Intelligent Print Widget for Adobe Captivate (AS3)

by Michael on September 3, 2010 with 44 Comments in Blog , Captivate , Widget News

Intelligent Print Widget for Adobe Captivate 4 and Adobe Captivate 5

Note – This widget has been discontinued and is replaced by this new Intelligent Print Widget for Adobe Captivate.

What does it do?

This print widget will print any slide from Adobe Captivate 4 (AS3) or Adobe Captivate 5. It will also always force the print to landscape mode without the user having to select it in the print dialog. Another clever thing is that it will automatically rescale the printed slide so it will fit on the paper selected in the print dialog box. The rescaling is done dynamically and will keep the original proportions and adjust to whatever papersize the user selects (or the default size if the user justs clicks ok) in the print dialog prompt.

The widget is “plug & play” – no need to define any parameters or set up anything. The widget will do it all automatically. Simply add the widget to the slide or slides that you want to allow the user to print and that’s it.

Print Quality:

The widget will treat the content to be printed as a bitmap image. The quality of the print is limited by the printing abilities that Adobe Flash have. Please try out the demonstration below to ensure you are happy with the quality.

Requirements:

Adobe Captivate 4 or Adobe Captivate 5 is required. In Adobe Captivate 4 you will need to publish your project as AS3.

Demonstration:

Click here to see a demonstration of the Intelligent Print Widget. The demonstation is of the AS2 version for Adobe Captivate 4, but the functionality is exactly the same. The demonstration project is 900 px by 555 px.

Buy the component (US$ 10):

Note – This widget has been discontinued and is replaced by this new Intelligent Print Widget for Adobe Captivate.

If you are looking for the AS2 version for Adobe Captivate 4 that can be found here.

Download package contents:

The zip file contains four (4) individual Print widgets.

captivate5PrintWidget(dontPrintPlaybar)
captivate5PrintWidget(printPlaybar)
captivate5PrintWidget(dontPrintPlaybar-noIcon)
captivate5PrintWidget(printPlaybar-noIcon)

The difference between the four widgets is that one widget will print everything including the Captivate playbar and the other widget will only print the content on your Captivate stage.

The widgets that have “noIcon” in their name are transparent and do not have a button. This is because you can then place the widget on top of your own button graphics inside Captivate. Make sure that the widget is the top layer in the timeline when you are doing this. If you place it on top of a button thenplease note that the buttons over states will not work.

Other information:

The widget has been tested with Internet Explorer 7 & 8 and Firefox 3.5 and works perfectly well. If you are unsure if your browser supports it then try the demonstration link above. If you can print from the demonstration then the widget will work on your system.

Some people have had problems with printing to Network Printers with the AS2 version of the widget. I have no explanation or solution to why this is happening, but I have not encountered the problem myself. I am able to print from Network printers without any problems.

992 days ago byMichaelin Blog , Captivate , Widget NewsYou can follow any responses to this entry through the | RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Pete

Are you offering a discount to those of us who purchased the AS2 version of the widgets last year?
http://www.cpguru.com Michael

@ Pete – no sorry not on these components. I did offer it on the Bookmark Widget as a courtesy but this widget and the Email Reporting Widget have been rewritten from scratch so I have put quite a few hours into developing them.
Pingback: adobe captivate this week … « rajeev kumar , technology and life
Chester Knurek

Will this print all the slides in a presentation when the component is residing on only one slide?
http://www.cpguru.com Michael

@Chester – no it will only print the actual slide where the Print Widget is placed.

/Michael
- http://www.compuware.com Steve
  
  Hi Michael, I have been asked for a written license agreement that clears me to distribute your print widget within the context of a training project for customers. What do you have?
  
  Best, Steve
  - http://www.cpguru.com Michael
    
    @ Steve,
    
    I sent you an email.
    
    /Michael
Chester Knurek

Another widget?
- http://www.cpguru.com Michael
  
  I think I actually created a Print All widget for Captivate 4 AS2 – I’ll check to see if that can be adapted to AS3 and Captivate 5.
  
  /Michael
Doug Desilets

I’d be interested in a Print All widget for Cap 5 as well. Let me know when one is available. Thanks!
Hugo

Dear Michael, I purchased the AS3 Print Widget and it is amazing.
I have a question for you, is there any way to avoid rescaling and print it in a portrait orientation?

I know one that does it, but AS2 and for me having it with AS3 and portrait/without orientation would fit perfectly.

Many Thanks,
Hugo
http://www.cpguru.com Michael

@ Hugo – This widget will rescale and print to landscape per default. To avoid rescaling and to print in portrait mode you could use the Print functionality in the Adobe Captivate Playbar (if your using that in your project).

Alternatively if that is not an option then it would require building a new widget unfortunately.

/Michael
Joey

Michael,

After printing the slide how do you add the option for the user to go to the next slide? In the course being developed, the user finishes the test and decides to print the certificate, a screen appears with the option to print, after the user presses on the print button, a certificate appears and a print dialog box pops up. Once finished printing all that is left on the screen is the certificate and that is how the course ends. I would like to add another screen that ends the course with a thank you screen and follow up information and not sure how to do that.+

Thanks

Joey
http://www.conceptformula.com yvan chouinard

Hello,
I just bought widget, installed it on my Captivate 5 AS3 and I tried it on IE8. Nothing happened. If I use you demo, all is ok. The screen is printed.
Any idea what to do??

yvan
http://www.cpguru.com Michael

@Yvan,

Did you publish your Captivate file before trying to click Print? If you still haven’t gotten it to work could you contact me through the contact section here on my site and then we can figure out the problem.

/Michael
http://www.conceptformula.com yvan chouinard

Yes I did. Everything is ok now. As I am not an experienced user of captivate, I havn’t used the button object to install the widget.

Thanks,

yvan chouinard
Simon Lovell

I just paid for the “Intelligent Print Widget for Adobe Captivate 4 and 5″ went to PayPal and paid, and there is nowhere to download it???
- http://Website NameTheo Zandbergen
  
  I have the same problem today
  - http://www.cpguru.com Michael
    
    I don’t see any record of purchase with your name, so please use the contact section on my site and send me your order ID and information about email address used for the purchase.
    
    /Michael
    - http://www.cpguru.com Michael
      
      @Theo – looks like the merchant system is down.. Their site is not functioning so that is why you haven’t recieved the file yet. I will forward the widget to you by email shortly.
      
      /Michael
Simon Lovell

I just paid for the “Intelligent Print Widget for Adobe Captivate 4 and 5″ went to PayPal and paid, and there is nowhere to download it???
Simon Lovell

Forget it – I’m an idiot
Michael Culbertson

Will I be able to use this widget in several projects? I currently have 3 projects and could use this if I can copy it from one to the other. Is that possible?
Michael Culbertson

OK. I purchased your product. It or I are not working propertly. Could you please help?
http://www.cpguru.com Michael

@Michael – sorry for the late reply on your first comment. Yes you can use it in several projects.

In regards to your problem I have emailed you separately.

/Michael
Scott Owyen

Is there a way to make the widget visible during the presentation but not on the printed copy? When I print the certificate the icon prints as well.

Also, is there a way to advance to the next slide after the print event has completed?

Thanks!
- http://www.cpguru.com Michael
  
  @Scott,
  
  Both of these things should already be handled by the widget. Could you please let me know which version of the widget you are using? (Print playbar or not, use icon or not).
  
  /Michael
Pingback: Adobe Captivate 5.5 and Widgets | CP Guru - Adobe Captivate E-learning Blog
http://www.dgsdesigns.com Daniel

Hi,

I just purchased the AS3 print widget and can’t get it to work. The print widget is in the top layer in Captivate 5. I’m using the captivate5PrintWidget(dontPrintPlaybar).swf widget.

Could you please tell me why it’s not working?

Dan
http://www.dgsdesigns.com Daniel

Never mind. Forgot when testing locally I have to set the published location of the Captivate file to a trusted location for it to work. You should add this to the instructions.

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager04.html
http://Websitewww.gallachertpf.co.uk Name Myke Gallacher

Print Widget. Purchased this for Captivate 5.5 When printing from a 800 x 600 stage looks like the widget isn’t scaling properly? It leaves a white band down the right hand side of an A4 sheet. I was expecting it to scale to full A4 landscape?
- http://www.cpguru.com Michael
  
  Hi Myke,
  
  The widget will scale the content, but it will keep the proportions intact while scaling it. If the widget simply scaled the content to fill an A4 sheet and disregarded keeping proportions you would get a distorted print-out.
  
  /Michael
http://Website Evan

I purchased the print widget and tried it out in my Captivate project on my Macbook. I keep receiving this error message:

Adobe® Flash® Player has stopped a potentially unsafe operation. The following local application on your computer or network:

/Users/. . . swf

is trying to communicate with this Internet-enabled location:

/Users/ . . . htm

To let this application communicate with the Internet, click Settings.
You must restart this application after changing your settings.

I click on Settings and I am unable to change any preferences that will correct the error message. Do I have to upload the files to a server before I can preview the Print widget in action?
- http://www.cpguru.com Michael
  
  Hi Evan,
  
  I haven’t heard of this before. Are you launching the SWF or the HTM file on your Mac? I’m 99.9% certain that the problem will disappear if you upload the files to a server, but it should also work locally.
  
  If you still experience problems kindly contact me through my Contact Page and we can figure out how to fix the problem.
  
  /Michael
Phil

Hi Michael,

I purchased the widget and I have the same question as Joey did a year ago:

“After printing the slide how do you add the option for the user to go to the next slide? In the course being developed, the user finishes the test and decides to print the certificate, a screen appears with the option to print, after the user presses on the print button, a certificate appears and a print dialog box pops up. Once finished printing all that is left on the screen is the certificate and that is how the course ends. I would like to add another screen that ends the course with a thank you screen and follow up information and not sure how to do that.”

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

Phil
- http://www.cpguru.com Michael
  
  Hi Phil,
  
  Basically what the widget will do is to continue playback of the slide after the slide has been printed. Therefore there are two solutions that spring to mind.
  
  1) add a slide after the “certificate slide” with your Thank you page.
  2) add an object that pauses the slide and insert this after the print widget on the slide. The object could for example be a button that will jump to a certain slide when clicked.
  
  If you go with option 1 then you probably also need to add an object to pause that slide so that this doesn’t continue to the end and fade out as well. You could insert a click box and remove the captions and make the click area as small as possible and place it in an area where the user won’t click. That way your slide would be paused “invisibly”.
  
  /Michael
  - http://www.wanderconsulting.com Andrew
    
    Hi Michael, I’m having the same challenge using the Print widget in CP 5.5. I want users to click the Print icon, then have a Continue button appear on the certificate *after* the print is done.
    
    You said that “the widget will continue playback of the slide after the slide has been printed”. It has an inherent pause. But what I’m seeing is that the widget doesn’t pause the slide.
    
    Any advice on this?
    
    Thanks!
    - http://www.cpguru.com Michael
      
      Hi Andrew,
      
      The widget doesn’t pause the slide itself so you would need to place some form of object on the slide to pause it.However, if you want to have a button appear after the slide has been printed then that won’t work for you.
      
      Contact me through the contact section on my site please and we’ll figure something out.
      
      /Michael
      - http://www.wanderconsulting.com Andrew
        
        Thanks Michael – I think I have figured out an option. All my slides have navigation elements in them which I’ve “grayed out” for the certificate slide. I can just make sure the “next” button is enabled and add some voicover cue for them to click that after they print. That should satisfy the customer. Thanks again!
      - http://www.cpguru.com Michael
        
        Okay Andrew – if it doens’t work out for you let me know and we will figure out a way.
        
        /Michael
Susan Twohig

I just purchased the Intelligent Print widget and it is working great, except regardless of which one I use, it is printing the playbar. I am using Captivate 5.5.
- http://www.cpguru.com Michael
  
  I just tried this out in a CP5.5 project and it seem to work perfectly fine for me. Can you contact me through the “Contact” section on the site so we can figure out why this is happening to you.
  
  /Michael
http://www.live-session.fr Fabrice

Hi Michael,

I purchased and integrated the widget in my captivate project.
The print function is ok but the output isn’t scaled properly (The content is aligned to the left)

I’ve also tried with a blank slide (no background image, only a background color) and the problem still the same…:(

Have you any idea ?

Thanks !!!

Fabrice
- http://www.cpguru.com Michael
  
  Hi Fabrice,
  
  The widget scales the content according to the selected paper size but it constrains the proportions. Therefore it will look like it is aligned to the left, but this is because it keeps the ratio between the height and width of the printed content. If it didn’t do this then your content would be stretched and the quality of the print wouldn’t be good.
  
  /Michael