Adobe Captivate: Now You See Me, Now You Don't... Hide a Slide Object

by Kevin Siegel

A client wanted an image to appear on most of the Filmstrip slides, but not all. Controlling the appearance of slide objects can be set in multiple ways. You can use Master Slides or Object Timing (you can set the Display time for an object to Rest of the Project). However, the client wanted to control the appearance of a slide object (it was an image) based on a simple action performed by the learner.

The client had set an image to display for the Rest of the Project. When applying a Theme, the image displayed on some slides when it wasn't wanted.

The easiest way to temporarily suspend the Rest of the Project option is to apply the Hide action to a slide. When the learner advances from one slide to the next, the image will be hidden from view. As the learner leaves the slide, the image can be forced to automatically reappear using the Show action. (While the learner is the one making the image disappear and then reappear, they don't realize it since the action is occurring behind the scenes.)

To use the Hide action, select the slide object and, at the top of the Properties panel, give it a name. In the image below, I've named an image Watermark Logo. Notice that I've left Visible in output (the default condition) selected. When the learner watches the lesson, I want the learner to see the slide object.

Using the Filmstrip, select a slide. On the Properties panel, Action group, select Hide from the On Enter drop-down menu. From the Hide drop-down menu, select the object that you named a moment ago. In the image below, I've selected the Watermark Logo.

Preview the project. If you left the object set to Visible in output like I did, the object that you named will still be visible on the slide. However, when you get to the slide where you applied the Hide Action, the object (in my case, the Watermark logo), will magically disappear from view. You could force the image to automatically reappear by using the Show Action on a slide lower down the Filmstrip.

If you would like to see a demonstration of naming and then hiding slide objects, check out this video on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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Looking for training on Adobe Captivate? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

Comments

[Craig Haiss]

Great post, Kevin! This approach looks much easier than trying to add the image object to slides on a case-by-case basis and struggling for consistent behavior on each slide. Thanks for the video, it was very helpful.