Hello, all,

I have been very busy the last few months on projects and teaching Captivate 2017 and unfortunately this has meant that only now am I finally investigating Captivate 2019.

My first question: is it the case that individual object effects are lost still when those objects are grouped? I know this was a feature that didn’t make it into CP2017 despite the fact that the help section reported that individual effects are retained when objects are grouped. However, I just now tried it in CP2019 and it still seems to be the case.

1. I placed two objects on the stage.
2. I applied an effect to each in the Timing properties.
3. I grouped the objects.
4. The individual effects are now gone.

I even previewed in HTML5 and saw that the object effects are gone.

So I looked in the Help at

https://helpx.adobe.com/captivate/using/object-effects.html

And see there what appears to be contradictions.

In the section on Applying effects to individual objects, it shows:

Note:

While applying effects to object groups, keep in mind that effects applied to individual objects are not retained.

However, in the section on Applying effects to a group of objects, it shows:

Note:

The effects on a group and on individual member objects are summative. For example, if a group of objects is set to rotate right, and an individual object is also set to rotate right, then that object rotates to an angle which is the sum of both the rotations.

Things to consider when applying effects on groups and individual group members

The ability to apply effects on a group of objects and on individual group members is a very powerful feature and can be used to demonstrate a variety of concepts, such as, for example, the movement of planets around the sun, while at the same time rotating around their individual axis.

However, keep some of the following tips in mind while using this feature to get the best impact:

• Effects applied on a group that is set to play for rest of project will not display at runtime if:
  • Any object is interactive and has feedback shapes enabled
  • Some objects have Place Object on Top checked while others don’t
• When a group contains an object that does not support effects (such as Zoom Area) then the group also does not support effects. For more information on zoom areas, see Creating zoom area.
• When objects in a group are also used in a drag and drop interaction, then the group effects do not play
• When the group includes a video object

So am I doing something wrong? Am I misunderstanding? Don’t the above sections contradict each other? Is it true that individual object affects can be retained or not when those objects are grouped?