Navigation Help Slides

Intro

In this thread on the Captivate forums, a user asked how to configure navigation in a course with content slides and two help slides. The Help slides should be accessible from each content slide using a button. There is navigation possible between the two Help slides, and the user should be able to return to the content slide from where he started, from each of the Help slides.

Although there is a system variable cpInfoLastVisitedSlide, this cannot be used for this use case, because the user can navigate between the two Help slides. I explained shortly a possible work flow with a user variable and a couple of standard actions in the thread. Since the user told that he is a newbie concerning variables and advanced actions, I promised to write out a more detailed tutorial. This is certainly not a complicated use case! If you are an 'expert' in advanced actions, this is not a post to your taste.

Example project

This project has a Title slide, 3 Content slides and ends with two Help Slides.


Instructions are in the movie, try out the buttons.  You don't have a Back button on the content slides, but you can always refresh the browser to restart playing. Click on the Title slide to start playing:

Interactive objects/events

  • Slide 1 (Title) which uses the master slide 'Title', has a click box covering up the slide. It has the default action
     'Go to Next Slide'. 

  • Master slide 'Content' has the Help button (with the question mark): it is a shape button (no states at this moment in CP9) which triggers a standard advanced action 'ToHelp'. This master slide is used for the content slides.

  • Slide 2 (Content1): has a shape button for Next which pauses the slide at 2.5secs. This shape button is timed for the rest of the project, so that it will show up in all following content slides. A shape button on the master slide is excluded because this Next button has to be hidden on the last content slide. You cannot show/hide an object on the master slide, because it has no ID, no name. This Next button has been labeled 'SB_Next'. For this small example, it can look easier to have a Next button on each slide where it is needed, but if you have a lot of content slides, this approach will save on time and file size.


  • Slides 2,3 (content slides): to be sure that the Next button is visible, even when coming back from the Help slides, the On Enter event of these slides is used for the simple action 'Show SB_Next'. 


  • Slide 4 (last content slide): the Next button has to disappear, which is done with an On Enter action 'Hide SB_Next'.

  • Master slide 'Help': this slide has no interactive object, is used by the Help slides

  • Slide 5 (Help slide 1): has another instance of the Help button (SB_Next_Help) with the action  'Go to Next Slide'.
    This slide has a special shape button 'SB_Back1' to allow going back to the content slide. This button triggers a standard action 'BackToSlide'. This shape button has a bubble added in the Rollover state, which functions as Tooltip.
    The On Enter action for this slide is used to hide the button 'SB_Next' (from slide 2), same way as on the last content slide. Why? That button will already been hidden if the user comes from the last content slide, but not when he is getting here from one of the previous content slides.
  • Slide 6 (Help slide 2): has no need for a Next button, but needs a pausing Back button (to navigate back to the first Help slide) with the action 'Go to Previous Slide'. It has another instance of that special button ''SB_Back2'. I didn't opt to time that button for the rest of the project, because there are only two Help slides and having to hide/show them would have been more work than using two instances.


Variables and advanced actions

Variables

Two system variables are used in this example:

  1. cpInfoCurrentSlide: gives the slide number of the current slide. The index starts with 1, which means that for slide 1 this variable is 1.

  2. cpCmndGotoSlide: will be used to navigate the user back to the content slide. Beware: for this variable the index starts with 0. That means that slide 1 has to be indicated as 0, slide 2 as 1.

One user variable has to be created: v_last.  This variable will be used to store the value of cpInfoCurrentSlide when the user leaves the content slide to go to the Help slides. You do not have to define a default value for that user variable.

Standard actions

ToHelp triggered by the shape button on the master slide 'Content'

In the first statement, the slide number of the current slide is stored in the user variable v_last. Then the user is navigated to the first Help slide (slide 5), and I added Continue which is not always necessary, depends on the set up of the slides.

BackToSlide triggered by the buttons SB_Back1 and SB_Back2 on the Help slides

For the first statement an Expression was needed, because of the different index for the system variables cpInfoCurrentSlide and cpCmndGotoSlide. Example: if the user came to the Help slides from the third content slide, the variables would be:

  • cpInfoCurrentSlide = 4   because the third content slide is slide 4
  • v_last = 4   because the action ToHelp stored the value of the previous system variable in this user variable
  • cpCmndGotoSlide = 3  because this is the indicator for slide 4, since the index starts with 0; for that reason I needed to subtract 1 from the value stored in v_last

Overview

In the Advanced interaction you'll find a great overview of all the actions, events of the slides. Too bad: you'll not see the shape button on the master slide, nor its action.



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7 responses
Thanks for sharing Lieve! Very useful tips.
— Vico van den Eventuin
Very helpful explanation, thank you!
— Cheryl
Thanks Vico, Cheryl!
— ir. Lieve Weymeis
Thanks again for the great info, Lieve! I'm afraid I have a basic question: You speak a lot about hyperlinks. How can I create a hyperlink, how you are describing? The only hyperlink I can find is the web/URL hyperlink.
— Chris Keeney
That hyperlink (button next to the Symbol and the Variable insert button) has a dropdown list: you can do a lot more than just a Web/URL, you have a whole list of commands. I used this in my last blog post, perhaps you are referring to that one?
— ir. Lieve Weymeis
Oh, wow, that's great! I had no idea. Whenever that button said "hyperlink", I thought it was referring to web/URL. I never even clicked on it before to see those options!
— Chris Keeney
Indeed, and you are certainly not the only user ignoring this feature. I plan another blog post, to show how hyperlinks can be used and make work flows easier.
— ir. Lieve Weymeis