The CpNotepad widget offers a way for your users to take personal notes while taking your courses. The notes are stored locally on the user computer so that they are available the next time the user takes the course. The notes can also be exported to a HTML file for archiving or printing.
 |
 |
Installation
Once you have downloaded the zip file, either use the CpNotepad.swf file directly when inserting a widget or copy the CpNotepad.wdgt folder to the Captivate installation folder under the gallery/widgets subfolder. Copying the folder to the specified location will display the widget in the Widget Panel. Note that you may have to restart Captivate to see the widget appear in the Widget Panel.
Limitation
The export to HTML functionality will only be working when the course is packaged using the Flash Player version 10. Also, the notes are saved using the Flash Shared Object mechanism so space is limited but can be increased by the user itself. By default, the space is 100K which is enough to persist multiple notes.
Configuration Options
Course Storage ID
This ID will be used to store the data on the user computer. It needs to be unique for every course. If the ID is the same for many courses, then they will share the same notes.
Icon Options
Select “notepad” if you want to see the notepad icon. If you want to have your own icon, just select “transparent” and position the widget on top of yur image.
Dialog Options
Title
This is the text that will be seen in the Note Window titlebar. This is also the text that will be used for the filename when the notes are exported to HTML.
Message
This is the text that is initially presented to the user the first time the Note Window appears.
Width and Height
The width and height of the Note Window when it appears. The width is limited to a minimum of 380 pixels and the height is limited to a minimum of 200 pixels.
Background, Border and Text Background Colors
The color scheme for the Note Window.
Subscribe to the feed
December 28th, 2010 at 19:44
To Whom It May Concern,
Thanks very much for this incredibly helpful widget. I have two questions about its usage/potential customization:
1) Would it be possible to save the document as a text file rather than html, and
2) Would it be possible to pre-populate the Notes section with text that persists throughout the user’s session? For example, this text would consist of a question and space for an answer, and the notes could therefore act as a log that the user could later save…
Thanks, and I look forward to your response,
Adam
December 28th, 2010 at 20:30
Hi Adam,
To answer your questions:
1) It is a possibility but the reason why the text is saved under HTML is to preserve the formatting. In a text file, all formatting would be lost … no bullet, indentation, etc.
2) I’m sorry, I do not seem to understand your request. I will PM you about this.
Thanks!
Yves
April 12th, 2011 at 19:33
Hi
Notes widget looks very useful, but a question: since this widget requires entry of a unique ID, can that ID be used elsewhere in the training module to address the learner? For example: I enter Vilu as my ID for the widget and close the training session after some time. When later I come back to place where I closed the session last time, could my already-recorded ID be used to greet me as “Hi Vilu”?
Why I am asking this question is because I plan to ask the learner’s first name as his/her ID at the beginning of a training session and theN use that name to greet him/her during the training sessions. Therefore I don’t want the learner to add an ID twice.
April 12th, 2011 at 22:40
Hi Vilu,
Unfortunately, there’s no way to configure the widget at runtime so you idea will not work. For it to work, I would have to change the widget to accept text from a Captivate Variable.
May 4th, 2011 at 09:01
Would it be possible to export the notes as a PDF instead?
Thanks!
Irene
May 8th, 2011 at 21:47
Hi Irene,
Unfortunately, PDF is not supported by the widget.
Whyves
May 10th, 2011 at 09:29
Are the notes saved with the Presentation file so when the Captivate 5 presentation file is sent to another person they can access the notes?
May 10th, 2011 at 19:46
Hi Richard,
Sorry, the notes are persisted locally on the user’s computer. So the comments will not be sent with the presentation file.
May 29th, 2011 at 20:42
Can this widget automatically save variables associated with learner text entry? Perhaps there is a simple way in CP5 that I’m not aware of or another widget I can download/purchase? A project I have, provides learners with multiple exercises where they write their thoughts. I’ve associated each of these text entries with its own variable and can “retrieve” them via captions, but would like to allow learners to be able to export similar to CPNotepad widget.
Thanks,
Tim
May 30th, 2011 at 05:37
Hi Tim,
To my knowledge, I don’t think that there are widgets that do exactly that. It’s not the first time someone mention this capability. Maybe one day I’ll get around to do it but I doubt it will be any time soon.
Yves
June 2nd, 2011 at 06:25
Hi Tim,
The widget looks great, however I have 1 question. In my department, many nurses use the same computer that is locked to a default log-in, multiple nurses access the same quiz, is there a way to make the widget forget the notes taken by the previous user?
Regards
Wayne
June 2nd, 2011 at 06:36
Hi Wayne,
The widget unfortunately doesn’t do this but I don’t think that it would be a big deal to do. So the current form of the widget would keep the note from the previous user.
Yves
June 2nd, 2011 at 07:41
Hi Tim,
Would you be able to make available a version of your CpNotePad widget that doesn’t ‘keep’ notes taken by previous users?
Regards
Wayne
June 2nd, 2011 at 21:34
Hi Wayne,
I PM you about this.
Yves
July 8th, 2011 at 10:17
The button that enables you to save the notepad widget’s contents to a text file does not seem to be working. I guess it’s the export feature? I believe it worked at one time, but that was on my previous computer. I recently changed computers to one that runs Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. Could that be the source of the problem?
July 8th, 2011 at 17:05
Hi Steve,
I have a Windows 7 Home 64 bits and it works fine. The widget export feature only works when the Captivate project was published for Flash Player 10. Anything less will not work. You can read about this in the “Limitation” section of this page.
September 3rd, 2011 at 15:19
Will the NotePad widget work with CP5.5?
September 3rd, 2011 at 22:20
Hi Les,
Yes, the widget will work under Cp5.5
September 26th, 2011 at 08:24
This NotePad widget is excellent and looks great too. I’m also running it under CP5.5 so can also confirm above that it works with CP5.5 too.
September 30th, 2011 at 10:58
is there a way to send the notes to a printer instead of just save to file?
September 30th, 2011 at 15:34
Hi Mark,
Currently the widget only exports to a HTML file. You could always open up the file in a browser and print it from there but there are no native way from doing it directly from the widget itself.
Whyves
February 16th, 2012 at 16:45
Widget is great!
It would be even better if the widget did not interfere with other interactive objects. E.g. moving through a simulation which has interactive objects which have been set to give a user x number of attempts. When widget is invoked or used, each click on the widget counts as an attempt in the simulation…hope this is clear!
February 16th, 2012 at 20:04
Hi TR,
I understand the issue but unfortunately, it is the way the other interactive objects behave that creates the problem. These interactive objects assume that each click on the slide is an attempt. They don’t check to see if the click was on their object. There’s nothing I can do about this. Sorry.
Whyves