by Kevin Siegel
I just love Text Entry Boxes. In case you are new to them, Text Entry Boxes allow you to simulate areas in an application that require a learner to type data. You can instruct learners to type specific information into a Text Entry Box and, depending on what they type, captions can provide feedback on their entry.
There is one problem with Text Entry Boxes: retention. In short, there may be a need to automatically clear the text typed into a Text Entry Box without having the learner close the lesson and start over again.
"What's the big deal?" you ask. Glad you asked. Here's a scenario for you: Your learner is instructed to type some text into a Text Entry Box on–I don't know–let's say Slide 10.
Later, the learner does something crazy like replays the lesson (without first closing it).
The text that the learner had already typed into the Text Entry Box on Slide 10 would still be visible to the learner. Ooops. Of course the learner could easily delete the text and retype it–but that's not the point. Why would anyone type something if they didn't have to? I'm lazy! If I was supposed to type something that was already there, I'd be perfectly happy. I'd move to the next step in the movie–blissful in my ignorance as to what had, or had not, just happened.
If you've created Captivate projects that utilize Text Entry Boxes, you can probably relate to the scenario I mentioned above. And you will be happy to hear that Captivate allows you to determine if the text typed into a Text Entry Box is retained or not. Here's how:
- Insert a Text Entry Box onto a Slide (Insert > Standard Objects > Text Entry Box).
- From the Settings area of the Text Entry Box tab, remove the check mark from Retain Text if you don't want the learner's typed text to appear in the Text Entry Box should the lesson be rewound; otherwise, add the check mark.
-
Set the remaining Text Entry Box options/settings as appropriate.
-
Click OK.
-
Preview the project (you can press F4 on your keyboard to quickly preview the project).
When you get to the slide containing the Text Entry Box, type in the appropriate text and go to the next slide. Afterwards, rewind the lesson and notice that the text in the Text Entry Box is either retained or not (depending on the option you selected in Step 2 above).
Worried about your class canceling? You'll be happy to hear that IconLogic never, ever cancels classes (even if there's just one student registered).
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Kevin,
I have a similar situation with a Text Entry Box (TEB) but I want the text from an incorrect attempt to go away while still on the slide. I want the learner to have TWO attempts at typing the correct answer but without having to select the text and remove their first attempt. I also want the “failure text” to say different things for each of the two attempts; like “Wrong, try again” for the first attempt and “you are just plain dumb” for the second attempt, before moving on.
How do you accomplish all this? Create an identical TEB and place it on the timeline after the first. Then make each TEBonly one attempt right?
That works if you don’t care about scoring it. If you want to score it, you are out of luck aren’t you?
Wrong! In the project preferences, set the Pass/Fail option to Points instead of percent. Then a total correct on a project won’t be affected by identical text entry fields on a single slide.
Let me know if anyone knows of a different/better/easier way.
Kevin,
I have a similar situation with a Text Entry Box (TEB) but I want the text from an incorrect attempt to go away while still on the slide. I want the learner to have TWO attempts at typing the correct answer but without having to select the text and remove their first attempt. I also want the “failure text” to say different things for each of the two attempts; like “Wrong, try again” for the first attempt and “you are just plain dumb” for the second attempt, before moving on.
How do you accomplish all this? Create an identical TEB and place it on the timeline after the first. Then make each TEBonly one attempt right?
That works if you don’t care about scoring it. If you want to score it, you are out of luck aren’t you?
Wrong! In the project preferences, set the Pass/Fail option to Points instead of percent. Then a total correct on a project won’t be affected by identical text entry fields on a single slide.
Let me know if anyone knows of a different/better/easier way.
Kevin,
I have a similar situation with a Text Entry Box (TEB) but I want the text from an incorrect attempt to go away while still on the slide. I want the learner to have TWO attempts at typing the correct answer but without having to select the text and remove their first attempt. I also want the “failure text” to say different things for each of the two attempts; like “Wrong, try again” for the first attempt and “you are just plain dumb” for the second attempt, before moving on.
How do you accomplish all this? Create an identical TEB and place it on the timeline after the first. Then make each TEBonly one attempt right?
That works if you don’t care about scoring it. If you want to score it, you are out of luck aren’t you?
Wrong! In the project preferences, set the Pass/Fail option to Points instead of percent. Then a total correct on a project won’t be affected by identical text entry fields on a single slide.
Let me know if anyone knows of a different/better/easier way.
Hi David,
Have you thought about using a Fill-in-the-blank quiz slide instead of TEBs? Is there a reason you need to use a TEB? With a quiz slide, you can have multiple levels of failure. It will not auto clear the selection, but you can put the clear button on the quiz slide and the user can click that if they want to clear out what they’ve typed. This might be the easiest solution to the problem.
My other thought would be to create an advanced action that is executed upon failure case. In the advanced action you can keep track of which attempt it is and thus display the correct failure caption. In addition, you can have the advanced action jump to slide which should display the slide with a blank TEB again. For scoring, you can play with the settings. Or, depending on how you progress from this slide to the next, you can assign the scoring to a button that will move forward – you can have two identical buttons, one for correct answer and one for incorrect answer to score, and just display the correct one depending on which try and success/failure case you are in.
Hoping this makes some sense…..feel free to email me directly (LoriSmith@IconLogic.com) if you have more details on your need or I’ve completely confused you 🙂
Hi David,
Have you thought about using a Fill-in-the-blank quiz slide instead of TEBs? Is there a reason you need to use a TEB? With a quiz slide, you can have multiple levels of failure. It will not auto clear the selection, but you can put the clear button on the quiz slide and the user can click that if they want to clear out what they’ve typed. This might be the easiest solution to the problem.
My other thought would be to create an advanced action that is executed upon failure case. In the advanced action you can keep track of which attempt it is and thus display the correct failure caption. In addition, you can have the advanced action jump to slide which should display the slide with a blank TEB again. For scoring, you can play with the settings. Or, depending on how you progress from this slide to the next, you can assign the scoring to a button that will move forward – you can have two identical buttons, one for correct answer and one for incorrect answer to score, and just display the correct one depending on which try and success/failure case you are in.
Hoping this makes some sense…..feel free to email me directly (LoriSmith@IconLogic.com) if you have more details on your need or I’ve completely confused you 🙂
Hi David,
Have you thought about using a Fill-in-the-blank quiz slide instead of TEBs? Is there a reason you need to use a TEB? With a quiz slide, you can have multiple levels of failure. It will not auto clear the selection, but you can put the clear button on the quiz slide and the user can click that if they want to clear out what they’ve typed. This might be the easiest solution to the problem.
My other thought would be to create an advanced action that is executed upon failure case. In the advanced action you can keep track of which attempt it is and thus display the correct failure caption. In addition, you can have the advanced action jump to slide which should display the slide with a blank TEB again. For scoring, you can play with the settings. Or, depending on how you progress from this slide to the next, you can assign the scoring to a button that will move forward – you can have two identical buttons, one for correct answer and one for incorrect answer to score, and just display the correct one depending on which try and success/failure case you are in.
Hoping this makes some sense…..feel free to email me directly (LoriSmith@IconLogic.com) if you have more details on your need or I’ve completely confused you 🙂
HI ,
I am making a e-learning project on Adobe Captivae 4. And I am using the “Arabic” language. I want the text entry box in which we can write from “RIGHT TO LEFT” as we write in Arabic language. I have gone through this but I could not found solution.
Can anybody solve it out, how to allign the text box in which we can write from right to left, because every time i found it writes from left to right.
Thanks in advance 🙂
Best Regards,
Shri Kant
HI ,
I am making a e-learning project on Adobe Captivae 4. And I am using the “Arabic” language. I want the text entry box in which we can write from “RIGHT TO LEFT” as we write in Arabic language. I have gone through this but I could not found solution.
Can anybody solve it out, how to allign the text box in which we can write from right to left, because every time i found it writes from left to right.
Thanks in advance 🙂
Best Regards,
Shri Kant
HI ,
I am making a e-learning project on Adobe Captivae 4. And I am using the “Arabic” language. I want the text entry box in which we can write from “RIGHT TO LEFT” as we write in Arabic language. I have gone through this but I could not found solution.
Can anybody solve it out, how to allign the text box in which we can write from right to left, because every time i found it writes from left to right.
Thanks in advance 🙂
Best Regards,
Shri Kant
HI,
Can you please tell me how to align text entry box’s courser to right (from right to left) in adobe captivate 4.
I am using Arabic language so i need to write from right to left.
best regards,
Faiz
HI,
Can you please tell me how to align text entry box’s courser to right (from right to left) in adobe captivate 4.
I am using Arabic language so i need to write from right to left.
best regards,
Faiz
HI,
Can you please tell me how to align text entry box’s courser to right (from right to left) in adobe captivate 4.
I am using Arabic language so i need to write from right to left.
best regards,
Faiz
Thanks for the help above… I would like the user to be able to fill in a text entry box and allow them to do carriage returns so that they can separate thoughts. Is this possible???
Thanks for the help above… I would like the user to be able to fill in a text entry box and allow them to do carriage returns so that they can separate thoughts. Is this possible???
Thanks for the help above… I would like the user to be able to fill in a text entry box and allow them to do carriage returns so that they can separate thoughts. Is this possible???
Nick,
Sure, using carriage returns is permitted. Are you running in to a problem where when the user presses enter, it goes to the next slide? If so, you need to change the shortcut keys on the TextEntryBox. Show properities of the TextEntryBox and on the TextEntryBox tab, click select keys. Then check allow mouse clicks and uncheck attach a shortcut.
Go to the options tab and click Show Scrollbar. If you are saving the information to a variable to print out via a text caption at a later dates, remember when you insert the variable in to the text caption to give it enough characters.
Nick,
Sure, using carriage returns is permitted. Are you running in to a problem where when the user presses enter, it goes to the next slide? If so, you need to change the shortcut keys on the TextEntryBox. Show properities of the TextEntryBox and on the TextEntryBox tab, click select keys. Then check allow mouse clicks and uncheck attach a shortcut.
Go to the options tab and click Show Scrollbar. If you are saving the information to a variable to print out via a text caption at a later dates, remember when you insert the variable in to the text caption to give it enough characters.
Nick,
Sure, using carriage returns is permitted. Are you running in to a problem where when the user presses enter, it goes to the next slide? If so, you need to change the shortcut keys on the TextEntryBox. Show properities of the TextEntryBox and on the TextEntryBox tab, click select keys. Then check allow mouse clicks and uncheck attach a shortcut.
Go to the options tab and click Show Scrollbar. If you are saving the information to a variable to print out via a text caption at a later dates, remember when you insert the variable in to the text caption to give it enough characters.