Intro
Yesterday I published an article explaining in detail a use case that I worked out, based on the question of someone on the Captivate forums. Here is a link to the thread, because I think it is an interesting 'conversation'; this article is not an answer to the original question, so please scroll down in the long thread:
Question
She wanted to create a slide with multiple Text Entry Boxes to be filled in by the user. The entry should be validated and only one correct entry possible, with multiple attempts allowed. But the sequence of the fields was to be chosen by the user, not imposed. And the use should be able to check at any moment if his entries were correct/incorrect, by using a unique Submit button. Only after having all entries correct, a button Continue should appear. If possible, the shortcut key TAB could be used to navigate between the text fields, as well as clicking in the text fields to start input.
Result
You will be able to watch the result. But I did simplify a little bit:
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I worked it out for only three Text Entry Boxes on the slide, but it can easily be extended to more of course.
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The user can choose the sequence, but he has to click in the text field. Only then the sequence is not imposed. The principal reason is however that it is not possible to assign the same shortcut key to different objects on one slide as I explained in this blog post: Warning tip: shortcut keys. You cannot use TAB twice or more on the same slide as shortcut key.
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There is a unique Submit button. The user can click it whenever he wants: after filling in 1, 2 or 3 Text Entry Boxes to get feedback.
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I choose a symbol (correct/incorrect) as feedback. Those symbols can easily be replaced by Text Captions if wanted, work flow will be the same.
- After validation of the three entries, a second button Continue appears that triggers (in my example) the action 'Go to Next slide'. But of course it is possible to trigger another action.
Published SWF
Watch this movie to check the functionality. It has 3 slides. On the Welcome slide you will find the correct entries for the Text Entry Boxes on the second slide. Try out the second slide: fill in text fields, click the Submit button to check input. Whenever a Text Entry box is validated, it will be disabled, you cannot change the entry anymore. When all entries are correct the Continue button appears that gets you to the last slide.
There is an extra button on the slide 'Show/Hide'. It is a copy of the toggle button, explained in a previous blog post, that will show/hide a text caption with the values of different user variables. This will normally not be done, but it shows how I do a debugging of an advanced actions by observing the way user variables are reacting to actions on the slide.
Link
De tailed explanation of my work flow, for the user variables and advanced actions can be found in this article:
Multiple TEB's - one Submit
You will see, as a reaction to one of the last questions,that I created user variables to store the correct entries. That way the advanced action will be more easily be reused in other projects. My work flow, to save time and avoid typos was:
You will see, as a reaction to one of the last questions,that I created user variables to store the correct entries. That way the advanced action will be more easily be reused in other projects. My work flow, to save time and avoid typos was:
- define the user variable and add the value (= correct entry)
- copy the value to the clipboard
- define the Text Entry Box, and paste the clipboard content as entry to be validated in the HUD