How to use the Branching panel in Adobe Captivate Classic

The Branching panel (Window > Branching View) provides a visual representation of all links between the slides in a project and lets you quickly edit those links. Using this panel, you can analyze and interpret how the slides in a project are interlinked.

The Branching panel is particularly helpful when creating instructional materials containing question slides and specifying different paths for right and wrong answers. For example, you can set one action (such as “Go to the next slide”) when a user supplies a correct answer, and you can set a different action (such as “Jump To Slide”) when a user supplies an incorrect answer. Using the Branching view, you can easily make changes to the branching design.

You can also export the Branching view of an existing Adobe Captivate Classic project into a BMP, JPEG/JPG, PNG, or a GIF file.

Preview pane

This pane is at the bottom of the panel and displays all the slides in the project. If the pane is not visible, click the arrow at the bottom of the panel.

The rectangle in the pane indicates the slides that are currently displayed in the main pane. To bring a different set of slides into the main pane, click and move the rectangle to the required area.

Main pane

This pane is at the center of the panel and is the main area where you interpret and edit the branches in your project. The arrows between the slides indicate how they are related to each other.

Indicates that the slide from which the arrow originates does not have any interactive object. During runtime, after this slide's duration elapses, the next slide (to which the arrowhead points) appears.

Indicates that the slide from which the arrow originates contains an interactive object. When users click this object during runtime, the slide to which the arrowhead points appears.

Points to the slide that appears when users fail to click an interactive object on the slide from which the arrow originates.

When you click an arrow, a pop-up appears and shows the name of the object that links the slides.

Options in this pane:

Combines the selected slides into a single group. For more information on grouping slides, see Grouping slides using the Branching view.

Displays all the slides belonging to the selected group. The slides in a group are by default in a collapsed state.

Combines the expanded slides of a group back into a group.

Ungroups the grouped slides.

Export the Branching view as a BMP, JPEG/JPG, PNG, or a GIF file using the dialog box that appears.

Zooms the main view in or out based on the value selected in the list or the slider.

For more information on using this pane for editing the slide links, see Editing the links between slides.

Unlinked slides pane

This pane lists all the slides that are not linked to any slide in the project. If this pane is not visible, click the arrow on the left of the panel.

Editing the links between slides

To change the linkage of a slide, double-click the thumbnail of the slide, and in the pop-up that appears, choose an option in the Action (Success) list.

To change the linkage of an interactive object, double-click the thumbnail of the slide, and click the object. In the pop-up that appears, choose an option from the Action (Success) and Action (Failure) lists, and click the Save icon.

For example, consider Slide 1 has a button. When users click the button, Slide 4 must appear and when the button is not clicked (Failure), Slide 23 must appear. Using the pop-up box, you can specify the slides for success and failure events accordingly. If the target slide (Slide 23) contains an interactive object that brings the users back to Slide 1, a reverse-link to Slide 1 appears below the slide.

The Action (Success) and Action (Failure) lists show the following options:

• Go to the Next Slide

• Go to the Previous Slide

• Jump to Slide

To assign other actions such as send an email or open a URL or a file, use the Property Inspector of the slide. The Advanced Interaction panel (Project > Advanced Interaction) helps you view all the interactions in the project.

Grouping slides using the Branching view