This article emphasizes more on enhancements/refinements done in the AdvancedActions feature. You can see a fresh look of the UI that is completely different from Captivate 4. The idea behind refactoring the UI is to make users feel more comfortable in using AdvancedActions and also to develop dynamic content rapidly. Most of the times you need a simple set of actions to be executed in sequence without any user defined conditions. So a new segregation is added namely ‘Standard Actions’ and ‘Conditional Actions’. ‘Standard Actions’ is to execute a set of actions in sequence without any If-Else jargon while ‘Conditional Actions’ are to execute set of actions basing on user defined conditions. Default type chosen is ‘Standard Actions’ (most frequently used) when AdvancedActions dialog is launched.
Snapshot of ‘StandardActions’
Coming to ‘Conditional Actions’, UI is divided into tabs called ‘Decisions’. Each decision has two parts. One ‘If’ accordion and one ‘Else’ accordion. By default ‘Else’ accordion is collapsed. If you want to add actions inside ‘Else’ accordion, click on the accordion and start editing the table.Also a decision can be named. To name a decision double click the tab that appears on top and provide the relevant name. You can add or remove decisions using +, – buttons indicated just below the tab.
Snapshot of ‘ConditionalActions’
Major Enhancements
- An Indication button is provided at the left most position of every action.While composing an action, keep an eye on the indication button. The color of the button would be ‘Red’ unless action is not fully composed. It would turn into ‘Green’ when all the options of the action are filled in.The below screen shot shows that last action (Show), is not filled with the object yet. So the left most button gives an indication that you need to fill in the options. Unless all the actions are fully complete, you will not be able to save the advanced action.
- You can cut, copy and paste the actions. To do this either use select the action or list of actions and use Ctrl+C,Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V or use buttons that are present in the toolbar to perform required action.
- You can rearrange the actions. Once the actions are added, you can re-arrange the actions to your needs.
- At the bottom of the dialog a ‘Variables’ button is provided. This button takes you to variables dialog. While composing an advanced action, you might want to add a new variable. To do that you can launch the variables dialog -> add a variable -> comeback to AdvancedActions dialog. Newly added variable appears in the list of variables.
The biggest enhancement is in the conditional action, with the possibilities created by AND/OR combinations and with multiple decisions. This is not even emphasized here. Do like the new interface a lot, just regret that it is not possible to copy a Decision, because often one needs rather similar decisions. Now you have to copy/paste each region separately: condition part, Then part, Else part.
I got so much questions about the Advanced actions in CP5 that I have published several articles about it using the Adobe Community Help. Here are the links:
“Customized course menu (apply effects)”
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/855/cpsid_85530.html
“Constructing test with multiple scores”
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/852/cpsid_85255.html
“Conclusion based on multiple scores”
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/852/cpsid_85252.html
“Question slide with partial scores and customized feedback”
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/857/cpsid_85716.html
“Customized feedback (with video)”
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/858/cpsid_85847.html
“Combining Standard and Conditional in one Advanced action”
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/862/cpsid_86254.html
Thanks a lot for the articles that you had posted. They are really exhaustive and really useful for Captivate community. Just wanted to share that AND/OR options were present in CP4 as well. Catch is that they are easily discoverable with the new user interface.
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