February 20, 2009

Changing default captions in TOC

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Image 1. Default TOC

 

Image 1 shows the default captions in TOC that Adobe Captivate creates. Captivate allows us to change the captions in TOC so that the TOC can look like the example shown in Image 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image 2. TOC with changed captions

 

Now let’s see how we can do it.

Well actually it is very simple. Just create a text file with the following text in it.

—–>

[TOCStrings]

SlideTitle=Module Name

Duration=Time

Status=State

MoreInfo=My Info

Clear=Wipe

ClearToolTip=Wipe State

BookMarkToolTip=book-marking

NoSearch=String not found

CurrTime=what

<—–

Name this file as TOCStrings.ini and save it in the folder in which Adobe Captivate is installed. Default path where Adobe Captivate is installed is “C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 4”. Well that’s it. Now just create a new project and you will have what you want.

Now I’ll discuss some limitations of this feature

  1. This setting can be done only for the new project. You can not change those strings once the project is created.
  2. Layout of TOC is very sensitive to the length of the strings (in pixel). Although, smaller strings than the default strings are accommodated without any issues, bigger strings may not appear correctly at run time. Hence make sure that the strings do appear correctly at run time before using it for the actual project. (Skin preview might be deceptive some times, as the preview shown there is stretched to fit the available display area.)
Posted by Sunil Muthiyan6:24 PM
  • http://macrofireball.blogspot.com/ Mark Fletcher

    Hi Sunil,Many thanks for creating this post. It is really great to see that we have the ability to perform some basic TOC customization. Can the same thing be done using the Aggregator?

  • Sunil Muthiyan

    Hello MarkJust create a captivate movie with required captions in toc and make it the master movie in Aggregator.The Aggregator TOC picks up captions from master movie.

  • Lieve Weymeis

    Thanks a lot for this post. So I will be able to translate the items in Dutch. Is it also possible to change the term ‘slide’?

  • Sunil Muthiyan

    >>LieveI think by term “Slide” you mean the TOC entry caption, which is same in both the demo images posted in blog.TOC entry caption is editable from skin dialog.also when you auto-generate the TOC for the first time or when you reset the toc, toc entry caption is picked from slide Label.hence answer is yes.

  • http://www.atrivision.com Chris @ Atrivision

    Hi Sunil,thanx, this helped us localize this part of the output :) .Is there a similar trick to change the Tooltips for the player buttons?I noticed I can disable them, but it would be even better if I can translate them…Cheers,Chris

  • Sunil Muthiyan

    Hello Chris,Yes, you can change the playbar tool-tips also.you will see another bolg for this here soon.

  • Russ Engoran

    Hi,Is there any way to hide that little expand icon that appears at the top of your slide when you choose to overlay the TOC?I would prefer to just use the TOC button in the skin.thanks

  • Sunil Muthiyan

    @RussWell as of now we don’t have any way to to hide the expander icon for overlay toc.

  • Amy

    Hi Sunil,Is there any way to delete any of the topics in the toc? I do not want the duration to display at all (trying to create an online guide). I removed that line from the TOCStings.ini file but it still displayed the header and the actual duration next to each slide.Thanks,Amy

  • Sunil Muthiyan

    @Amy,You can choose not to show the toc entry from the skin dialog. Next to each toc entry, there is visibility check box for that purpose.You can also turn off the visibility of duration column from toc-settings dialog, which can be invoked from skin dialog.About hiding Footer duration, we don’t have any way of doing it.

  • Daniel Chaveco

    Is there a way to change the “>>” expander icon to read “Table of Contents”.

  • Sunil Muthiyan

    @DanielNo, We don’t have any way of changing the expander icon for TOC.

  • Steve Wilhite

    I’m seeing very strange behavior from the TOC when loading successive Captivate movies within a Flash wrapper. In each successive movie, the TOC inherits the topic labels from the initial movie. The number of topics is correct in each movie, and the bookmarks still work correctly, but the labels are incorrect. For example, if Movie 1 has topics Slide 1, Slide 2, and Slide 3, and Movie 2 has topics Page 1 and Page 2, during playback Movie 2 will take on the topic labels from Movie 1 (Slide 1 and Slide 2). Already submitted a bug report, but posting here just in case it gets a quicker response. Publishing for AS2/FP8.

  • Steve Wilhite

    One revision to the bug I reported above: if a subsequent movie has more TOC entries than the initial movie, its TOC will contain the right number of entries, but the ones from the subsequent movie are appended to the ones from the initial movie (and the number of entries in the first movie are omitted from the end of the array in the subsequent movie).So, if Movie 1 has Slide 1 and Slide 2 as TOC entries, and Movie 2 has Page 1, Page 2, Page 3 and Page 4 as TOC entries, the TOC for Movie 2 will read as follows:Slide 1Slide 2Page 1Page 2Also, the first two bookmarks will be innaccurate, but the last two will link to Page 1 and Page 2, respectively.Is there a way to clear out the TOC entries array created by previous movies when they unload?

  • Sunil Muthiyan

    @Steve,Thanks for raising this issue.I am not able to reproduce the bug that you are talking about.It will be great if you can share a sample bug file/s with us, so that we can investigate the issue.please free feel to mail me on muthiyan@adobe.com

  • Sunil Muthiyan

    @Steve,This one seems to be an issue with the flash wrapper that you are using.I’ll Suggest you to try out Aggregator. please refer to http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/2009/02/creating_large_modular_project.html

  • cathy brown

    I am seeking a method to delete the Duration title and the time listings in my TOC – or at least time the training and change the duration times to a more realistic number. The auto-generated times do not match the time it takes to complete each module.

  • Gary

    Is there any way to force the TOC to overlay when using aggregator? the SWF’s were set as overlay but when i brought them into aggregator it force the TOC to the side?ThanksG

  • Sunil Muthiyan

    @Gary,TOC is always in seperate mode in Aggregator.

  • Sunil Muthiyan

    @Cathy,Ok, first one can not override the time shown in TOC.But you can choose to show or hide the duration column from TOC Settings dialog.

  • Gary

    ok thanks Sunil, the reason i was using aggregator is that i had problems saving files larger than 100mb in captivate, it wouldnt allow me to save?Any ideas why this would be? is there a file size limit?ThanksG

  • Lori Smith

    Hi Sunil,Thanks for the workaround. It works great, but I’ve run in to another problem. I had my entire project done and the client wanted a translated version, so I used your trick as follows:I made a new project (ProjectB) with the TOC headings changed and simply imported all of my slides from ProjectA to ProjectB. I ensured prior to import that all of my preferences were identical to ProjectA.Now all of my clickboxes have lost their navigation! They all now say “continue” instead of “jump to slide xyz”. The navigation is critical to my project.Any thoughts here?Thanks.

  • Ulas

    thank you very very much

  • Maryam

    Hello Sunil,i’m preparing my captivate project using Arabic language.The TOC entries arabic words in project display are switched left to right instead of right to left.what to doi need your advice pleaseThanks

  • http://na gyo

    Niceone thanks, just what im looking for. going to give it a try in cp5

  • Vladimir

    I have noticed that if you customize labels in preferences in the middle of a project you cannot apply the changes to already created slides. It is a real problem! The changes apply only to new created slides but not to already created ones. So, if you want to customize the labels later you must manually update every button. It is a real nightmare! Or I miss some techniques which I can use to force them apply to all created slides?

  • Julie

    Hi,
    I am having trouble with the aggregator and the TOCs. When I generated the Aggregator, it does not show the run-time of all of the modules – it shows as 0 time.

    And even though the individual modules TOCs have a border around the whole slide, the aggregator does not show it.

    Can someone please help me to figure this out?

    Thanks!

  • chieri

    Hi. I completed my project (over 60 not simple slides). Is there a way to change the default captions in the TOC without having to redo my project? Thanks

    • http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/ Allen Partridge

      Chieri, yes. if i’m following you correctly – just go to Window:Skin Editor and choose the TOC Settings. You can modify there and save the new version or choose from the samples in the drop down. LMK if this is what you were looking for.

  • chieri

    Hi Allen,

    No, you can’t change the default captions the way you describe, at least not in Captivate 4.

    On another note, does anyone know if it is possible to remove the “star” symbol for bookmarking. I don’t need bookmarks and don’t want that star symbol.

    Thanks

  • Sean

    How can I customize the look of the TOC using the aggregator?

  • Sean

    Does anyone know how to customize the table of contents for an Aggregator Project? I want to customize one similar to how you can customize one for a regular project.

    • http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/ Allen Partridge

      Sean, the TOC for the Aggregator is inherited from the first swf in the set. Customize the TOC in your first module and it should inherit the properties. If you want more control of TOC in Aggregator submit an Enhancement Request here; wish-captivate@macromedia.com

  • Shailesh

    This is good article. Please let mek now if there is anyway to update the Status(Tick Mark) using Flash code.

    Regards,
    Shailehs Nazare

  • Jay Fresno

    If there a way to change the color of the checkmarks in the TOC?

  • Kelly

    Does anyone know why the border does not display using the Aggregator, even though it was defined in the Master movie and displays in the .swf file?

  • Risingsun37000

    If possible, can I remove this bookmark star from the TOC, please let me know that

  • Mariana

    Hi! Thank you very much for this post! I usually produce contents in portuguese, so having that information in english wasn’t pretty :-)
    One more question… Is it possible to also edit the term “Find” in the bottom of the TOC?
    Thanks in advance, Mariana

    • yvan

      I have the same problem and I am looking forward to know how to resolve the problem

  • Sunil Cletus

    Hi, Good useful posts. Can we remove the current time/total duration display from the bottom of the TOC. Captivate adds this by default and I need to hide it or remove it from my course. Any suggestions?

    • Vish

      Hello Sunil, In TOC settings there is an option ‘Show Duration’, if you uncheck that, it will not show the duration.

      Thanks,
      Vish

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