Adobe Captivate 3: Simulating a Password Has Never Been So Easy

by Kevin A. Siegel

 

Allowing users to type directly into your eLearning simulation is one of the highest levels of user interactivity you can add to a Captivate project. You can add this kind of fuctionality to any Captivate slide by choosing Insert > Text Entry Box.

 

Here is one scenario where a Text Entry Box might be appropriate: you are simulating a login screen for a Web or desktop application. When the login screen appears, you want the user to type the word password into the Password field on the screen. Here is how you would do it:

1. Record the screen showing the empty Password field
   
   
2. In Adobe Captivate, choose Insert > Text Entry Field
   
   
3. On the Text Entry Box tab, type the correct answer into the Correct Entries field
   
   
   
   
4. Click OK
   
   By default, your slide will include the new Text Entry Box (indicated by the arrow in the image below), a button (which users could click after typing the correct entry), and feedback captions (that can be edited to suit your taste).
   
   
   
   
5. At this point, you would move the Text Entry Box over the Password Screen shown on your slide
   
   
6. Test the Text Entry Box by pressing F10 on your keyboard (to preview 5 slides at a time). You should be able to type the word password and either click the submit button or press ENTER on your keyboard to move to the next slide in the project.
   
   The only problem now is that, during the test, you should have noticed that you can actually see the word password as you typed the password into the Password field. At this point, what you'd hope to see is a series of astericks instead of the letters of the word password.
   
   So what's a developer to do? Read on...
   
   
7. The solution is actually quite simple, but often overlooked. Right-click the Text Entry Box and choose Properties.
   
   
8. On the Options tab, select Password from the Options area
   
   
   
   
9. Click OK
   
   
10. Test the Text Entry Box again by pressing F10 on your keyboard.
    
    You should be able to type the word password as before. However, this time when you type the password, you will see astericks instead of letters. 

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Want to learn more about Adobe Captivate 3? Click here.

Comments

[Tim]

One of the potential issues with Text Entry fields is the system fonts. Consider the following scenario:
Slide 1 :
1. Blank UserName & Password Field
2. Add Text Entry Box to the Username, making sure to tell the user to press TAB or Enter and using this as the trigger.

Slide 2 :
1. Has the actual username as recorded (remembering to turn of 'show typing')
2. Text entry box over the password - as described in the article. This time leave add the button on top of where the normal system button might be...

The problem here is the font. If the font used in the text entry does not match the system font then the users sees something different. Most Windows apps seem to use MS San Serif, Regular and 10/12 point. By specific systems have their own font style/size. To add the 'bells and whistles' to a professional Cp project its always nice to match these fonts..

If they get it wrong, send them back to Slide 1. The only potential gotcha is that the designer has forgotten to turn off 'retain text' from the properties, and hence the entered text is still there...

Slide 3 :
1. Rest of project starts here

Potentially fiddly to set up, but it is one of the processes that turns a 'good' Cp project into a 'great' one!!!