States in Adobe Captivate

Last updated on Dec 11, 2023

Adobe Captivate has various built-in states that you can customize as per requirements. You can choose the different types of states from the States flyout.

Overview

Using states, you can change the behavior of an object based on a learner’s action. For example, you can alter the appearance of a button when a learner hovers over it or add an effect when the learner clicks the button. You can even change expressions of characters using states.

With states, you can develop interactive content easily without having multiple objects on the slide.

Open the States Flyout

Add a text or an image component on a slide. Then select the image or text inside the component.

On the Visual Properties nanel, click Add. The States Flyout launches.

Note:

After you click Add, the button label changes to Hide. If you click the dropdown near Hide, the option Delete all appear. Clicking it deletes all states.

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The base state is known as the Default State. You can add objects inherited from the Default State, but not delete the default state.

Add States

To add a state to an object, follow the steps below:

Select the object that you want to modify. In the Visual Properties panel, in States, select View. The States Flyout launches.
On the States Flyout, select Add New to create a new state. The new state is a clone of the default state.

After you rename the state, you can replace the image and apply filters and other effects. For more information, see Add images to a project.
To change an image, select the image that you want to change on the States Flyout, and on the Visual Properties panel, select the Image folder in the Image source section. Then from a location on your computer or Assets, select any image. The newly added image represents the new state.
Name the new state. Double-click each state label and change the names.

Edit the appearance of a state

Let’s add a state and change the appearance of the state. Add an image as a state and then replace the image via the state editor.

You can change the appearance of any state. You can change the appearance of a state for both text and image objects. Depending on the type of object, you can apply various properties. For example, if the object is an image, you can apply an image filter, adjust its blur, brightness, or contrast, or apply border and shadow,

You can change the object's preset, font, size, or color if the object is text.

On the States Flyout, select Add New.
On the state editor, changing the image filter keeps the focus on the new state.
After you’ve finished editing the state, exit the States Flyout.

Delete a state

Here’s how you’d delete a state using one of the two methods:

Method 1

Open the States Flyout. Select the state that you want to delete.
Hit the Delete key.

Method 2

Open the States Flyout. Right-click the state that you want to delete.
Select Delete.

Duplicate a state

Here’s how you’d duplicate a state using one of the two methods discussed below:

Method 1

Open the States Flyout. Choose the object that you want to duplicate.
Hit the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D.

Method 2

Open the States Flyout. Choose the object that you want to duplicate.
Right-click the object and select Duplicate.

The new state clones the previous state.

Reset a state

After adding a state, if for some reason, you do not like the appearance of the state, and you want to start afresh, you can reset the state to the default state.

Choose the state that you want to reset.
Right-click and select Reset to default. This resets the changes in the state to the appearance of the Default State.

In-built states

For any Text, Image, or SVG object, Captivate provides you in-built states, which you can then modify and change their properties.

Add an image grid content block on a slide. Select Add media blocks > Image grid.
Select any image, and in the Visual Properties panel, select Show.
The States Flyout contains the in-built states:
- Hover
- Visited
- Selected
- Disabled
All the states are disabled by default. To enable one, right-click on a state and select Enable.

Linking and unlinking of states

Sometimes, you don't want changes made to the default state to propagate to the child states. In such cases, you can unlink the default state from the child states.

For example, you might want to add blur or brightness to the state of an image and wouldn't want the changes to flow to the child states. So, you’ll unlink the child states from the default state.

Add an Image Grid and select the any image.
In the Visual Properties panel, select Add to launch the States flyout.
Change the properties of the default state. Add color, blur, or brightness to it.
Add some states. The properties of the default state propagate to the new states because the child states are linked to their parent state, the default.
Select the chain icon in the States flyout to unlink the child states from their parent. Now, change the properties of the default state.
Add a state. The new state will not inherit the properties of the default state.