ActionScript 2 support in Captivate 5?

Question

After importing a CP4 project into CP5 for Mac, I noticed that the project was converted to an AS3 project and there doesn't seem to be the option to revert back to AS2 (in the Publish Preferences as it was in CP4). Is there a way to get around this quickly, as our widgets and animations created with AS2 are not working properly, but would like to take advantage of many of CP5's new features.

Answer 1

Duncan,
Here's the gyst, and I can elaborate if needed.
In  your Flash AS2 swf file, create a LocalConnection object. This is  essentially an object that can communicate with AS3 swf files. In my  Flash files, I have an activity with a continue button, which tells the  containing Captivate swf to go to the next slide. Here is the continue  button code from my AS2 swf:
// ------------------------- Continue button
var myLC:LocalConnection = new LocalConnection();
continueBtn.onRelease = function() {
    startActivity();
    myLC.send("myConnection", "capNextSlide");
Then, I have a Flash AS3 file (which I call a "proxy") on slide 1 of my Captivate project and it is set to display for the entire project. Here is the complete code that sits in frame 1 of the AS3 project:
var myLC:LocalConnection = new LocalConnection();
myLC.client = this;
myLC.connect("myConnection");
function capNextSlide():void
    //this tells containing Captviate swf to resume
    (parent.parent.parent as MovieClip).rdcmndNextSlide = 1;
The function you created in AS3 can be any of the readymade Captivate commands. I typically use Phillip Hutchison's list of Captivate variables published here: http://pipwerks.com/2008/05/19/unpublished-captivate-variables/
Let me know if that makes sense.
One little quirk with this method... you can only have one LocalConnection object running at one time per machine. Let's say you use this method on 2 different Captivate projects and you're viewing one project in IE8 and another in Firefox 3 at the same time, the AS3 proxy file will break in the second instance that's running, which means your AS2 swf will work except that it won't be able to communicate to the Captivate swf via the AS3 proxy file. As long as you run only one Captivate swf at a time, you should be golden.
Best,
Danny