In some courses you don’t want the user to “scrub” back and forth by using the progress bar slider. Of course you can disable the progress bar alltogether but then you will loose the visual indication of how far the user has progress in the course.
By using a custom Flash file it is possible to manipulate this Adobe Captivate progress bar slider so that it will show the progress but the user can’t interact with it.
The progress bar slider uses an event listener to check if the user interacts with the slider. To remove the possiblity of the user to interact with the slider we can simply delete these event listeners.
[swfobj src=”https://www.cpguru.com/wp-content/disableprogressbarslider.swf” width=”453″ height=”364″ allowfullscreen=”false”]Here is the code (AS2):
1 2 3 4 | this.stop(); delete _root.cpPbcBar_mc.pbcBar_mc.pbcSlider_mc.onMouseDown; delete _root._level0.cpPbcBar_mc.pbcBar_mc.pbcSlider_mc.onMouseDown; |
This is all the code you need in order to “lock” the Adobe Captivate Progress bar slider.
A word of caution! Once you have deleted these event listeners there is no way to reactive them again. Therefore you can’t disable the interaction on some slides and reactivate it on others.
I included the Flash source file and a published SWF in case you don’t have access to Adobe Flash.
You can download the files here: Download files to lock the progress bar slider (2165 downloads)
Have fun.
/Michael
15 Comments
Very interesting that you can disable the slide bar programatically. What we are currently having problems with now, is when a user scrubs the progress bar the graphics seem to pixelate and block out in some areas. Is this common. Could the publishing resolution be the colpret?
Hi Dave,
I haven’t encountered the problem with pixaleted graphics myself, but then again I never use the Captivate playbar. I guess that the publishing resolution could have an effect on this. I normally published with the slides set to “Optimized” or “High Quality”.
/Michael
Thank you Michael, that is helpful info. Also, I know when you adjust the background images too much, it increases the file size considerably.
Dave
Dave, Hi I am just trying to work out how to implement the” locking of the progress bar”. I tried to import the swf as a widget but it didn’t like it. Could you please enlighten me how to use it.
Hi Kim,
Insert the file as an “Animation” instead of a Widget and it will work.
I didn’t go through the trouble of making this into a full-blown widget so it’s just a regular Flash animation.
/Michael
Здравейте, искам да попитам как мога да си заключа флаша тоест както е показано малко по нагоре във видеото като цъкна на десния бутон да ми излиза settings i About Adobe flash вместо zoom in, zoom out. Мерси предварително.
Hi, I want to ask how I can lock the flash that is as shown slightly up in the video by clicking the right button go to my settings i About Adobe flash instead zoom in, zoom out. Thanks in advance.
I know I’m a little late to this discussion, but since it addresses my problems, I thought I’d try.
In CP4, I am trying to block use of the progress bar on the quiz slides but allow it on others. I trued setting the quiz slides to on slide enter>assign>cpcomandplaybar>0 as suggested in response to a similar question. It does hide the progress bar on those slides, but from the previous slides, the user can still scorll right past the quiz slides. Then, when the user goes back using the back and next buttons I included, the progress bar is gone.
From your comment above and my experience, it seems there’s no way to disable progress when the project reaches a specific slide and then resume at a later slide. Is this correct?
Thanks.
Hi Sally,
No there is no way (that I am aware off) that will allow you to control the progress slider based on which slide the user is on. Using the example in my post will fully disable the slider and it cannot be reactivated again.
/Michael
Michael,
Do you have a list of all the event listener objects being called in the captivate playbar. I am trying to sort out how I can hide/show buttons, or simply “disable them and grey them out using a swf, much like you have done with the scrub bar.
On a side note have you tried adjusted one of the playbar skins to have booleans/variables in it you can then set in your captivate file in order to acess things like playbar opacity? Thanks in advance for the response.
ZSRC
Hi Zach,
No sorry I don’t. I used Monster Debugger to peek inside a Captivate file at runtime and that way I could find the events I needed.
As for the Playbar I have never customized one of those. It is the most confusing contraption I have ever seen and I never found the red thread in how to modify and customize these ;o)
/Michael
Is there an as3 equivelant for Captivate 5?
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I know Shawn asked this question back in September, but there was no response, so I thought I would ask again: Do you have AS3 code for Captivate 5?
@ Melissa – no currently I do not have the AS3 code. Captivate 5 is a completely new development so finding the relevant code requires to take a part a Captivate project and I just haven’t had time to do it yet.
I’ll put it on my to-do list.
/Michael