Hit Boxes

Are you asking how to do this in Captivate? You can- you just need multiple slides, and you would use Buttons (a standard object) for the answer options on the left. Slide one would have the scenario and the answer buttons , slide two has answer #1 and buttons, slide three has answer #2 and buttons, slide four has answer #3 and buttons. Then you use an Action on the buttons (found in Properties). Set the action on the button for #1 answer as Jump to Slide 2. The action for button for #2 answer as Jump to Slide 3, etc. You would probably have to set the actions for the buttons on all slides, so no matter which answer they choose, they can select a different one (if you want that to happen).

I hope that makes sense. I am much better at explaining stuff through screenshots.

Are your questions #1 and 2 concerning Captivate or Articulate?

Thanks Kristen.

I am actually aware of how to use branching in Captivate (I do not use Articulate). My question is how to create sound and color changes when the cursor goes over the hit box.

Thanks,

Jennifer

Hi, Jennifer.

I'm just getting started in Captivate myself, but from what I've seen so far you should be able to replicate this Engage/Quizmaker interaction in Captivate. It will require you to build each element manually (buttons/click areas, rollover images/slidelets, pop-up captions, etc.) but you should be able to do everything you asked above. It will just take a little more effort than with Engage/Quizmaker.

As far as auto-advance versus user-advance, I've always done user-advance for the same reasons Tom mentioned in his blog today. The only time I use auto-advance is on "non-integral" items like title pages/animations.

Oh, ok, sorry.  I misread the post.  For, #2, the default Standard Object button automatically changes from grey to blue when you hover over it.  I'm not sure if all of the buttons they include in their gallery do this or not. 

For #1, I think you could use a Rollover slidelet.  Its properties section has an Audio portion (at least it does in Cap5.5).  Have you tried that yet?  (I've never played with the audio part of the Rollover).

Thanks David! I use narration in all of my e-trainings and sometimes user-advance seems to break up the flow. Do you ever have that problem? Or is it worth it?

I'm kind of confused as well for when to use slidelets/pop up captions. Currently I'm using click boxes and buttons for my branching. The only capabilties that are present are showing the hand over the hit area so they know that it's an option. I can't seem to find a way to change the color as well, or make it look 3D like the example seemed to show.

It looks like if you place a Rollover directly over the button, the button doesn't change colors.  Have you look through the button gallery?  C:/program files/adobe/adobe captivate X/Gallery/buttons  Some of them have shading effects that make them look more button-y.  Could you add an instruction that tells them to select the correct answer?

As far as narration flow goes, I've always done my scripting/storyboarding to coincide with user-advance. So from the first stages of design I incorporate that there will be "pauses".

I think it's kind of similar to the structure of children's books, where each page is self-contained and you know that you need to turn the page to continue the story. So having this structure in mind from the beginning makes it easy to write the script to fit into the user-advance structure.

Usually for me it turns out that a slide/page winds up covering a specific point or aspect. Once you start writing within this structure, you'll see that it's pretty easy to find the natural pauses in the narration.