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Add a stack card widget to your Captivate project

Last updated on Apr 15, 2026

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2. Captivate Classic vs Adobe Captivate
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Overview

The stack card widget in Adobe Captivate lets you present content as a visually layered stack of cards. Learners move through the cards one at a time by clicking or tapping, which creates a focused, lightweight interaction that works especially well on mobile devices. Each card can include a heading, subheading, body text, and an image, making stack cards ideal for microlearning, step‑based instruction, and sequential storytelling. The widget includes multiple predefined design options, built‑in animations, and responsive behavior across desktop, tablet, and mobile views.

Why use stack cards

Stack cards deliver content progressively, one concept per card. This interaction model aligns with how learners typically consume content on phones and tablets and helps reduce cognitive overload.

Key benefits include:

Progressive disclosure that keeps learners focused on a single idea at a time.
Clean layouts that avoid overcrowded screens by showing only one active card.
Learner‑controlled pacing through click or tap interactions.
A mobile‑first interaction pattern that feels more natural than carousel or flipcard widgets.
Compared to carousel or flipcard widgets, stack cards emphasize sequential flow and card‑by‑card progression rather than parallel browsing, which makes them particularly effective for mobile‑first course designs.

Real‑world use cases

Stack cards are commonly used for:

Story‑based learning that unfolds sequentially.
Step‑by‑step process walkthroughs.
Flashcard‑style revision on mobile devices.
Scenario introductions in gamified learning.

Add a stack card widget to a project

To add a stack card widget to your project:

Select the slide where you want to insert the widget.
Select Add widgets from the left toolbar.
Select Stack cards from the list of widgets. The widget is added to the canvas with a default set of four cards. You can add a minimum of two cards and a maximum of 20 cards.

Select the number of cards in the stack
Select a card from the card selector to add text and images.

Choose any card from the card selector

Customize a stack card widget

After adding the widget, use the Visual properties panel to configure design options, alignment, appearance, and behavior.

Select the design option that best supports the learner interaction. Choose a horizontal layout design option, suitable for storytelling, or a vertical layout suitable for step-based instructional content.

Choose a stack card design option
Authors can use these components to configure card properties at the widget level and for individual cards. Enable these components at a widget level:
- Heading: Displays each card's main heading.
- Body: Contains the primary text content.
- Instruction: Provides guidance to learners, such as “Swipe left or right to continue.”
- Previous button: Moves the learner to the previous slide.
- Next button: Moves the learner to the next slide.
Enable the components required for the stack card widget
Enable or disable each component for individual cards as needed:
- Image: Adds an image for the card.
- Heading: Displays the title for each card
- Subheading: Adds supporting text or additional information.
- Body: Contains the primary text content.
- Card numbers: Displays the card number based on its position in the stack.
You can enable or disable these components independently for each card.
In the Appearance section, change the widget background, add borders and shadows, and adjust the background blur, brightness, and contrast.

Customize the appearance of the stack card

Set stack card playback and completion behavior

Set how the stack card would behave on loading and when all the cards in the widget are viewed.

In the Visual properties panel, scroll down and select Settings.

Set the stack card behavior settings from Settings in the Visual properties panel
Enable Auto‑play on load to automatically advance to the next card in the stack after a specified interval. Set the time delay between cards in seconds.

Enable autoplay and set the time duration
Enable Move to next slide when the widget completes to automatically go to the next slide when the learner completes all cards.

Customize individual cards in the stack

You can edit the text and image content for each card in a stack. By default, all cards include image and text placeholders that you can modify.

Select a card from the card selector to begin customizing it. In this example, Card 1 is selected. Follow these steps to customize a card:

Stack widget interface showing how to select each card to edit it — Select indiviual cards in the card selector

Select a card in the stack from the card selector.
Enable the components you require for that card, such as Image, Heading, Subheading, or Body.
In the Appearance section, customize the corner radius for the selected card, change background, add borders, and shadows.

Customize the appearance of a card in the stack
Select each text component on the card to add content such as headings or body text, and adjust its formatting in the Appearance section. You can also use the Generate text option to create content for the selected text box using generative AI. For more information, see how to generate text using AI in Captivate.
Select the icon on the image in the card to modify its appearance or replace it from Assets, your system, or select the generate image option to use AI-generated images. Learn more about how to generate images in Captivate using AI.

Replace the stack card image from Assets, upload from the system, or use generative AI
In the States section, select Show to display the Visited state for each card. You can customize the visited state appearance across all cards to visually distinguish cards that have already been viewed, as the cards progress in a cyclic sequence. This helps learners easily track their progress through the stack.

Customize the Visited state appearance