Adobe Captivate 3: One Isn’t a Lonely Number

by Kevin A. Siegel

 
When publishing your Captivate 3 projects you will typically end up with at least 6 files in your target folder (assuming you are like most Captivate developers and you are using a skin):
  1. project_name.html
  2. project_name.swf
  3. project_name_skin.swf
  4. project_name_BDMetadata.xml
  5. breeze-manifest.xml
  6. standard.js
Many Captivate developers strive to produce Captivate projects that, when published, yield small SWF files that will download from the Web as fast as possible. In addition, publishing as few support files as necessary is always preferred.
 
During the next few activities, I'll show you two project setup techniques that will either lower the number of published files to as few as 1, lower the file size of your project SWF (in kilobytes), or both. Read on…
 
Here is a quick way to lower the number of files published from 6 down to 4 (and lower the SWF size along the way):
  1. Choose Edit > Preferences
  2. Select the Project tab
  3. Deselect Publish Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro metadata

    Metadata deselected
     

  4. Click OK
  5. Republish the project

    The number of published files in your target folder should have been reduced down to a total of 4–the two XML files will be missing. 

    By electing not to include the Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro metadata (you only need to select this option if you are using Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro), you not only reduce the number of files you will have to post to your Web server or burn to a CD, you will also be happy to learn that the size of your project_name.swf file is actually smaller–often times significantly.

 

Here is a quick way to lower the number of published files to just 1 SWF:

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences
  2. Select the Project tab
  3. Deselect Publish Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro metadata
  4. Click OK
  5. Choose Project > Skin
  6. Select any skin from the Skin drop-down menu
  7. On the Playback control tab, deselect Show Playback control

    Deselect "Show Playback Controls" for a skin

  8. Select the Borders tab and deselect Show Borders

    Skin borders deselected

  9. Click OK

  10. Choose File > Publish (ensure SWF is selected as the publish type from the list at the left of the dialog box)

  11. From the Output Options area, deselect Export HTML and then publish the project

    HTML output deselected

If you open the target folder, you will find that there is just one lonely SWF file. Bam!

Fewer files, smaller SWFs, faster download times? Both of the project options above are a win-win situation… for you and your users.  


Do you have a Captivate production problem that's making you pull your hair out? Email your problem and let others learn solutions from your experience.
 

 
Want to learn more about Captivate? Click here.

9 Replies to “Adobe Captivate 3: One Isn’t a Lonely Number”

  1. Actually, you can skip number 7 and still get down to one file, if you want to keep playback controls.

  2. Actually, you can skip number 7 and still get down to one file, if you want to keep playback controls.

  3. Actually, you can skip number 7 and still get down to one file, if you want to keep playback controls.

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