box), slightly off stage. Depending on the number of answers, some will appear lower, over the Answer Fluid Box.

Buttons Fluid Box (ID: FB_16)

  • Flow: Horizontal 
  • Wrap: Symmetrical, which is almost the same as One Row. Only when the number of buttons is even, will you have a rearrangement in two rows.
  • Horizontal Alignment: Space around with "Stretch to fit" not activated
  • Vertical Alignment: Middle Align with Stretch to fit not activated
  • Padding: 0px horizontal and 2px vertical

The maximum amount of buttons is 6: two Review navigation buttons, Clear, Back, Skip and Submit. If you are used never to insert Back and Skip buttons (which is my normal setup) you can better increase the font size (now 20px) to 28px or even 30px. If the option 'Enable Uniform Text Scaling' enabled, the label will rescale nicely and especially the small symbols << and << on the Review navigation buttons will be readable even on small screens. The buttons don't have the option 'Maintain aspect ratio' enabled, which means that the width only will be resized.

Progress indicator Fluid Box (ID: FB_17)

  • Flow: Horizontal 
  • Wrap: Wrap to next row.
  • Horizontal Alignment: Center Align "Stretch to fit" not activated
  • Vertical Alignment: Middle Align with Stretch to fit not activated
  • Padding: none

This fluid box has only one text caption with the progress indicator, in font size 12p which is smaller than the minimum font size. The text will never rescale even if 'Enable Uniform Text Scaling' is activated.

Setup Fluid Boxes in Matching Master slide

This master slide has one extra child Fluid box for the Column Titles. The Answer Fluid box is bit different. The ID's of the fluid boxes on this master slides are:

Root Fluid Box FB_18

Title Fluid Box FB_19

Question Fluid Box FB_20

Column Title Fluid Box FB_21: 

  • Flow: Horizontal, has two text placeholders for the column titles
  • Wrap: Squeeze in a row.
  • Horizontal Alignment: Center Align "Stretch to fit" not activated
  • Vertical Alignment: Middle Align with "Stretch to fit" not activated
  • Padding: none
    • Answer Fluid Box FB_22: this Fluid box has now two answer areas, linked by the line indicators
    Messages Fluid Box FB_23
    Button Fluid Box FB_24
    Progress Indicator Fluid Box FB_25

    Setup Fluid Boxes in Hotspot Master slide

    This master slide has only 5 child Fluid boxes, because Question and Answer are now in one box. Moreover it is a Static box, which means overlapping objects are possible. These are the ID's of the boxes:

    Root Fluid Box FB_26

    Title Fluid Box FB_27

    Question Fluid Box FB_28: static fluid box, will contain the image with the hotspots

    Messages Fluid Box FB_29
    Button Fluid Box FB_30
    Progress Indicator Fluid Box FB_31

    General tips

    I would recommend to activate the option 'Enable Uniform Text Scaling' for question slides in most circumstances. Since this option is at slide level, it will be valid for all Fluid boxes on the slide. 

    Avoid to override object styles, that is a general rule but even more necessary for quiz slides. It will happen that you want to reset the Master slide and in that case all styles will be reset to the Default style. If you want to change a style, do not hesitate to save the edits to those default styles. 

    Preview is never WYSIWYG certainly not when you are using the slider during preview to see the changes for other screen resolutions. Example: it often happens during Preview that the text in long answers (even when manually resized and redistributed) seem to be cut off for small screens; when published all looks mostly a lot better.