PropertySetter

PropertySetter is an ActionScript 3 widget for setting properties at runtime in your Adobe Captivate 5 projects. It can be used to change the following properties:

• Closed Captions (on/off)
• Display Info (on/off)
• Exit (on/off)
• Fast Forward (on/off)
• Lock TOC (on/off)
• Mute (on/off)
• Next Slide (on/off)
• Pause (on/off)
• Previous Slide (on/off)
• Show Playbar (on/off)
• Volume (0-100 in increments of 5)

Download

Version 1.0 (3/9/2011)

License

Freeware

Requirements

Adobe Captivate 5.

Installation

After downloading and unarchiving, copy PropertySetter_AS3.swf to your Adobe Captivate 5 Widget Gallery directory.

On Windows XP and Windows 7, the Widget Gallery can be fond here:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 5\Gallery\Widgets

On Mac OS X, the Widget Gallery can be found here:

/Applications/Adobe Captivate 5/Gallery/Widgets

Usage

1. In the Widget Panel, locate PropertySetter AS3.swf and click its Insert link.
2. The Widget Properties dialog will appear, presenting you with two drop-down menus.
3. From the top drop-down menu, select the property you would like to change.
4. From the bottom drop-down menu, select the setting you would like to assign to the property.
5. Click the OK button.
6. Use the Timeline to adjust the starting position of your widget. The starting position will determine the point during the slide at which you want the setting to be changed.
7. Press F4 to preview the results.

Details

This widget is still in its early stages of development. Future versions will add more parameters to adjust. Here are notes on the current properties and some caveats about setting them via the widget. Most of these settings are boolean (1=on, 0=off) with zero as the default value. Setting them to zero will have no effect, unless otherwise noted:

• Closed Captions — sets cpCmndCC to 1 or zero. Setting to 1 shows closed captions. Setting to zero hides them. Useful for reclaiming presentation real estate during portions of a demonstration that do not contain closed captions. Also useful for forcing display of closed captions, which are hidden by default. Functionally identical to my previously published ClosedCaptionsOn & ClosedCaptionsOff widgets.
• Display Info — sets rdmmndInfo to 1 or zero. Setting to 1 pauses the timeline and displays the movie information dialog, which the user can dismiss to continue the movie. Information displayed here is defined via File -> Project Info, and includes author, company, email, url, and copyright values.
• Exit — sets rdcmndExit to 1 or zero. Setting to 1 exits the movie.
• Fast Forward — sets cpCmndFastForward to 1 or zero. Setting to 1 initiates fast forward. [Known issue: once fast forward is engaged, there’s currently no way to return it to normal.]
• Lock TOC — sets cpLockTOC to 1 or zero. Setting to 1 locks the table of contents. Setting to zero unlocks it. When locked, users cannot select items from the TOC. They can still click them and will still see any rollover effects, but clicking will not result in slide navigation.
• Mute — sets cpCmndMute to 1 or zero. Setting to 1 mutes any existing audio. [Known issue: once volume is muted, there’s currently no way to return it to normal. Use the Volume setting, for both muting and unmuting, instead.]
• Next Slide — sets rdcmndNextSlide to 1 or zero. Setting to 1 jumps to the next slide, if there is one.
• Pause — sets rdcmndPause to 1 or zero. Setting to 1 pauses the presentation. Continuing the movie requires pressing the play button on the playbar, or completing some other interaction (e.g. pressing a button you have inserted on the stage). Functionally identical to my previously published PauseMeNow widget.
• Previous Slide — sets rdcmndPrevious to 1 or zero. Setting to 1 jumps to the previous slide. If there is no previous slide, setting to 1 jumps to the beginning of the current slide.
• Show Playbar — sets cpCmndShowPlaybar to 1 or zero. Setting to 1 should reveal the playbar and setting to zero should hide it, but setting this variable via a widget doesn’t seem to work, at least not in my testing.
• Volume — sets cpCmndVolume to any value between 0 (mute) and 100 (max) in increments of 5. Captivate’s default volume setting is 50. For muting a portion of a presentation, Volume is the better option, as it can easily be undone.

Thanks

• To Tristan “The Widget King” Ward and Infosemantics for the WidgetFactory API, and for listing my widgets in The Widget Treasury.
• To Philip at Pipwerks for this list of Adobe Captivate 5 variables, and to Michael Lund for this one.
• To my many friends in the Adobe Captivate community, especially fellow widget developers, for their help, inspiration, and encouragement.

Feedback & Support

Please post comments, questions, and feature requests to the comment thread, or email me directly (wheat at wheatdesign dot com). You can also follow me on Twitter, where I’m @jamesnotjim.