Useful Captivate 4 Variables

Posted on 15. May, 2009 by captivatehero in Captivate 4

The Captain noticed a great post today on the Adobe Captivate blog that lists all the Captivate 4 system variables, their default values, and a description. This is a great supplement to the Captivate 4 Help file - which only lists the older RoboDemo variables that begin with the prefix “rd”. I think one of the challenges of using the variables is the time it takes to test them out to validate functionality. This list is going to help decipher what these variables are used for.

Here’s a list of some of the variables that I find interesting, and that will most likely be used in my Captivate 4 projects:

Variable	Description	Comments

cpCmndCC	Enable/disable closed captioning (CC). Set value to 1 to display closed captions. Change the value to 0 to turn them off.	This will really come in handy when you are trying to hide the Closed Caption area. For instance, when there are text captions that match the audio track. Having a closed caption would be redundant at that point.

cpCmndGotoSlide	Assigns the slide number that the movie should move to before pausing. This is a little tricky - the Index begins with 0.	What makes this different than just a plain old “Jump to Slide”? When you are building conditional statements, or trying to evaluate a slide number - you will take advantage of this VAR in your Captivate Actions.

cpCmndMute	This will mute the audio. Set the value to 1 to mute and 0 to un-mute the audio.	This is going to be great to turn off any background audio that you may have playing through the course. Keep in mind that this will mute ALL the audio.

cpCmndShowPlaybar	This will turn the visibility of the playbar on or off. The default value is 1 if the Playbar is turned on in the skin. Set the value to 0 to turn the playbar off.	This variable is going pay off big time when you are trying to incorporate a Captivate skin and a demonstration/simulation.

cpLockTOC	Enables/disables user interaction on TOC. If you want to lock the Table of Contents in place - set the value to 1.	If your users need to go through all the slides - this will force the TOC to stay open so they can see their progress.

cpCmndVolume	Control the movie’s volume. Values can range from 0 to 100.	This will allow you to control the volume of your audio tracks in the course. This will come in handy if you have a section of your course where the audio levels don’t match.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more variables that allow you to:

Control the Captivate movie
Pull Captivate movie information
Grab Captivate movie metadata
Grab System information
Display Quiz information

In my next few posts, the Captain will be diving in deep with examples on how you can use Captivate 4 variables to extend the capabilites of your next course.

Until then - happy Captivating!

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Tags: actions, Adobe, Captivate 4, description, variables

36 Responses to “Useful Captivate 4 Variables”

BArb

22. Sep, 2009

I set up a TOC, but I want the end user to be able to hide it or show it fi they need it.
How can I do this?

Also, can I customize the navigation bar to add buttons like a glossary etc.
Paul

24. Sep, 2009

Has anyone installed the Captivate 4 patch upgrade. We have tried to rescale a project (smaller) and have lots of image degradation. Does anyone know if this has been fixed with the patch?

Paul
captivatehero

08. Oct, 2009

Hello!

I think this is just from the images being scaled down. Once Captivate starts shrinking the background images they get a little fuzzy.
You could also go back to you original file and the check the Video quality of each slide. Make sure it’s set to High Quality and then perform the scale.

Cheers!

The Captain
RustyGuy

26. Oct, 2009

Is it possible to either:
1) Keep the CC in sync with the audio, even if the audio is paused on slide enter?

2) Or create a variable or advance action that allows a transparent text box to appear on each slide only if the user summons the CC from the player bar?

Thanks,
Rusty
captivatehero

29. Oct, 2009

Rusty-

The audio/CC should trigger at the same time.
You could try starting the audio at .5 seconds on each slide so that Captivate can handle all the front loading items for each slide.

I don’t think that an advanced action is going to cover you on this one. You could try it, but it may be more of a problem.
I would try to resolve this with the time line.

Sorry I don;t have a solid answer on this one.

The Captain
Faizal

08. Nov, 2009

First slide, I input my name in the textbox.

Subsequent slides, I do quizzes.

Last slide, show results.

How do I get my name to appear in the box at the last slide on top of the results?
captivatehero

27. Nov, 2009

Faizal-

You will need to create a User variable to store your name. For instance, create User Variable called v_Name. (Project > Actions)

When you edit your TEB (Text Entry Box) - click the Advanced tab and associate the TEB with the variable.

To display the variable use the code: $$v_Name$$ in a new text caption on your quiz results slide.

That should do it!
Happy Captivating.

The Captain
Melissa

14. Dec, 2009

Once I create a user variable or an Advanced Action - where can I locate it to use it in another project?
Bengan

21. Dec, 2009

Hi!
I want to make it possible for the end user to switch the “text caption box” on and off with a button. I want them to be able to do this for all slides in a project (in other words it’s a “show/hide text function” I’m looking for).
This is a common feature in many e-learning courses, but how is it done in Captivate 4?
/Bengan
captivatehero

22. Dec, 2009

Melissa-

Yeah… that’s going to be a problem.

You can only use your actions for that project. If your looking to keep the same functionality you will need to duplicate that movie with the Actions and Variables.

Hopefully in future releases of the software you will be able to save your scripts out of Captivate.

- The Captain
captivatehero

22. Dec, 2009

Began-

This is going to take a little bit of work in Captivate 4 but it is possible.

You will need to set up a unique conditional Action for every text caption. This conditional statement will toggle a variable value - indicating that the button has been pressed and the caption is now visible. Click the button again and the caption will hide and the variable toggles back to the original value.

Also, the button can have no other functionality other than to execute the Advanced Action.

- The Captain
atraintobrkln

05. Jan, 2010

What variable would be used to show minutes and seconds of the capter ie. elapsed/remaining

Thanks.
Alex
captivatehero

10. Jan, 2010

Alex-

There is a variable in Captivate to display the amount of milliseconds that has elapsed since the start of the movie - cpInfoElapsedTimeMS. If you display this variable you will see the elapsed time, but the data needs to be modified to display seconds elapsed. Captivate is only going to go so far as to allow you to make this modification. It may be easier to make a widget in Flash with ActionScript and import it into Captivate.

Please check out Paul’s website (RaisingAimee.com). You will find a widget here that you can use.

Happy Captivating!

The Captain
Kaitlyn

29. Jan, 2010

Hi, Do you know if there is a variable that would allow me to disable the playback bar? On the first slide, I have a confidentiality statement, with a button stating that the users agrees…etc. I need them to only be able to move forward by pressing the button (thereby agreeing to the statements). As of now, they can get around this by pressing the forward button on the playback bar. Any suggestions? Thank you!!
kaitlyn

29. Jan, 2010

Also, I only want to disable the playback bar for that first page. Thanks!
Michelle

17. Feb, 2010

We need to control the audio on a captivate movie from an external element. Like a javascript/asp coding. Is there a way to have the same audio off/on funtionality activated by an element outside of captivate.

Note we need to control everything in the Captivate movie, the screen audio and any embedded .swf or .flv file audio.

Thanks!
Phuoc

09. Mar, 2010

How can i set the cpLockTOC value to 1 (lock it) while loading the swf file?
captivatehero

11. Mar, 2010

Kaitlyn-

Yes. You can use the cpCmndShowPlaybar variable.

Open the properties of any slide and “On slide enter” Assign the value of this variable to 0 this will hide the playback bar.
Set it back to 1 to turn it back on.

That’s it.

The Captain
captivatehero

11. Mar, 2010

Michelle-

Wow… way to make it easy on yourself .

Sounds like you would be better off using Captivate’s big brother Flash for a job like this.
It’s going to be easy for you to interface JavaScript and middleware calls to Flash. You can pass variables into SWF movies by appending the link to the SWF file with a “myfile.swf?myvar=1″ syntax, but that is only on the load of the movie and not during the lesson.

I would really look at Flash for this type of control.

The Captain
captivatehero

11. Mar, 2010

Phuoc-

I would assign the variable to the “On enter slide” property on slide 1 of your .CP file. You can also try to modify your HTML link to the .SWF with the following code:

myfile.swf?cpLockTOC=1

That passes the variable value into the SWF on load.

I hope this helps.

The Captain
Rob_B

29. Mar, 2010

Help!! I am using the variable “cpInfoCurrentSlideLabel” to add the Screen Title to each screen from the Properties/Label option.

The issue I am having is that it truncates the Label when displayed through the variable. For example, the Label reads, “How does this system work?” and all I get back on screen is “How does this s”

Any way of solving this?

Thanks
Rob_B

29. Mar, 2010

I found it..obvious one really..if using the “insert Variable” you have an option to set the string length…
Captivatenoob

30. Mar, 2010

Hi,
Im a very basic user of this program,
i have a file with 5 slide on every slide there is an flv imported without a skin, i got an overal project skin set up.

now what i wish to do is start the video muted, but when a user presses the unmuted button it unmutes.

thanks in advance,
Noob
Carol

02. Apr, 2010

I’ve created a Captivate 4 demo and added audio for our blind students. The sighted students find the audio distracting, though. All it does is read what’s on the screen. How can I have the audio muted by default for the entire slide show, and only turned on if needed? Searched and searched to no avail. Thanks!
captivatehero

08. Apr, 2010

Carol-

You can use a Captivate variable to control the audio.

1. Open up the slide properties of your first slide.
2. In the Navigation section. Click the drop down menu for On Slide Enter.
3. Select Assign.
4. Assign the variable cpCmndMute the value of 1. This will mute the audio from the start of the file.

You can create a button that set the variable back to 0 to turn the audio back on. I would automatically have the audio on, and have the sighted students turn it off. That might be easier.

There you go!

The Captain
Alan

21. Apr, 2010

I am trying to reposition the closed caption window. The only varaible I see is the cpCmndCC that toggles the CC on and off. I have seen a widget that does change the X,Y W and H, but I would like to know how to access the variables. Thanks in advance.
captivatehero

22. Apr, 2010

Alan-

I have not tried to move the Closed Caption window - nor have I tried that widget.

What I can tell you is that there is no way to do this directly in Captivate. Sounds like that widget is the way to go.
That closed caption widow must be named in ActionScript for it to turn on and off.

- The Captain
Chris

22. Apr, 2010

I would like to know if it’s possible to allow someone who is viewing a demo or quiz that I created in Captivate, to save their progress and return back to the demo whenever they see fit? Thx.
LaDonna

28. Apr, 2010

Do you know how to make sense out of updating the Microsoft Word Step-by-Step output template? The output currently seems to randomly renumber the published steps in the middle of an exercise. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Colin

03. May, 2010

Hi, I’m having a problem with audio of Captivate demos created in Captivate 4 loaded into a Loader component using Flash 8 and AS2. Problem is if someone is viewing a Captivate demo and hits the Audio On/Off button on the playbar to turn the audio off and then returns to the main when menu, the next Captivate demo loaded has no audio until the user click the audio Off/On button a couple of times. Even though when loaded, the playbar audio is shown as on.

I’ve already tried cpCmndMute and cpCmndVolume to no avail. Is there another audioOn variable I’m missing? Thanks in advance.
captivatehero

03. May, 2010

Chris-

Yes, this can be done but you must use the Table of Contents feature. In the TOC options - enable “Self-Paced Learning” to use this feature.

It’s the only way to get back to the last visited slide.

- The Captain
captivatehero

03. May, 2010

LaDonna-

Only use the Step-by-Step output on recorded system screen slides. All the other slides create some nasty output.

- The Captain
Colin

04. May, 2010

here’s the link so you can see what I’m talking about
http://distribution.activant.com/demos/prophet21-on-demand/
Colin

04. May, 2010

After searching for 2 days, I finally found a solution that works. I was thinking more along the lines of using Captivates cpCmnd variables to get this to work, but I found a blog (link below) that discussed using global sound in Flash and that worked for me.

http://www.quip.net/blog/2006/flash/how-to-toggle-sound-globally
Joy Hoffman

04. May, 2010

I am trying to add a variable in a text caption to display the slide number. I have it working except for the fact that, the first time it is played each time the code flashes in between the display of the slide numbers.

Any help on this? I’ve tried changing the transition fades but it still appears.

Oddly, if, during the same play, I page back and forward again, it only displays the slide number.

Thanks,
Joy
DCoder

24. May, 2010

—–OT Question—-

Do any of you know if its possible to convert the caption boxes into Text to Speech automatically? I have a long demonstration and I think that its great that the captions are done for me automatically but I am basically taking the exact text it the captions and pasting it to generate the TTS. I really doesnt make much sense to do this so I am thinking (and hoping) that there is some sort of automation to perform this action for me accross my slides/project.

Thank you!

Captain Captivate

Useful Captivate 4 Variables

Variable

Description

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36 Responses to “Useful Captivate 4 Variables”

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