TOC button widget for Adobe Captivate

26

[The premium version of the widget has been discontinued. The free version of the widget is still available for download, but does not work with Adobe Captivate 8 and above.]

This widget allows you to open / close the TOC in Adobe Captivate with a custom button. This is useful when building your own navigation or if you are using a playbar without a TOC button.

The widget comes in two different versions – a free version called Lite and a commercial version called Premium. The Premium version is a result of the latest update to v2.6 where I have implemented a number of new features.

 

Lite Custom TOC Button Widget for Adobe Captivate:

A free Adobe Captivate Widget that will allow you to control a TOC in overlay mode from your own button. The widget is compatible with Adobe Captivate 5,  Adobe Captivate 5.5, Adobe Captivate 6.x and Adobe Captivate 7 projects.

The widget will automatically hide the >> arrows from a TOC in overlay mode and it is transparent so you can place it on top of your own button graphics.

This Lite widget is identical to the “old” TOC Button Widget offered for free here on www.cpguru.com

Download the widget here:

Lite TOC Button Widget (4942 downloads)

 

Premium Custom TOC Button Widget for Adobe Captivate:

The Premium widget does the same as the Lite version, but gives you more control. With the premium version you can use any object that is placed on the Adobe Captivate stage as a button. This means that button mouse-over states will work just as with a regular button in Adobe Captivate. In the latest version you can place the widget on a master slide and simply add a suffix (_toc) to your buttons on your slides to make them work with the widget.

The Premium widget also enables you to automatically pause and resume your project when the user interacts with the button to open / close the TOC.

tocButtonWidget2_6Properties

 

Requirements for the Premium widget:

This widget requires that you have Adobe Captivate 5,  Adobe Captivate 5.5, Adobe Captivate 6.x, Adobe Captivate 7, 8 or Adobe Captivate 9.

Both widgets require that you output to SWF.

 

Change log:

March 2013: Premium Widget updated to version 2.5 adding support for Adobe Captivate 6.1 and adding the possibility to place the widget on a Master Slide one time and use a suffix “_toc” on your slides buttons.

May 2013: Premium Widget updated to version 2.6 fixing a bug that caused the widget to not work properly in Adobe Captivate 6.1.

Share.

26 Comments

  1. Hi Michael – I was thrilled to find you’ve updated this widget. I’ve been using it today and ran into a problem though.

    I have the widget placed on a Master Slide and that slide is used throughout the project (CP5.5). The widget is configured to pause when someone clicks it and autoresume when the TOC is closed.

    The behavior I’m seeing is this:
    – project starts
    – click TOC widget
    – project pauses and TOC appears (expected)
    – click to another chapter in the TOC
    – **project continues and TOC is still visible (unexpected)
    – click TOC widget
    – project pauses and TOC disappears

    ** I’d expect the program to remain paused at this spot. Am I using the settings correctly?

    Thanks as always!
    A

    • Hi Andrew,

      Widgets and Master Slides do not go well together. Trying moving the widget to a regular slide and see if this doesn’t solve your problem.

      Let me know if you still experience problems Andrew.

      /Michael

      • Thanks Michael – I moved the widget from the Master Slide to each individual slide but got the same results. The project un-pauses when I navigate to a different section in the TOC, leaving the TOC open. Do you think the TOC settings could be causing a problem?

        • Hmm that is indeed strange.. I didn’t get that behaviour when I tested it before releasing it.

          I will try testing it tomorrow and experiment with the settings and get back to you.

          /Michael

  2. I used the name of a image button which has a shortcut associated, but it is ignored even tho the button triggers the TOC, is it something im missing or does the widget ignore shortcuts?

  3. Whenever I use this widget the first slide the widget initially loads, if a skip to the slide however the widget disappears. However, if I skip back a slide and then forward again it will show. I am NOT using a master slide. The widget is installed on each and every slide. Is this a bug?

  4. Hi Michael, do you know of an easy way to hide the “TOC” button that’s on the native CP playbar? I’d like to use your widget but also want to use the playbar for certain functions – but not controlling the TOC.

    Thanks!

      • Unfortunately, if you enable the TOC, the button automatically appears in the playbar, and there’s no checkbox for hiding it. 😐 Unless I’m missing something….

        • I was able to remove the TOC button by opening the playbar’s source FLA file, deleting the button then publishing the FLA as a new SWF in the same directory as the other playbar swf files.

  5. Hi, I have been using the premium widget with Captivate 5.5 with no problems. I recently upgraded to Captivate 6 and was able to use the Cp6 version of the widget. I have since updated to Captivate 6.1 and noticed that the widget no longer works. Is there an update planned for 6.1, or is there some way to configure it to get it working?

    At the moment I am able to place it on a slide and configure the widget, but when I preview or publish I can’t use it, or any configured button, to display the menu.

    Thanks

    • Hi Alistar,

      Unfortunately I do not have access to Captivate 6.1 due to Adobe’s decision to only make this available to subscription clients or people that took the ASA insurrance. Since I own “regular” products I don’t get this 6.1 upgrade and therefore unfortunately have no way of testing the widget.

      It is odd though that the widget wouldn’t work as these “VIP upgrades” should only present new content to the selected few and not contain bug fixes or other things that would affect existing widgets. How about the Adobe Stock widgets that are supplied with Captivate 6 – do they work as they should?

      Sincerely,
      Michael

      • Thanks Michael, the supplied widgets all seem to be working fine in 6.1. I’m at a loss to understand what they would have changed between 6 and 6.1. I’ll just have to wait until 6.1 is released more widely I guess.

  6. Hi,
    I’m developing a course using your TOC widget and all seemed great, but I’ve found one wrinkle I’m trying to overcome. This course includes video sections (one clip per slide), etc. but nothing too tricky. But it does require that users use the whole course, so there is no scroll bar, etc.

    When a user selects a previous slide (no forward navigation to unvisited slides is allowed) the TOC goes away on click and all is good. But if they use the TOC to jump to the same slide (but at the beginning of the video clip), the TOC stays in overlay and must be closed by the user.

    Any thoughts on how I can make the TOC behave the same if they jump to a previous slide or just use the TOC to jump to the start of the same slide?

    I hadn’t even thought about users using the TOC to go to the same slide, but since they must view all video, etc. and I have removed anything giving them the ability to rewind the slide from the playbar, they seem to be be using it this way.

    Any help is greatly appreciated.

    Best,
    Walter

    • Hi Walter,
      Unfortunately the widget can’t close the TOC if the users navigate to the same slide as they are currently on. The widget listens for when the user exits the slide and that is when it closes the TOC again. If they choose to replay the current slide from the TOC then the “exit event” is never actually sent from Captivate and the widget does not know it needs to close the TOC.
      I don’t really see any way around this unfortunately so in these cases the users will manually need to close the TOC themselves.
      /Michael

  7. Hi Michael,
    I’m using Cap 6 and am having trouble that the TOC only allows me to navigate once I’ve already viewed the slides. Is there some setting I’m missing?
    Thanks,
    Eric

    • Hi Neil,

      Yes it does work with Captivate 8.

      There are no instructions available for the lite version – simply insert it on your slide and have the user click the widget area to open/close the TOC. Make sure the widget is at the top layer of your slide.

Leave A Reply