Image 1. Default TOC
Image 1 shows the default captions in TOC that Adobe Captivate creates. Captivate allows us to change the captions in TOC so that the TOC can look like the example shown in Image 2.
Image 2. TOC with changed captions
Now let’s see how we can do it.
Well actually it is very simple. Just create a text file with the following text in it.
—–>
[TOCStrings]
SlideTitle=Module Name
Duration=Time
Status=State
MoreInfo=My Info
Clear=Wipe
ClearToolTip=Wipe State
BookMarkToolTip=book-marking
NoSearch=String not found
CurrTime=what
<—–
Name this file as TOCStrings.ini and save it in the folder in which Adobe Captivate is installed. Default path where Adobe Captivate is installed is “C:Program FilesAdobeAdobe Captivate 4”. Well that’s it. Now just create a new project and you will have what you want.
Now I’ll discuss some limitations of this feature
- This setting can be done only for the new project. You can not change those strings once the project is created.
-
Layout of TOC is very sensitive to the length of the strings (in pixel). Although, smaller strings than the default strings are accommodated without any issues, bigger strings may not appear correctly at run time. Hence make sure that the strings do appear correctly at run time before using it for the actual project. (Skin preview might be deceptive some times, as the preview shown there is stretched to fit the available display area.)
I’d love to see an update of how to do this in 2019, and I agree I hope there is quicker way to do it that doesn’t involve change the program files. At my organization I don’t have access rights to do that.
Probably a bit late, but the process remains the same. As for the access rights, currently I have the following setup (disclaimer: on a mac):
- a symlink in the Adobe Captivate 2019 folder, so in the program files. This symlink ‘redirects’ Captivate to the file in step 2.
- one “active version” of TOCStrings.ini, saved in my personal documents. If I want to switch to a different language, I simply overwrite this file with a file from step 3.
- different versions of TOCStrings.ini, one for each language. I save these in my personal documents.
If I want to switch from English to French, I overwrite the file in step 2 with the correct file from step 3. As for step 1: you can ask your system administrator to create the symlink once and then you can change the actual files as often as you want in your personal documents.
I just created an TOCSrting.ini file for Captive 9 and it worked flawlessly. I did not encounter “Limitation 1” listed by the original author. An exisitng CP9 project picked up the changes and published them again without issue.
Thank you very much for your contribution to the community
Do I follow the same instructions for Captivate 8 html5 output?
Awesome Thanks You So Much For Sharing THis.
In Captivate 8, how do I edit the default Table of Contents and Slide Title and Title Page to have it displayed localized?
test
Hello,
is there a solution to do the same in Captivate 8?
I’m stuck!
thanks.
C.
Thank you very much! In Captivate 6, there is the title “Table Of Contents” which is not in the TOCStrings.ini file. How can I customize it?
Windows -> Table of Contents -> Info .. Insert a title, and it will replace the string’ Tabale of Cotnents’
Hi! Is there a way to have the text of Slide name in the TOC wrap to the next line instead ending in ellipses? I don’t have the space to make my TOC wider.
Hi all! How to change the font size and style from TOCStrings.ini ?
As the TOCString.ini file is saved in the Captivate folder and not a specific project’s folder, how can I use this file when working on:
1. Multiple Captivate projects simultaneously?
2. Multiple modules (with different module names) within the same project?
Is there anyway to hide the TOC on the first slide of a project, but have it appear from the 2nd slide on through to the end? I want the learner to enter a password in order to see the slides coming up, but if I include the TOC, then they can completely by-pass the logon procedure and view the contents using the TOC.
PS – I also don’t want to disable TOC navigation.
Hello There,
We can only enable/disable using the variable cpLockTOC and cannot hide it for only one slide.
Thanks,
Vish
[…] jQuery("#errors*").hide(); window.location= data.themeInternalUrl; } }); } blogs.adobe.com – Today, 1:09 […]
Hi, Good useful posts. Can we remove the current time/total duration display from the bottom of the TOC. Captivate adds this by default and I need to hide it or remove it from my course. Any suggestions?
Hello Sunil, In TOC settings there is an option ‘Show Duration’, if you uncheck that, it will not show the duration.
Thanks,
Vish
Hi! Thank you very much for this post! I usually produce contents in portuguese, so having that information in english wasn’t pretty 🙂
One more question… Is it possible to also edit the term “Find” in the bottom of the TOC?
Thanks in advance, Mariana
I have the same problem and I am looking forward to know how to resolve the problem
If possible, can I remove this bookmark star from the TOC, please let me know that
Does anyone know why the border does not display using the Aggregator, even though it was defined in the Master movie and displays in the .swf file?
If there a way to change the color of the checkmarks in the TOC?
This is good article. Please let mek now if there is anyway to update the Status(Tick Mark) using Flash code.
Regards,
Shailehs Nazare
Does anyone know how to customize the table of contents for an Aggregator Project? I want to customize one similar to how you can customize one for a regular project.
Sean, the TOC for the Aggregator is inherited from the first swf in the set. Customize the TOC in your first module and it should inherit the properties. If you want more control of TOC in Aggregator submit an Enhancement Request here; wish-captivate@macromedia.com
How can I customize the look of the TOC using the aggregator?
Hi Allen,
No, you can’t change the default captions the way you describe, at least not in Captivate 4.
On another note, does anyone know if it is possible to remove the “star” symbol for bookmarking. I don’t need bookmarks and don’t want that star symbol.
Thanks
Hi. I completed my project (over 60 not simple slides). Is there a way to change the default captions in the TOC without having to redo my project? Thanks
Chieri, yes. if i’m following you correctly – just go to Window:Skin Editor and choose the TOC Settings. You can modify there and save the new version or choose from the samples in the drop down. LMK if this is what you were looking for.
Hi,
I am having trouble with the aggregator and the TOCs. When I generated the Aggregator, it does not show the run-time of all of the modules – it shows as 0 time.
And even though the individual modules TOCs have a border around the whole slide, the aggregator does not show it.
Can someone please help me to figure this out?
Thanks!
I have noticed that if you customize labels in preferences in the middle of a project you cannot apply the changes to already created slides. It is a real problem! The changes apply only to new created slides but not to already created ones. So, if you want to customize the labels later you must manually update every button. It is a real nightmare! Or I miss some techniques which I can use to force them apply to all created slides?
Niceone thanks, just what im looking for. going to give it a try in cp5
Hello Sunil,i’m preparing my captivate project using Arabic language.The TOC entries arabic words in project display are switched left to right instead of right to left.what to doi need your advice pleaseThanks
thank you very very much
Hi Sunil,Thanks for the workaround. It works great, but I’ve run in to another problem. I had my entire project done and the client wanted a translated version, so I used your trick as follows:I made a new project (ProjectB) with the TOC headings changed and simply imported all of my slides from ProjectA to ProjectB. I ensured prior to import that all of my preferences were identical to ProjectA.Now all of my clickboxes have lost their navigation! They all now say “continue” instead of “jump to slide xyz”. The navigation is critical to my project.Any thoughts here?Thanks.
ok thanks Sunil, the reason i was using aggregator is that i had problems saving files larger than 100mb in captivate, it wouldnt allow me to save?Any ideas why this would be? is there a file size limit?ThanksG
@Cathy,Ok, first one can not override the time shown in TOC.But you can choose to show or hide the duration column from TOC Settings dialog.
@Gary,TOC is always in seperate mode in Aggregator.
Is there any way to force the TOC to overlay when using aggregator? the SWF’s were set as overlay but when i brought them into aggregator it force the TOC to the side?ThanksG
I am seeking a method to delete the Duration title and the time listings in my TOC – or at least time the training and change the duration times to a more realistic number. The auto-generated times do not match the time it takes to complete each module.
@Steve,This one seems to be an issue with the flash wrapper that you are using.I’ll Suggest you to try out Aggregator. please refer to https://elearning.adobe.com/2009/02/creating_large_modular_project.html
@Steve,Thanks for raising this issue.I am not able to reproduce the bug that you are talking about.It will be great if you can share a sample bug file/s with us, so that we can investigate the issue.please free feel to mail me on muthiyan@adobe.com
One revision to the bug I reported above: if a subsequent movie has more TOC entries than the initial movie, its TOC will contain the right number of entries, but the ones from the subsequent movie are appended to the ones from the initial movie (and the number of entries in the first movie are omitted from the end of the array in the subsequent movie).So, if Movie 1 has Slide 1 and Slide 2 as TOC entries, and Movie 2 has Page 1, Page 2, Page 3 and Page 4 as TOC entries, the TOC for Movie 2 will read as follows:Slide 1Slide 2Page 1Page 2Also, the first two bookmarks will be innaccurate, but the last two will link to Page 1 and Page 2, respectively.Is there a way to clear out the TOC entries array created by previous movies when they unload?
I’m seeing very strange behavior from the TOC when loading successive Captivate movies within a Flash wrapper. In each successive movie, the TOC inherits the topic labels from the initial movie. The number of topics is correct in each movie, and the bookmarks still work correctly, but the labels are incorrect. For example, if Movie 1 has topics Slide 1, Slide 2, and Slide 3, and Movie 2 has topics Page 1 and Page 2, during playback Movie 2 will take on the topic labels from Movie 1 (Slide 1 and Slide 2). Already submitted a bug report, but posting here just in case it gets a quicker response. Publishing for AS2/FP8.
@DanielNo, We don’t have any way of changing the expander icon for TOC.
Is there a way to change the “>>” expander icon to read “Table of Contents”.
@Amy,You can choose not to show the toc entry from the skin dialog. Next to each toc entry, there is visibility check box for that purpose.You can also turn off the visibility of duration column from toc-settings dialog, which can be invoked from skin dialog.About hiding Footer duration, we don’t have any way of doing it.
Hi Sunil,Is there any way to delete any of the topics in the toc? I do not want the duration to display at all (trying to create an online guide). I removed that line from the TOCStings.ini file but it still displayed the header and the actual duration next to each slide.Thanks,Amy
@RussWell as of now we don’t have any way to to hide the expander icon for overlay toc.
Hi,Is there any way to hide that little expand icon that appears at the top of your slide when you choose to overlay the TOC?I would prefer to just use the TOC button in the skin.thanks
Hello Chris,Yes, you can change the playbar tool-tips also.you will see another bolg for this here soon.
Hi Sunil,thanx, this helped us localize this part of the output :).Is there a similar trick to change the Tooltips for the player buttons?I noticed I can disable them, but it would be even better if I can translate them…Cheers,Chris
>>LieveI think by term “Slide” you mean the TOC entry caption, which is same in both the demo images posted in blog.TOC entry caption is editable from skin dialog.also when you auto-generate the TOC for the first time or when you reset the toc, toc entry caption is picked from slide Label.hence answer is yes.
Thanks a lot for this post. So I will be able to translate the items in Dutch. Is it also possible to change the term ‘slide’?
Hello MarkJust create a captivate movie with required captions in toc and make it the master movie in Aggregator.The Aggregator TOC picks up captions from master movie.
Hi Sunil,Many thanks for creating this post. It is really great to see that we have the ability to perform some basic TOC customization. Can the same thing be done using the Aggregator?
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