Intro

Over 6 years ago I published a blog post explaining the importance of Events in the application. I also offered for free a table describing all the possible events. Meanwhile new features have been added, the User interface has changes. It is time to update that old post and table. You will be able to download the table at the end. It is a protected document, you can print it at a low resolution, but no permission for editing. You can find workarounds, but please I beg you to show some respect for my work.

When training/helping users to start with advanced or shared actions, I often detect that newbies are not aware of the process needed to trigger an (advanced/shared) action: each action, whether a simple, shared  or advanced has to be linked to an 'Event', and that is the subject of this article. 

Events - out of the box

Lot of events to trigger an action are linked with interactivity, requiring  the user to act. That  is the case for Success/Last Attempt  events for (Shape) Buttons, Click Boxes, Text Entry boxes, interactive Learning interactions, Drag&Drop but also for Question/Knowledge Check slides. 

Less known are the actions that can be triggered when a Quiz is completed (Passed/Failed).

In that older blog post I mentioned the  Rollover slidelet which had  two events: on Rollover, and on Click. Since that object is no longer supported for HTML5 output, I took it out of the table. 

Object actions can be triggered by each drag event in a Drag&Drop slide and offer a lot of possibilities. Have a look at all the posts I published about Drag&Drop. 

Ignored by most users are the Hyperlink events. Such an event is not limited to 'hyperlink', but can trigger all sorts of actions, including Advanced actions. Find a example here.

Events that are not linked with interactivity are the slide events: when entering or when exiting a slide, you can have a simple, advanced or shared action to be executed. Have a look at the table to see possible limitations.

Often I get the question if an action can be triggered by time or by a frame. Not possible out of the box, but with micro-navigation, eventually the Delay Next actions command and/or the Timer/Hourglass interaction this limitation can be overridden. 

Overlay slides in Interactive Video, both the content and KC slides have similare events to those in a normal project. However the events for the hotspots in a VR project or 360 image/video are more limited as are the overlay Quiz slides in a VR project.

Widget to extend events

InfoSemantics developed a HTML5 widget that is one of my favourites: the CpExtra Widget. Adding events to objects is only one of its multiple features. It is not free but if you are plunging really into advanced/shared  actions, please try it out because it can add as many events as you want to any object. A trial version is available.

InfoSemantics used to have a SWF widget (EventHandler), worked great, but with the EOL of Flash player for all browsers, not so useful anymore.

List

You can download the list from this link. 

There are two  tables. First table shows events able to  trigger only one simple, shared or advanced action/ The second smaller table summarizes the events which can trigger one out of two possible actions based on a condition: validated TEB, question slides, scored Drag&Drop slides  and Quiz.

I would appreciate if you left some comment in case you find this list useful. If you find this list useful, I could offer some other tables as well.

Intro

Once in a while a question like in this thread pops up:

“….students will need to answer short answer questions.  They will not be right or wrong, they will be their thoughts.  Is there a way to have all their answers compile into a final screen at the end?”

It seems logical to use short answer quiz slides, in Survey mode, for this use case. However I prefer to use one of the Learning Interactions, ‘Scolling Text’ for reasons I want to explain in this article, by describing both workflows with their specificities. It is up to you to decide which you’ll use. In both workflows variables will be important, hope you are familiar with them.

Short Answer quiz slides, Survey mode

Setup quiz slides

No right/wrong answer means that scoring has no sense, change the stqtus of the quiz slide to ‘Survey’. Nevertheless a score slide will be inserted but you can hide it easily.

Answers to quiz slides are stored in a reusable variable, cpQuizInfoAnswerChoice.After a short answer question the variable will contain the text typed in by the learner in the short answer field. Reusable means that the value will change after each short answer slide. Since we need to store each answer safely (for reusing on the slide at the end), you will need:

• to create a user variable for each short answer question; I will label them v_First, v_Second, v_Third for the example you’ll see in the demo movie;
• the default answer area is pretty small (one line), if you expect longer answers, make sure to increase the height of the answer area. It is not possible to edit the used master slide because it applies to multiple types of quiz slides;
• the content of the system variable cpQuizInfoAnswerChoice is updated when the Submit button is clicked; it has to be transferred to the appropriate user variable, using the After Survey event; for that purpose I created a shared action with two commands:
  Assign v_First with cpQuizInfoAnswerChoice
  Go to Next Slide
  only parameter is the user variable (here v_First)
  
• apply this shared action to each of the question slides, with the appropriate parameter.
  

Setup Answer Review slide

In the example movie I created one text container (shape or caption) and inserted the three user variables in it. Be careful to increase the number of characters to be shown when inserting the variables. You’ll also have to leave enough space for each variable. Of course you could create multiple text containers and/or have the answers distributed over multiple slides.

Using Scrolling Text interactions

A limitation of Short Answer quiz slide is that you can have only one answer per slide. When using a Scrolling Text interaction you can have several question on a slide as you can see in the example movie.

Setup interaction

Setup of the first answer box can be seen in this screenshot:

Two important items are indicated  in the screenshot:

1. You have to type in the name of the variable to be used. There is no way to use a dropdown list. Beware: you have to create the variable, it is not created uatomatically.
2. To allow text to be typed in by the user, the checkbox ‘ReadOnly’ has to be unchecked. By default it is checked.

It would have been possible to enter the question in the interaction, instead of having it in a separate text container. I preferred not to do it. Reason: if the user adds the answer, instead of overwriting the question, the variable will contain html tags, like <br>.

The Submit button, which you’ll see on the slide, triggers  the (default) action ‘Go to Next Slide’.

Since I reused the three user variables in this part of the example, I have created an advanced action triggered on Enter to empty the user variables with the technique described in this article.:

Setup Answer Review slide

Very easy: duplicate the slide with the interactions, and take out the On Enter action to reset the variables. The interactions are now populated with the given answers. Moreover the learner can still edit those answers, because of the option ‘ReadOnly’ being unchecked. If you don’t want it, check the option ‘ReadOnly’ on this duplicate slide.

It is also possible to use a similar slide for the first workflow with short answer quiz slides. That will be useful if you want indeed to allow editing the answers.

Example movie

Intro 

After the introduction to Micro-Navigation I explained how to use it for forcing the first view of a slide, and for playing an audio file on first visit. When looking at the resulting advanced actions they are pretty similar in both posts. Moreover you probably will want to use the action on multiple slides in the course, and maybe also in future courses. That sounds like a perfect scenario for conversion of the action to a Shared action. I have been blogging already several times about Shared actions. In the present article I try to explain how to reflect on the use of parameters. Static objects need to be parameters as are states and groups, I label them as 'compulsory'. But Variables and Literals are 'candidate parameters', a well-founded choice for change them in parameters,  can save you lot of time later on. Consider it a good practice example.

Analysis

When comparing the two advanced actions created in the mentioned articles, there is a small difference: the first decision (which is a standard action) has one command extra in the second advanced action (for Audio). For the ForceAct, the number of seconds to be jumped over is directly entered in the Expression command, for the SkipSlideAudio, Assign is used to store the number of seconds in the user variable v_skip. Both versions work well, but personally for a shared action I prefer the one with the extra Assign command.

What are the parameters for the shared action?

For the first decision (labeled Always in both advanced actions):

•  'Assign v_skip with 16.5': this first command has two candidate parameters, the variable v_skip and the literal 16.5. The variable can be reused on each slide where the action is needed. Both advanced actions used the same variable in the interactive movie. There is no need to promote that variable to a parameter in that case. However the literal '16.5'  is the number of seconds to be jumped, will have a unique value on each slide, it has to be promoted to a parameter. Parameter 1 = literal. You have to be careful with literals: double-check that the same numerical value is not used anywhere else in the action. In this example there is a second literal '1' in the second decision, Increment command. It has to be different from the first parameter, which is the case.
  
  
• 'Expression v_skip = v_skip * cpInfoFPS': the user variable v_skip is no parameter (see above). The system variable cpInfoFPS has never to be replaced by another variable, will be no parameter neither.
  
  
• 'Increment v_visit by 1': the user variable v_visit has to be unique for each slide, as you can see in the action SkipSlideAufio where another variable has been used. This means that we have to promote that variable to a parameter, parameter 2. The literal '1' however will always be the same, no need to turn it into a parameter. We already double-checked that the literal in the first decision was different from 1.

The second decision is conditional:

• 'IF v_visit is greater than 1': has two candidate parameters as well. We already indicated that v_visit is a parameter. The literal in this case will always be 1, will never be changed and need not to be a parameter.
  
  
• 'Expression cpCmndGotoFrameAnd Resume = cpInfoCurrentFrame + v_skip': has 3 candidate parameters. Above was already decided that v_skip can be reused on each slide, and the system variables will always be the same.

Shared action Skip_Frames

When you choose to save any of the advanced actions used to skip frames as a Shared Action you'll see that all possible parameters are marked as OK. The reason is that there is no compulsory parameter in this action:

As a result of the analysis above, we need to mark to items as parameters: the tracking variable and the number of seconds to be jumped on later visits. The result will look like this. It is important to give a good description not only for the shared action but also for the marked parameters:

You can assign the shared action to all the slides where you want to jump frames on a later visit. You only have to define a tracking variable and estimate the number of seconds to be jumped. Here is one example setup for the slide where audio had to be jumped on later visits:

You can check in the Library for the Usage of the Shared action, much easier than for advanced actions.

Using Skip_Frames in future projects

Want to reuse this action in other projects? The workflow is described in an older blog post. Short summary:

1. Use File, Import, External Library and point to the project where you created the shared action.
2. Library will be opened in a floating panel. Look for 'Skip_Frames' in the Shared Actions subfolder and drag it to the Library of the new project.
3. Because v_skip is not a parameter in the shared action, it will be created automatically, including the description.
4. You have to create a tracking variable for each slide to which you want to assign the shared action, and define the duration in seconds to be skipped. Ready!

Intro

In the webinar which I presented on 2018/3/15 about Shared Actions, I showed several workflows with shared actions. If you want to have a look at the presentation used during the webinar, look at my previous blog post. You'll find a link to the published interactive movie

One of those examples, was a Drag&Drop slide where both advanced and shared actions were used as Object Actions. It can help you with the tough task to choose between the two types of actions. A similar example appears in the presentation, where only a shared actions was used. It had 7 drag sources and two drop targets:

Example movie

You can watch this movie to understand the goal of the D&D slide. It has 6 drag sources and only one drop target. You will be asked to drag only the correct new features in CP2017 to the drop target. Only when the answer is correct will you see the Next button. There is a Reset button for the D&D, which is not the default reset (because of the states used on the drop target) but uses an approach which I have explained already multiple times.

Setup D&D slide

Auto Submit Correct Answers is activated, and the Submit button has been dragged to the scratch area. The drop target accepts all drag sources, which will disappear behind the target but the count is limited to 3 (because there are 3 correct answers). Due to the Auto Submit which only will happen for the correct answer, the Next button will only appear when the answer is completely correct (Action 'On Success'). 

The drop target is a multistate object. I didn't add InBuilt states in this case but three custom states, using a gradient edited for each state with 'Edit Gradient'.

On the slide, not overlapping with any object, there is a multistate shape, labeled 'Comments',  acting as feedback container. The normal state is blank and you see the other states in this screenshot:

Advanced Action DD_CorrectAct

I imported the shared action used in the presentation to the project Library and used is as a template for this Advanced action DD_CorrectAct. I added the Play Audio command. First I tried to add the audio to the state 'Correct' of the multistate shape 'Comments', but that proved not to work in this case, probably due to the Drag&Drop limitations. After the duration of the audio clip (4secs) the shape reverts back to the Normal state, which is invisible to the user (Alpha and Stroke set to 0).

Sorry for the generic label on he drop target. You probably know from my previous blog posts that renaming an object used in a D&D interaction, will kill the set up. 

Since this action is used with exactly the same feedback text and same audio clip for 3 drag actions it is much better to use an advanced action in the situation. 

Shared Action DD_IncorrectAct

The previously described Advanced action DD_CorrectAct is used as source to create a shared action. Since there is no state change needed for the drop target, the fifth command can be deleted. Five parameters are needed (due to the fact that audio couldn't be embedded in states). Four of them are compulsory parameters, one candidate was turned into a parameter: the literal for the delay time. That delaty time has to be at least as long as the audio clip to be played.

You just need to apply the advanced action and the shared action to the proper object actions: 

Want more?

Goal of this simple example was to show when to use a shared action instead of an advanced action? It could have been done with 3 duplicate advanced actions, which is what I see most clients doing. Start to appreciate the advantages of shared actions over duplicate advanced actions:

• Ease of transfer to other projects
• Management in the Library
• Possibiity to use as template

Give it a try. If you want to learn more, give me some feedback, please.

Why?

Shared actions were a new feature in Captivate 7 and were improved in Captivate 8. Nevertheless I rarely see examples of shared actions, and there is also lot of misunderstanding.  Some users think they can only be reused in other projects. I did see experts claiming that they are totally useless, that it is much easier to duplicate advanced actions. I don't agree with that opinion, about 90% of all the project I have developed do include shared actions. They are especially useful for responsive projects as well. In a recent article you can find links to tutorials about shared actions.

 A problem that still remains is that you cannot edit an existing shared action, had hoped that would have been solved in 9 in a recent version but it didn't happen. The reason is probably that since they are not much used, this improvement doesn't get on the priority list. If you want to learn more about how to create shared actions and see some examples, have a look at this recent article in which I summarized several older posts. This post is a showcase, where I'll try to explain when to use a shared action, and when you cannot use them. The origin of this showcase is due to this question in the forums. The answer I gave there is working, but has a serious drawback, I will explain both this first simple answer, followed by a second version that will work in all situations. I hope you learn from that workflow: test out all possible situations, even though they seem to be improbable. As a trainer/coach never underestimate how trainees will explore courses.

Problem

User did look for a solution to apply to this use case:

• Drag&Drop slide with two drag sources and two drop targets
• Each drag target should accept only one drag source
• Depending on the sequence of the dragged items, one out of two texts should appear.
• Learner can switch the drag sources
• Auto submit for the answer.
• Slide needs a reset button

Example movie

Watch this embedded movie (rescalable HTML), where you'll see the two solutions after publishing. As an alternative you can also watch it directly using this link. You can test the problem with the first solution as well. Everything works fine if you switch only once, like first dragging the First text to the Top target, than drag the Second text to the Top target. However if you switch a third time, First text to the Top target, you'll see that the functionality is lost. This will not happen with the second solution.

Setup Drag&Drop slide

The setup is the same for both solutions. Drag sources are shapes and labeled SS_DragOne and SS_DragTwo. The shapes acting as drop targets are labeled SS_DropTop and SS_DropBottom. The feedback will appear in another shape SS_Feedback, which has 3 states: Normal, OneTop (first scenario with SS_DragOne in SS_DropTop) and TwoTop (second scenario (SS_DragTwo in SS_DropTop). 

Since Auto Submit is turned on in the Actions tab of the Drag&Drop panel, I dragged the Submit button out of the way to the scratch area. 

That means that both possible answers have to be defined as Correct answers. This can be done with the button 'Correct Answers' on the Options tab of the Drag&Drop panel.

Each drop target should accept only one drag source, but the learner can switch them if wanted, as long as no correct answer has been defined. For that reason editing the dialog box 'Accepted Resources' is necessary, because the default setup is that each Drop target accepts all drag sources. This dialog box can be opened from the Format tab of the Drag&Drop panel, when a drop target is selected. It has to be repeated for both targets. Rest of the setup like snapping behavior is not important for the rest of the workflow, do what you like.

First solution

This solution is using two variables: v_first and v_second. They are related to the first scenario (SS_DragOne in SS_DropTop and SS_DragTwo in SS_DropBottom) and the second reverse scenario. Default value of the variables is 0. 

I used the same shared action for all object actions, for both targets. It is pretty simple, conditional with one decision. It has three parameters:

1. First parameter is the variable associated with the scenario, v_first or v_second. 
2. The multistate feedback object is the second parameter
3. The state to be shown, which fits the scenario is the third parameter.

This was the original idea:

• When the first drag action occurs, it fits into either scenario 1 or scenario 2; the appropriate variable is set to 1.
• If the drag source is replaced on that same target nothing happens.
• When the second drop target is filled with the other drag source, it has to be in the same scenario. Checking if that associated variable has a value=1, means that both targets are filled, and the feedback is shown, depending on the scenario variable.

What is the problem with this action? It works fine until the user changes the object twice on the first target: in that case the feedback will be shown to early. That was the reason for the second solution which does avoid this problem.

Second solution

Besides the two scenario variables, a third variable to track the number of drag actions was created: v_counter. It started also with a default value of 0. The shared action now has 3 decisions as you can see in this Preview:

The first decision 'Always' is a mimicked standard action. The increment command for both v_counter and the associated scenario variable (v_first or v_second, depending on the object action) will always be done.

The second decision 'Complete' checks if both targets are filled, which is the case when both v_counter and the associated scenario variable have the value = 2. In that case the correct feedback is shown (similar to first solution).

The third decision 'Incomplete' is the one that solves the problem with solution 2. If there has been 2 drag actions (v_counter is equal to 2) but the associated variable for the active object action is still set to 1, that means that the user has switched the drag sources on one target two times. In that case the variable for the other scenario (which probably has already a variable different from 0) is reset to 0. 

It is not necessary to define v_counter as parameter, since it will be used as counter whatever the scenario. This action needs 4 parameters, because both v_first and v_second are used in the action; whereas in solution 1 only one of them was used..

Reset 

This is not the default Reset from Drag&Drop, because it will not reset the variables nor the state of the feedback container. I used the usual workaround (micronavigation as explained in 'Replay Slide' is not possible yet due to a HTML5 bug in CPwhere the On Enter action is not executed) to reset the variables and that feedback container. Two dummy slides with a duration of 0,1sec are inserted: one before each D&D slide. The reset button triggers the command 'Go to Previous Slide', thus forcing the playhead to re-enter the D&D slide.

The On Enter action 'EnterDD' is also a shared action and looks like this:

I used that action for both D&D slides, even though v_counter is not used in the the first solution. 

I hear you! Why a shared action, you only need it twice, and the only edit to make to a duplicate advanced action is the label of the feedback container. If you were one of my college students, you would know that 'Weymeis never acts without a reason....'. I will try to explain why I preferred a shared action with two parameters, instead of two advanced actions.

When you import this shared action in a new project by dragging it to the Library from this project opened as External Library (see Libraries) the variables v_counter, v_first and v_second are created automatically in that new project, with their definition and default value. That is a time saver, something to take into consideration when creating shared actions. This happens only for variables that are not defined as parameters.

Offer

Do you want to try out those actions? Send me a mail (info@lilybiri.com) and tell me if you use shared actions, or will use them in the future?  As a 2018 offerI will send you a project that you can use as external library with the two shared actions (EnterDD and DragSequence) described in this blog post, and instructions how to use them.

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.

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

CorrectAnswer triggered by Success event Quiz slides

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?

Intro

Example movie (CP2017)

Published Tutorials Shared Actions

Use cases

1 (shared) Action  = 5 Toggle Buttons

Dashboard, using shared actions

Drag&Drop Tips

Custom Hotspot Questions

Forcing First View

Matchstick Game

Playing with Captivate 9

Myths and tips

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.

Intro

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

• 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

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

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).

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)! 

Update

If you are using CP2019, version 11.5 where you can use SVGs as buttons, with possible limitation of the clickable area to the image itself instead of the bounding box, have a look at this updated version of a custom hotspot question:

SVGs for Hotspot question

Intro

Why?

• hotspots are always rectangular
  
• it is not possible to have partial scoring
  
• you cannot add shape buttons to that type of slide, because any space outside of the correct hotspots causes failure

• freeform hotspots
  
• partial scoring, that can be reported to a LMS by SCORM
  
• allowing to add shape buttons for more functionality

Why not?

Example

Concept Hotspot Question - version 1

1. "Always" is a mimicked standard action, self-explanatory. Because this hotspot can be clicked multiple times, the last statement is necessary to place the playhead one frame back, in the active portion of the shape button.
   

   
   
   
2. "ShowNext" checks if the number of allowed attempts is reached, and if that is the case will hide all the hotspots and shows the Next button.
   

   

For the correct hotspots, that allow only one click, I created a shared action with two decisions

1. "Always" is a mimicked standard action, self-explanatory. The parameters are highlighted.
   

   
   
   
2. "Checker" is similar to the second decision for the incorrect hotspot. Parameters are highlighted.
   

   

The On Enter action for this slide is a standard shared action that resets the value of v_counter and v_wrong to 0 and assigns a value to v_attempt.

Concept Hotspot Question - version 2

Comments?

Review? Not really...

Lot of well-known Captivate users have already blogged about the new features in version 8 of Captivate, released this week:  Michael Lund and Jim Leichliter are not the only friends who published their review. If you are a regular visitor of this blog, you'll know that I don't want to talk about features before having been able to explore the final release and that I'm used to offer an article with at least one example movie to demo what I try to explain. Some will be disappointed that the included movies are not responsive projects, but a good old SWF's (sorry Mac-users). You'll see some of the less-talked about new enhancements in Captivate 8. 

Focus on?

Watch this first movie. Focus in this project was on:

• new possibility to customize theme colors: I edited one of the new themes, based on a Kuler palette (imported in the Swatches) panel; for this palette I used the colorful new box-shot  of Captivate 7 as resource
  
  
• the ability to save and reuse custom shapes: for the shape buttons I used a custom shapes that are now available to me in the shape library
  
  
• creating Normal, Rollover and Down states for Shape buttons and save those states in one Shape button object style: all buttons in the movie are shape buttons with 3 states; I used two shape button object styles
  
  
• shared actions: being able to define variables and literals as parameters
  
  
• shared actions: dragging them from the Library onto slides or interactive objects to open immediately the Parameters dialog
  
  
• shared actions: being able to exclude variables, literals as parameters; discovered some nifty tricks!  Maybe I'll offer them in the future
  
  
• new character sets

Movie

Download DashboardSA.swf

Actions & Variables

Five user variables were created:

• v_counter: tracks the total number of views of chapters
• v_ch1: tracks the number of views of the first chapter
• v_ch2, v_ch3 and v_ch4: similar for the three other chapters

As you can see in the Library, I created/used three shared actions. Only the Reset functionality uses an advanced action (not described in this article).

1. FirstViewBt

When saving this action as a shared action, the dialog box looks different from Captivate 7:

Watch the icons in the first column (fuchsia colored rectangle): before entering the description, this column will have the Warning icon for the items that are automatically defined as parameters: objects/groups. In this example 3 objects had that status: the buttons (BullletRight_1 and Sec_1), the first slide of the chapter. However now you'll also see variables and literals as possible candidates for parameters! They are normally indicated by a check mark (green) in the first column. In this example: v_counter, '1'(literal used in Increment statements) and v_ch1. To turn such a candidate in a parameter, you have to check it in the third column (blue rectangle). In this case I choose to make turn the chapter specific variable v_ch1 into a parameter. The warning icon appeared, and will disappear when I confirm the entered description. Both v_counter and the literal '1' are no parameters, since they will not have to be changed when using the shared action for a different button.

2. NextViewBt

• increment v_counter
• increment specific chapter user variable
• jump to first slide of that chapter

Movie2: reused shared actions

Dare to Share - part 3

A while ago I published two posts as an introduction to shared actions in Captivate 7. At that moment I promised a third part about reusing shared actions in other projects. But since I was aware of the imminent release of CP8, and as a professional procrastinator, I postponed this part. I will explain how I reused the shared actions described in this article for the second movie. Watch out next week.

Conclusion