Captivate blog

Intro

A while ago first part of my soap about using Widgets to create customized Question slides, types Multiple True/False and Multiple Choice: Widgets and Custom Question - part 1 was published. The used widgets (included in Captivate 5) were the Radiobuttons and the Checkboxes widgets. Second part was about using the TextArea widget: Widgets and Custom Questions - part 2 for Short Answer and Fill-in-the-Blank questions. Those default widgets cannot be 'reset', which means that you can change their associated variables using advanced actions, but the change will not be reflected on the stage for the user. If you want to offer the user multiple attempts that can be annoying. One of "our" great widget developers, Jim Leichliter offered an extended version of the TextArea widget as an answer to my complaint. This proves (again) how friendly and dynamic our Captivate Community is. In my last post I blogged about the improved functionality of this extended widget. And I got a positive answer on my request if he would be willing to extend the Radiobuttons and Checkboxes widgets as well. Again, he offers those extended widgets for free on his blog site:

RadioButtons Enhanced
CheckBoxes Enhanced

Both enhancements were created using the 'awesome cpGears widget framework' (citation of Jim), by another Captivate friend, Yves Riels. Find him on his blog, I love his InteractiveLabel and NotePad widgets a lot, but he has a lot more widgets to offer: Flash-factor

As promised to Jim, in this blog I'll try to explain the added functionality of those enhanced Radiobuttons and Checkboxes widgets. And watch out for an important warning later on. For those contaminated with AAAD (Advanced Actions Addiction Disease) detailed explanation of the actions are explained in this companion article:

Extended Radiobuttons and Checkboxes Widgets for Custom Questions

Example

Play this SWF to get an idea of the enhanced Retry options. I did use the same quiz as in the original blog post (part 1 - see link in the Intro). But in the original version there was only a Review option, this time I added a Retry option with 3 possibilities: either change the entered answers, or start from scratch (default work flow when choosing Retake in a regular Captivate Quiz), or preserve the correct answers and only retake the incorrect ones. Explore, and would love to hear what you think about it.

Download CustomQuestions1Ext.swf

Widgets and variables

Three images in the Gallery do show the configuration of the widgets I used:

• MCQ1: is a RadioButtons Widget used for a Multiple Choice Question with only one correct answer (second question in the movie); the associated variable is labeled MCQ1Answer (case sensitive) and the possible values are different app names. The configuration is the same as for the widget coming with Captivate. Difference is that when you change the value of the variable MCQ1Answer, it will be visible on the slide. If you choose the option Retry Totally, where you can start from scratch, an advanced actions will assign the value 0 (zero) to MCQ1Answer and the result will be that none of the radio buttons is checked on stage.
  
  
• MCQM: is a CheckBoxes Widget used for a Multiple Choice Question with multiple correct answers (third question in the movie); the associated variables (one per option) are labeled CP,SB,PS,RH,Ac (case sensitive) and have to appear in the same sequence as the values Captivate 5,Soundbooth CS5,Photoshop,RoboHelp 9,Acrobat X. By resetting the variables to the value 0 (zero) all check boxes will be unchecked on the stage as is the case for the Retry option 'Totally.
  
  
• Radio1: is one of the 4 RadioButtons Widgets used for the slide with multiple True/False questions (first question in the movie) - the others are labeled Radio2, Radio3 and Radio4; each had an associated variable, labeled TF1 (TF2, TF3, TF4); assigning the value 0 (zero) to a variable will deselect the radio buttons on stage.

Tips

• Do not stack an interactive object on top of the widget(s) or they will not be functional. An example: if you put a click box over a widget that covers it all up, the widget will not work.
  
  
• You can have multiple widgets on a slide, and they can cover up partially; this is the case for the slide with the multiple True/False questions as you can see in the image in the Gallery.
  
  
• Do not bother to resize the widgets if they seem not to display everything, on review or after publishing everything will be OK! Look at the fourth image in the Gallery: the word False seems to be cut off, but shows up all right in the movie.
  
  
• Formatting can be tedious: have a look at the Radio1 widget: I changed the font, font size, color (Dark blue #270067) and the 'highlight' color to the same color as the blueish grey of my background (#E3E3E3) to have it blend in. Why do I tell you the color code? If you are not using one of the sample colors in the color palette, the only way to have consistent colors is to type in the code. An example: to search for the code of the background I had to sample that color using the Pick Color tool that is available in the color palette for the Fill color in the Toolbox (vertical toolbar normally at the left of the stage). Because that color will not be automatically added to the samples in the color palette in the Widget dialog box, and since there is no Pick Color available in that box, the 'simplest' way to have the correct color is typing it in. You imagine some of my feature requests ;-)
  
  
• NEVER DUPLICATE A WIDGET. Yes I'm shouting, because trying to reduce the formatting labour for the 4 RadioButtons widgets on the True/False slide, I did duplicate a widget. Every formatting was kept, and thought I only had to change the associated variable, because all other settings are the same. This will not work! The variable in the duplicate will never get a value. Do not follow my example this time, always insert the widget again and again and again. Change the formatting settings again and again and again. After a while you'll know all the color codes by heart.... 

And now...

waiting for the third episode: using dropdown and combobox widgets to create custom questions...

Intro

Example movie

Extension of the widget

Possibility 1:

Possibility 2:

• v_pos: will store the value 1, 2, 3 corresponding with the Retry possibility chosen, will be used in a conditional action
• Start: has the text 'My answer: ' as content; in an advanced action the variables associated with the Short Answer TextArea widgets on the first 3 question slides will get this content, replacing the text input by the user, thus clearing the previous answer
• Null:  is a user variable that is empty: in an advanced action the variables associated with the 3 widgets in the FIB Question will get this content, thus creating empty fields again.

Intro

As promised, here is the second but not last part of my soap about using (free) widgets to create customized questions. One of the most versatile widgets for this goal is the TextArea widget, it will be the only 'star' today. Not only is it a very fine alternative for Text Entry Boxes because it allows for better formatting, text wrapping and if necessary the appearance of a vertical scroll bar, but it can be associated with a variable, which makes it accessible ...for advanced actions!

I will illustrate the use of the TextArea widget for Short Answer questions with a lot more scoring options than the default Short Answer question and for Fill-in-the-Blank questions.

In this blog post I will explain how to use this widget and its possibilities, In detail explanation of the advanced actions can be found in this article

Using TextArea widget for Custom Questions 

Example movie

1. Short answer question (roundtripping): score will be based on keywords, all keywords have to be in the answer to get the score.
2. Short answer question (languages): partial scoring but also on keywords, each correct keyword adds to the score
3. Short answer question (web apps): only one out of 2 keywords needed to get the score
4. Fill-in-the-Blank question (twitter): with partial scoring, each correct word adds to the score

On the score slide you will be able either to Review the questions or to Retry all questions and increment your score.

TextArea widget

This widget can be associated with a user variable, but you will have to define that variable separately (Project, Variables), same way I described for the Radiobuttons and Checkboxes widgets in part 1 (Widgets and Custom Questions - part 1). The first image of the Gallery shows the properties of the widget used on the first question slide (about roundtripping), WidgetRound, . Those properties are easy to configure, and the user variable is v_roundtrip. When exploring this widget I was excited by the fact that this variable will store the complete text that is entered. This looked like a promise for multiple possibilities in Short Answer questions. I never used the default Short Answer question because the score can only be attributed if the Short Answer is totally correct! And this is rarely necessary as I heard as well from other users on the forum. Usually the short answer should get a score when it mentions some keywords, not when it is exactly the same as the "correct entry".

• TitleSA1 = title of the slide (text caption)
• Quest1 = question (text caption)
• BtSubmitRT = button Submit (interactive)
• BtContRT = button Continue (interactive)
• WidgetRound = TextArea Widget
• RTFeedback = text caption with Feedback (non interactive)
• ScoreRT = text caption showing the score (non interactive)
• RetryRT = text caption that will show up if the question is retaken (non interactive)

If you switch the place of the Widget with one of the buttons, it will not be functional! I had to put the three last captions on top of the widget because they are partially covering up the widget's text box when they appear. They do not interfere with the widget's functionality because they are not interactive.

Question slides - description 

1. Short answer - all keywords necessary

2. Short answer- partial scoring

Up to 4 keywords can result in a score, each keyword adds 2 points, the max. score thus being 8 points.
Setup of the widget and the objects on the timeline are the same as for the first question. The big difference is of course the advanced conditional action attached to the Submit button. Here it is a combination of 4 different decisions, one for each keyword.

3. Short answer - one out of two keywords

Two possible correct keywords (Flash + Dreamweaver), but the user needs only to have one mentioned in his short answer. The situation is the same as for the first Short Answer, with one condition in the setting 'Any of the conditions true', but again taking into account the case sensitivity. Widget Properties and objects on the timeline are similar to the first question.

4. Fill-in-the-Blank - 3 fields with partial scoring

In the third image of the Gallery you will see the Timeline of this slide, that uses 3 instances of the TextArea Widget. Perhaps you wonder why I prefer TextArea to Text Entry boxes? The user input in a TEB has to be confirmed, either by  a Submit button or by a shortcut, which is not the case for TextArea. The user can change his input if he wants and the value of the associated user variable will be adapted in real time.
Possible issues: you'll have to try a little bit to have the right size and position for the widgets. I first typed the correct terms and positioned the widget on top of those, but had to adapt the position even with the same font/fontsize.
In this FIB you cannot give the user the possibility to choose from a dropdown list, only to type the answer.

Partial scoring is however possible, the advanced conditional action attached to the Submit button is rather similar to the one used for the second question (Short answer with partial scoring). Again you have to take into account the case sensitivity.

Results Slide

• v_try = 0  is inital value, when the user takes the quiz for the first time
• v_try = 1  when he retakes the quiz
• v_try = 2  when he reviews the quiz

Those values will be used to re-initialize each question slide (see article).

One drawback of the used widget: it is not possible to reset the value of the variable to void/null/empty! You can reset the associated variable to a Null value, but this will not be reflected in the display of the TextArea on the slides. Once the user has entered something, it will stay there until he changes it himself. You can watch this with the Retry functionality in the sample SWF.

Intro

Use cases for Timer widget 

As is the case for most of the widgets coming with Captivate, the Timer is a static widget. As I explained in the post about the Button widget (Using the button widget) this is great news, because you can use the widget on master slides and on question slides. In the example movie you will that I used the widget twice:

1. In its digital appearance (left at the bottom) it is counting down from the maximum allowed time for the total time on the question slides
2. In its analog appearance (right at the bottom) it is counting up to the maximum time allowed per question slide

Timer for total time - workflow

• Create a user variable, I labeled it v_time;  it is not possible to create this from the dialog box with the widget properties.

• Insert the widget on the first question slide and configure it as in the first picture of the Gallery: digital version, count down, with a message when count gets to zero and I formatted the characters;I labeled this widget 'TimerWidget'

• Set the timing of this widget to diplay for the rest of the project (Properties panel, Timing accordion)

Hide TimerWidget        (digital countdown timer for total Quiz time)

Hide TextTime             (text caption before the digital timer)

Assign v_time with 0    (to reset the variable and allow the user to review the quiz)

Timer for individual Question time - workflow

• Insert a second instance of the widget on the master slide that is used for the question slides
• I configured this widget to be analog, to count up (to the maximum of 10sec) and changed the colors (see third screenshot)

Advanced action TimeCheck

if v_time is equal to 1

  

Captivate 6 users - warning

If you use the described work flow in version 6, there are possibly some problems:

• when trying to associate a variable to the widget, not all characters will be accepted (like underscore) and some characters will be turned automatically into capitals; be sure to check that the defined variable has exactly the same name as the one you enter in the widget properties: Vtime will be accepted, but v_time not;
• the values to check for the user variable Vtime are not 0 and 1 but true and false
• having an action that on exceeding time will jump to another slide will not be functional if you use the new feature 'Submit all'

And for 6.1 users:  try using the new Countdown widget, it allows you to have an action immediately after the countdown reaches 0, contrary to the Timer widget that needs an extra event (like On Enter slide) to trigger an action. Will blog soon about the new widgets in 6.1.

More ideas?

The button widget is no longer available in later versions of Captivate, but can be replaced almost in all use cases described in this article by a shape button.

Intro

Non-interactive button?

• to use it on question slides, where interactive objects cannot be inserted
• to use it on master slides, that have the same restrictions as question slides

Configuring the widget

Use on Question slides

• to allow user to get back to an instruction slide when failing on a question
• to open another file on success/failure of a quiz

Example Menu on Master slides

Intro

If you are familiar with creating advanced actions, you will certainly have been frustrated by the fact that you cannot re-use the actions you carefully constructed and tested out. There is no way to export/import them in another project, even just printing them is a lot of trouble. And I'm dreaming about the possibility of having a library of actions available all the time, with an easy way to edit and adapt them to the specific ID's of the objects in a new project. OK, I already hear the Widget Kings, Princes and Wizards calling out: create widgets... but you have to learn ActionScript and be familiar with Flash which is certainly not the case for all Captivate-users that I try to convince to have a look at advanced actions to enhance their projects. From the success of my last posting (Controlling the score slide) I deduct that I'm not the only non-Flash expert around that wants more control :-)
 
Being a woman I do trust my intuition, and so I tried out this idea: creating a template with advanced actions, while providing an easy way to edit objects, could enable re-using those actions. And one of the recurring questions on the user forum provided me with an example: 'How can I display a checkmark or/and grey out the menu item when it is completed?'

Goal

The template has a menu slide with buttons to navigate to 5 other slides that represent 5 menu items. After visiting an item the user can navigate back to the menu slide with a simple button. The 7th slide is an End slide.
 
For this example I worked out two possible use cases:

1. When returning to the menu slide the visited item will be dimmed, have a checkmark and the button will be disabled; this means that the user can only visit each item once; when all items have been visited the user is navigated automatically to the End slide.
2. When returning to the menu slide the visited item will be dimmed, have a checkmark but the button will not be disabled; the user can visit the item multiple times; when all items have been visited at least once an End button will appear on the menu slide that allows the user to get to the End slide.

You can play these SWF's to have an idea of the workflow. Both have been based on the template, but with different lay-out. I will explain editing possibilities later.
 

Download MenuOnce.swf

Download MenuMultiple.swf

Variables - actions

I created 5 user variables, one for each menu item, labeled v_item1, v_item2, v_item3, v_item4, v_item5. Originally they have a value=0 but will get the value=1 when an item has been clicked.
 
When a button on the Menu slide is clicked, a simple standard action is executed that changes the value of the user variable and jumps to the proper slide.
 
On entering the Menu slide two possible conditional actions can be assigned, corresponding with the use cases:

1. EnterMenu for the first use case, will dim and add a checkmark to the items that have been visited, button will be disabled; if all items have been viewed will jump to the end slide.
2. EnterMenuRetry for the second use case, will dim and add a checkmark to the items that have been visited; if all items have been viewed at least once will show the End button.

Depending on which use case you want, assign the appropriate action. 

 
Changing Layout

I used a master slide that has the background and is applied to all slides, so this is easy to change.
Example: first SWF has the original master slide, in the second one I applied another background image and added some lines.
 
It is important that the ID's of the objects that are referred to in the advanced actions do not change to avoid issues. Have a look at the timeline of the menu slide. From top to bottom you will see these objects that are in the advanced actions, so be sure not to change their labels:

• 5 images, labeled Done1... Done5 (highlighted in green); those are the checkmarks, and all instances of one image in the library; if you want another image, use the option "Edit with...' from the library and after saving in the image processing app all instances will be updated automatically. For those using the eLearning Suite: you can of course use the option Edit Source file.
  Example: for the second SWF I used Edit Source file to change the color of the checkmark
  
• 3 objects for each item 'button' (highlighted in yellow for the button for item 1): a transparent button (Bt1), a rectangle (Rc1) that serves as background for the button before dimming and a second rectangle (RcDim1) that is behind the first one and has a text in it 'Item 1' to make it possible to change the color of the text after dimming. You can edit: the text on the buttons Bt (formatting inc.), the color and rounding of both rectangles and the text on the second rectangle (formatting inc.)
  Example:  I changed colors and corner rounding for the rectangles, changed text color of the buttons by changing the default button style.

Limitations

The template was created in a resolution 640x480.
There are only 5 menu items: you can easily delete decisions in the advanced conditional actions EnterMenu and EnterMenuEntry, creating more items will be a little bit more work.
I did not provide the possibility to have only checkmarks or only dimming for the moment, but would also be simple to achieve.

 
Offer

This week my 6-months young (old?) blog passed the milestone of 25000 hits, which is incredible! I cannot offer you a cake or chocolate (Belgian of course) to celebrate, but want to offer you this template to play with. If you send me an e-mail address by Direct Message with Twitter (@Lilybiri) or post it using a Private message on the Captivate user forums (the thread I'm referring to is http://forums.adobe.com/thread/806123?tstart=0) and I will be glad to send you the link to this template. You can also post a comment, but I do want to avoid you having spam! With the blog service I'm using for the moment I do not see another way, sorry.
And please, let me know what you think about this idea of using templates?

Update

Kevin Siegel published a great tip today: you can turn a project into a template by simply changing the extension from cptl to cptx. This is the link: http://iconlogic.blogs.com/weblog/2011/05/adobe-captivate-5-one-quick-way-to-a-project-template.html

I did check it out and that can be an easy way to exchange advanced actions between projects:

• Duplicate the project from which you want to export the advanced actions
• Rename the extension for the duplicate from cptx to cptl
• Create a new project from template and navigate to the just renamed file
• A new project, labeled 'Untitled' is created and it has all advanced actions in it

 In Captivate 6 you can finally publish an existing file as a template, which makes the workflow even easier.

Intro

Quiz - example

Widgets and variables - tips

Question slides - description

1. Multiple T/F questions

• Title with a Rollover Text Caption explaining the scoring and providing tip for correct answers
  
  
• 4 Text Captions with questions
  
  
• 4 'Radiobuttons' Widgets, labeled Radio1, Radio2, Radio3, Radio4 (first picture in Gallery shows settings for Radio1)
  
  
• 1 Text Caption with Feedback that is initially hidden (it is possible to have multiple captions, but wanted to keep it simple), labeled TFFeedback
  
  
• 1 Text Caption with the score, initially hidden, labeled ScoreTF
  
  
• 1 Submit button (BtSubmitTF), that will trigger an Advanced action to calculate the score, show TFFeedback and ScoreTF, this button is timed so that it will disappear when the Continue button appears
  
  
• 1 Continue button (BtContTF), that is timed to appear when then the Submit button disappears, and has as action 'Go to Next Slide' 
  
  

2. Multiple Choice question with one correct answer

• Title with a Rollover Text Caption explaining the scoring and providing tip for correct answers
  
  
• 1 'Radiobuttons' Widget, labeled MCQ1 (look at the settings in the second picture of the Gallery)
  
  
• 1 Text Caption with Feedback that is initially hidden (it is possible to have multiple captions, but wanted to keep it simple), labeled MCQ1Feedback
  
  
• 1 Text Caption with the score, initially hidden, labeled ScoreMCQ1
  
  
• 1 Submit button (BtSubmitMCQ1), that will trigger an Advanced action to calculate the score, show MCQ1Feedback and ScoreMCQ1; this button is timed so that it will disappear when the Continue button appears
  
  
• 1 Continue button (BtContMCQ1), that is timed to appear when then the Submit button disappears, and has as action 'Go to Next Slide' 
  
  

3. Multiple Choice question with multiple correct answers

• Title with a Rollover Text Caption explaining the scoring and providing tip for correct answers
  
  
• 1 'CheckBoxes' Widget, labeled MCQM  (look at the settings in the third picture of the Gallery)
  
  
• 1 Text Caption with Feedback that is initially hidden (it is possible to have multiple captions, but wanted to keep it simple), labeled MCQMFeedback
  
  
• 1 Text Caption with the score, initially hidden, labeled ScoreMCQM
  
  
• 1 Submit button (BtSubmitMCQM), that will trigger an Advanced action to calculate the score, show MCQ1Feedback and ScoreMCQ1, hide the button Submit and show button Continue; this button is timed so that it will disappear when the Continue button appears
  
  
• 1 Continue button (BtContMCQM), that is timed to appear when then the Submit button disappears, and has as action 'Go to Next Slide' 
  
  

4. Results Slide

Captivate has a lot of predefined question slides on board of all kinds. Formatting options have been greatly improved in version 5 using the Object Style Manager and the Property Inspector. But those Question slides are different from normal slides, and you have much less control over them. Just some examples:

• you do not see the different objects on the Timeline, it shows only one 'interactive object', although you have a lot of Text Captions, dropdown lists, Text Entry Boxes and buttons on the slide
• you can have only one type of Question on a slide,
• the score for a Question slide is always 'black/white', correct or incorrect, you can never have a partial score
• you can add only non interactive objects on the Question slide (no buttons, no click boxes, no Text Entry Boxes)
• you can customize the success/failure captions for each Question slide
• even have up to 3 different failure captions but... Review message wiil be the same for all Question slides

To have more control you can create your own Question slides. Of course this is possible using Flash (or Dreamweaver). Using standard objects, variables and Advanced actions can however result in constructing most of the Question slide types, except for the types that involve drag-and-drop (as can be used in Sequence and Matching Questions). I published several articles for different usecases. In the articles I provide a Captivate SWF to show the result and start files (for downloading), to enable you to practice the workflow described in the article. Here are the links:

1. Creating a test resulting in multiple scores: using Advanced Standard and Conditional actions you will construct a test that will collect scores about the learning type of the user (Auditory, Visual, Kinesthetic). Contrary to a normal Quiz resulting in one score, here you will obtain three scores. Those scores will be used in the next article:
   
   
2. Conclusion based on multiple scores: based on scores obtained in the previous article, you will use one Advanced Standard and one Advanced Conditional action to show the conclusion. I meant this article to be an introduction to the new User Interface of Advanced actions.
   
   
3. Create question slides with partial scoring and customized feedback: one of the issues with the default Captivate Question slides is that the user never can get partial scores if his answer is partially correct. In this article I created a hotspot question slide with multiple hotspots and the user can get a partial score.
   
   
4. Create customized feedback: in this video tutorial you will learn how to use an Advanced Conditional action (with multiple decisions) to show differentiated feedback based on the score of a Quiz constructed with the default Question slides of Captivate. This video is meant as an introduction in the terminology and workflow of Conditional actions.

I hope this can help to start using Advanced actions. Please, feel free to comment and suggest other usecases.