Large Captivate Project - Fix or Split (How)

Our department was tasked with developing a CBT to train our
users on Word 2007. This is our first project developed with
Captivate 3. We are almost complete with our project - it's almost
450 slides. The project has a series of slides that are used as a
menu. When the user clicks on the a topic (button), the project
jumps to a specific slide or topic. It's full screen 1024x768. The
.cp file size is 260MB.
When we publish our .cp file to a .exe standanlone, we
encounter two types of errors.
The first error involves several slides with the wrong audio.
We fix this by exporting then importing then exporting the audio on
the problems slides. This is frustrating, but it fixes the problem.
The second error involves on the "menu" slides. When certain
topics (buttons) are clicked, the screen is white for approximately
30-seconds. Finally the slide after the correct (desired) slide
displays. We've tried copying the slides to a new project and
republishing among other things without success.
We've considered breaking-up the project. For example, each
topic would be its own .exe or .swf. How is this accomplished
without Active X warnings, etc? If we had to split the project, we
would like to publish the menu project (15-slides) as full screen
.exe with each button in the menu project calling a full-screen
.exe or .swf THAT DOES NOT OPEN IN A BROWSER.
Any help/advice is appreciated. Thanks, Jeremy.

Hi Jeremy and welcome to our community
Uhhh, 450 slides is just a fuzz over what we normally
consider to be a very broad and general upper limit. Only by about
400 slides or so.
You would be well advised to split this up before your
project corrupts on you and you have to start totally over. Yes,
you heard that correctly. I said "Start totally over". Because once
your project gets corrupted, there is no recovery unless you have a
backup of the CP file handy.
If you are publishing to .EXE, you may be disappointed to
find that as one segment of the .EXE ends, it closes and there is a
pause as the next .EXE in the sequence opens.
Below is a link to a tutorial I designed on breaking up
larger projects.
Click here
to view
Cheers... Rick

Similar Messages

My Captivate project wont play. How can I fix this?

When I choose to preview my project (and even after Publish) I am only able to view an enlarged screenshot (a still shot) of my first slide. The project shows the pause symbol indicating that its playing, but the cursor never moves, no audio or visual appear.
How can I fix this? I've produced dozens of Captivate projects before and don't believe I've done anything different this go around. Anyone out there that may have some advice?
Sabrina

Hate to be a nag, but you are absotively certain that if you simply play the PPT, it sails right along with no pause?
Another thing to note is that when Captivate imports PPT it creates a Flash SWF for the background of each PPT slide. Perhaps it's hanging up on loading one of the SWFs?
You might also try enabling the ever mysterious "Force re-publish all the slides" option in Captivate and see if that makes any difference.
Cheers... Rick

Extremely large captivate project files

Hi there,
So we recently hit a problem with Captivate, we use both english and arabic for our courses and one of our projects is about 27 slides (including 7 question slides) and the final captivate file size for the arabic course (not published) is about 1GB, however the english course is a mere 120mb using the same material, only difference is in the text.
I just tried deleting all the slides and selecing all unused data and deleted them for the project hirearchy, but I ran into another problem which is that the project file dropped 20mb in total and its still close to 1GB.
I would also like to add that the published release for the arabic course was around 80mb.
Adobe Captivate Version : 7.0.1.237
Any ideas? let me know if more information is required..
Thank you!

Holy cow!! Adobe has a 3rd level of support? Cool. Only
partially kidding ... I really didn't know you could access various
levels. Is the 3rd level where you get to talk to the actual
engineers? Just wondered ...
Joel, in my experience it is often helpful to go to the most
basic approach in trying to isolate a problem. For instance, you
can eliminate the PPT being the cause of the problem by creating
another to try importing.
You can eliminate computer resources (on your own machine) by
importing a tiny, tiny PPT file and work up to a larger one.
And finally (for now), have you tried to use Power Point's "
File > Page Setup" to reduce the footprint (size) of the
PPT you are trying to import into Captivate?
This has been known to help, and at one time years ago I even
had a formula of sorts to get the size of the PPT to compliment the
size of the Captivate stage (slide). Sadly, I can't find that now,
but I would think you should keep the aspect ratio (AR) the same,
and that should help.
For instance, if the Captivate project is 800x600 (pixels),
the aspect ratio is 4:3 (as it is for the standard computer
monitor). Therefore you would want to set up your Power Point
project with that same AR so that the import process is not forced
to change AR, or to crop the imported images.
Hope there is something of value in there for you. When you
get up to that level of help where you are talking to the President
of Adobe, could you drop my name ... every little bit helps.
Have a very nice day JoelStern!!

When I copy and paste a powerpoint slide into Captivate the slide is blurry how do I fix that

When I copy and paste a powerpoint slide into Captivate the slide is blurry how do I fix that

Have you tried importing it with standard workflow instead of coyping and pasting.
Is the resolution of your powerpoint presentation and Captivate Project same, make sure it is same, else, it would rescale it to fit on the sldie, rescaling might detoriate the quality.
Thanks,
Anjaneai

Splitting large AVCHD projects

I have read on this forum that PE7 does not like (cannot handle) large projects which should therefore be split into manageable chunks which are then saved as AVI's ready for re-import to combine into the magnum opus.
I am editing AVCHD and cannot see an AVI spec of 1920 x 1080i PAL 25 frames in Share on a PC. All I see is 720X576 which is standard definition AVI (DV style).
How do I break a large AVCHD project up and retain the High definition?

Ron,
Editing large AVCHD projects would certainly consume a lot of processor memory and power. Certainly there is no spec corresponding to AVI @ the FULL HD resolution. Why don't you edit the project in chunks and export each one as MPEG2/H.264 and once everything is done, re-import and export again collectively in MPEG2/H.264.
in 2 step export, degradation would be less however it will solve your purpose.
thanks
Daniel.

How do I embed fonts into Captivate projects?

This question came up in May 2006 but was never really
answered. I'd like to know how to embed fonts into my Captivate
projects so that the output looks the same on all computers. While
the text animations are fine, the Text Caption fields are the ones
that seem to have fonts that go walkies on other computers. I know
you can embed fonts in PDFs. Why not in Captivate (unless I'm
missing something in 2.0).

First, a tip for the forums: If you use the URL tags, your
post won't require horizontal scrolling - sorry, but I use Firefox
and entering a long URL totally blows my ability to smoothly read
the post ... you can manually add a text link by using the "L" tag
as shown below (I've put spaces in to avoid this being turned into
another text link)
[ L = Your Text]
http://www.yourdomain.com [ /
L ]
Back to your issue, Charinos. I'm glad you did find the URL,
but that thread and your problem are not even in the same world.
That thread deals with fonts in text-entry boxes (boxes for
end-user text-entry), and you are talking about text-captions, an
entirely different object.
In fact, if you make changes and save those changes to a
text-caption, then publish the project, the fonts in your text
captions will remain stable and are not dependent on the fonts
installed on the end-viewer's machine. The reason is that when the
SWF is compiled, the text captions are converted to images and so
long as the file is viewed as intended in the HTML document - at
the proper size - the stretching you describe cannot take place.
I'm not saying you are seeing things, but if my understandings of
the Captivate machine are correct, what you are saying is happening
cannot
be happening. Something else is going on, like a failure to
save changes, use of non-conforming text-caption boxes with a
resultant loss of margins, or something.
Sorry I'm not more help. I can't duplicate what you are
seeing but I hope someone else can help you out - I may still be
misunderstanding your issue.

How to playback an embedded swf in a Captivate project

Hello,
I generated a swf file from one captivate project and am embedding it into another. When I play back the slide that has the imported animation the playback from the slide and the imported swf are different. If I pause the main slide playback the swf continues and vice versa. How do I get the playback of the imported swf file to be controlled by the main playback controls? I am using Cpativate 4.
Thank you in advance

Hi there
I'm hoping one of the Captivate team members picks up on this one and either confirms or denys my findings.
It is my understanding that one cannot control the other. Likely you may want to simply insert a Click Box or Button on the slide with the SWF and allow the user to move on when they are ready after having interacted with the SWF.
You may wish to experiment with the properties of the embedded SWF. There is an option called "Synchronize with project". But I'm doubtful it will work to accomplish what you want. I think what this option does is to ensure that if the timing of the slide is different than the SWF inside, it will play the SWF in its entirety.
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form
Adobe Certified Captivate Training
SorcerStone Blog
Captivate eBooks

How to upload a Captivate Project six to Black Board nine

Trying to upload a Captivate six(version .240) Project to Blackboard 9. The content modules do not need scoring.
I understand you publish the Captivate project to SWF and tick output to be a zip,then upload the zip package. Blackboard 9 has the import package option. But how do you tell BB to unzip the file to start the HTML?Thanks in advance.

Hello,
I have not worked with BlackBorad LMS , But generally when you upload your zipped content on LMS it generates a LINK which you can share it with your users
Once you open that link in your webbrowser it plays the output for you.
Hope this helps
Thanks and Regards
Himanshu Satija

How to pass arguments into a Captivate project

Hello,
   We use dotNetNuke (DNN) as our Content Management System. We are using tokens in DNN to personalize the screens. We have access to the uses first name and email. I would like to pass this information into a Captivate project. I have seen references in my research to using Javascript to invoke the Captivate project, but I have not found any samples of the source code, nor examples of how to use the passed values in the Captivate presentation. Can someone validate that this functionality exists for Captivate 8 and perhaps point me to a few examples?
Thanks,
Peter

Sorry. I think I was a bit too vague in my answer.
And I don't know about how you are getting your token value, but that part is up to you.
Just make sure to put it in place of where I wrote "whateveryourtokenvalueiscalled".
1.
create a variable in cp to hold your value. (e.g. holdName)
2.
Add this inside the <head></head> tags of your page (after you export it):
<script>
     function = getMyValues () {
          if(window.cpAPIInterface)
               //assign your token value to the cp variable you created in the project
               window.cpAPIInterface.setVariableValue("holdName",whateveryourtokenvalueiscalled);
</script>
3.
Back in your cp project, call to the function at some point.
For example, on page 2, add to the page's action
On Enter:
     Execute Javascript
Then in the script window, type this to start up the function:
getMyValues();
I hope that makes sense. I'm not really great at explaining scripting unfortunately.

How can I create a new skin (other than the default skins) for my Captivate Project?

Hi everyone,
I am working on a project where my client wants me to create a player skin which is completely different from the default themes that captivate has already. The design which client has shared with me contains in this way:
1. TOC - should be truncated and can be expanded by pressing "+" button against the Navigation Text. Its like opening and closing the menu bar using + and - buttons
2. Playback controls required by him are also not in the default skins.
I dont know, if there is any way to customize the skins to this level inside captivate.
Please help me out.
Thanks & Regards
Vikas Sharma

Unlikely, I'm afraid.
The LMS has no control over the playbar that pauses or plays the Captivate content.
In a Multi SCORM package, the LMS also may be showing a TOC in the SCORM player with links to launch the lesson modules. This TOC is in addition to the TOC inside the Captivate project file which gives access to sections of the module by jumping to slides that begin those sections. But the LMS doesn't usually give you any control over the look and feel or functionality of that TOC either.
If your client is adamant that they want complete control over these areas, then your best option may be NOT to build this course with Captivate but build it from the ground up with another tool. E.g. Flash, or Dreamweaver. Either way, that will add a lot more time and expense to the project. But if the client has the budget and is unwilling to budge on their requirement, then that's what I would be telling them to do.

Captivate project takes long time to load on LMS

So I developed a bunch of Captivate 7 modules for a course I'd been working on for some time. When I finally loaded these up on the LMS, I notice that when the modules are launched, a pop-up window opens with a grey background and just stays like that for up to 3-4 mins. I figured grey, because that's what I had set as the HTML page color in the skin editor. However the actual module contents take really long (3-4 mins) to load up. When I tried running all these modules locally from my computer, the grey screen fades into the splash animation within a second.
I figured that this was either due to a bandwidth issue or the LMS causing problems. So I then had these modules tested from our India and US offices (different internet connecttions, multiple LMSs). Same thing happened, takes up to 3-4 mins to transition from the grey screen to the splash animation (but loads up instantly when run locally). We then tried this on multiple LMSs like SABA, Moodle, and even tried this on SCORM Cloud and the same issue. The modules takes a long time to load up, so I kind of ruled out the LMS/bandwidth being an issue.
I'm speculating here, but what I think is happening is that the SCO is trying to download the entire module (about 10MB) to the users machine before it plays the splash animation -- if that's the case then is there a way to avoid that? I mean I don't want a 200 slide Captivate published project to be downloaded right from clicking the launch button -- it could stream through as the user advances through the module. Also, I've seen some pre-loader and Start/End options but not sure how those work.
Important to note here, the 3-4 min wait time from when the module is launched, is only for the first launch. If I were to close the browser popup (in which the SCO opened), and click launch again from the LMS, it's loads up almost instantly -- so I'm pretty sure something's happening in my Captivate project's loading settings which I can't put my finger on.
Can anyone help me figure out why this is happening and also what are some possible fixes to this. I can assure you that it's not an internet bandwidth issue because we've tested it on multiple internet connections and on several LMSs (even the client's LMS that this was tested on says that the initial load up takes too long).

All the symptoms you quote sure sounds like a bandwidth issue to me.
Obviously when you load a project directly from your hard drive then there's no issue with bandwidth. But if you're pulling down 10 megs from a web server and it takes a while to start then bandwidth is the obvious issue. I agree that 3-4 minutes sounds excessive for a 10 meg file but that depends entirely on how many users are sharing your bandwidth. Try getting your people in these different locations to visit one of those websites that allows you to test your actual bandwidth. It might not be as much as you think.
On another note...What do you have your preloader set to? The default is 100% but you can usually set it to something like 25% without too much trouble. That should cut the start time down appreciably but nothing is going to eliminate it completely because there'll always be some initial lag the first time your learners view the content.

Export Captivate Project to Training Force

Our LMS is Training Force. Apparently, as copied below, when
I publish a Captivate project in a SCORM compliant format, I'm
getting an error caused by a "page in the package." I'd appreciate
any thoughts or suggestions on how to move forward.
Thanks! Happy Holidays to you and your family.
Coleman
It is a page in the package causing the error. So we
recommend manually fixing the page and/or notifying the course
creation software provider of the issue.
The issue is this section of code on
EscrowPrdctVbls_custom.htm.
document.write('<script language=\"VBScript\"\>\n');
document.write('On Error Resume Next\n');
document.write('Sub Captivate_FSCommand(ByVal command, ByVal
args)\n');
document.write('Call Captivate_DoFSCommand(command,
args)\n');
document.write('End Sub\n');
document.write('</script\>\n');
The problem arises when the browser reads the page to
determine what needs to be processed. Since the script tags are
contained in other script tags, the rendering of the page throws an
error. To alleviate the issue, the script tags need to be broken up
more or potentially encoded.
An example for breaking it up would be:
document.write('<scri");
document.write("pt language=\"VBScript\"\>\n');
document.write('On Error Resume Next\n');
document.write('Sub Captivate_FSCommand(ByVal command, ByVal
args)\n');
document.write('Call Captivate_DoFSCommand(command,
args)\n');
document.write('End Sub\n');
document.write('</scri")
document.write("pt\>\n');

Follow-up....
Are there any "tricks" to exporting to a SCORM format?
Something like no spaces, or this field needs to remain blank? This
LMS accepts content published from Flash, but not Captivate, at
least how I'm publishing it.
Thanks.
Coleman

Using Creative Cloud to display Captivate Projects

Does anyone use Creative Cloud to display Captivate projects. I still have not figured out how to display projects on a personal site so I was considering using Creative Cloud.
Any thoughts?
-Tom

When you sign up with a web hosting service, typically they send out an email message welcoming you and it normally (or often) contains links that might point to tutorials that help you get started with the process. Of course, there is no way for me to know how long you have been renting space from your web host. But you might want to look at your email messages to see if you can find such a message.
So the question here for me to ask is if you have any idea of how you log onto your hosting space? If so, you have crossed a large hurdle. If you can log on, often you will find links pointing to tutorials and other help from the page you see once you log on.
Many hosts use something called CPanel. Basically it's just a front end page that has icons that allow you to manipulate things in your space.
You should also have access to upload content using something called File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Assuming you can gain access to that, you should consider downloading and installing a file uploading tool called FileZilla. ( FileZilla - The free FTP solution ) FileZilla would make it simple to connect and upload your content.
Hopefully this was helpful to you... Rick

QA checklist for a Captivate project?

Does anyone have a list of things to check for when reviewing
a Captivate project that someone else created, in other words, a
Quality Assurance checklist?

Written down? No. But that is an awesome idea. Here's some things I check for:
Are all the captions the same color, same font, same alignment (Captivate likes to throw curve balls sometimes. Not sure why.)
Do all the buttons, click boxes work how they are supposed to? (Test everything. Back and forth again and again)
Does each slide just look nice, symmetrical, plenty of white space, not to cluttered?
Does the audio sync up with the captions or graphics being used?
Can you think of any way to spice up the module by adding graphics, animations, or audio, voice or music?
Are the hightlight boxes and other pointers noticeable? (You'd be surprised what the designer sees compared to what the user sees.)
Does it flow? Does it feel like you are just going through it or are there random thoughts or tangents thown in that need deleted or reorganized?
Hope that gets you started.

Embedding connect asset (captivate project) in web page

How do I reference a Connect address (asset) such as from the Connect server that don't end in an html file using the embed command in html so that the content shows on my web page?
a.    I tried the flash object and movie in dreamweaver CS3 but I couldn’t get it to work.
b.    If I upload the swf files to the same server as the web page I can use the embed command to push the swf files on a web page. I bypass the html page that makes the plugin announce a security warning.
c.    If I do that the FLVs don’t play using Captivate 3 on an http server.
d.    My Captivate projects works when I play the URL from the Connect Server and the FLVs play but I can’t embed them in a web page. Can I see some sample code.

Hi Shekhar,
Thank you for your response, this was helpful, however the problem remains as to how the video is seen in the frame. Unless I specify a height for the iframe, (which I don't want to do as it need to be responsive) the height of the captivate project has huge borders, margins which I can't seem to get rid of when it is part of an iframe?
Please find screen capture of what is happening
Kind Regards
Adrian

Large Captivate Project - Fix or Split (How)

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