Adobe Captivate Question: What Would Cause Captivate to Crash?
I've got a weird situation happening with Captivate 3. During a project, Captivate will sometimes lock up while recording. After I [Ctrl] [Alt] [Delete] to close Captivate, I reopen the project but it won't record any new animation I try to add to it. When you preview the project, the new changes don't show up. Have you ever had this happen and if so, what do you do to fix it. I hope you don't say, "You need to start your project over." Thanks for the guidance.
Answer
The main reason that Captivate hangs up is system resources. I would recommend a minimum of 2 GB of memory on your computer. During the recording process, you should close all non-essential applications–especially memory hogs like Outlook.
Sorry to say, but it is possible for project corruption, especially if you are accessing and working on your Captivate project on any drive other than your local drive.
***
Adobe Captivate Question: Can Videos Be Imported?
I was given 2 DVDs with video of a seminar. The file extensions on the DVDs are BUP, VOB, and IFO. The DVDs look like they were professionally made. They have closed captioning and have the PowerPoint slides inserted. My boss wants me to put them in Captivate so I can put them on our intranet. Can they be imported into Captivate?
Answer
Yes, videos can be imported. However, the video format must be either AVI or SWF.
These links might prove interesting (they deal with converting VOB and IFO to AVI): http://www.allformp3.com/dvd-faqs/410.htm and http://www.topvideopro.com/ifo-converter.htm.
***
Adobe Captivate Question: Why Won't My SnagIt Screen Shots Line Up?
Thanks to your book on Essentials of Adobe Captivate 3 which I purchased, and your weekly Skills and Drills, I am getting productive and creative with my Captivate training demos. Here is one problem that I just ran into that I cannot figure how to fix.
I am updating a WBT in which I have several slides with a tool bar that changed. Rather than record those slides again, I did this:
- Captured (used SnagIt) only the section of the tool bar that changed (they are all at one end), at the same resolution and size
- Saved it in the same format (JPEG) as the slide
- Inserted, very precisely, the image of the updated toolbar over the outdated portion
- Applied the Merge into Background feature.
The slides/frames looked perfect, even when I view at 300% There are no lines or anything to indicate this is a separate entity . However, when I preview them, I see the portion that I pasted shift causing a jerky type of movement. What could be causing this? How can I prevent it so it appears smooth?
Any help and insight would be much appreciated.
Answer:
The likely problem is being caused by the capture settings used in Captivate versus those used in SnagIt. Instead of using SnagIt, I would recommend you record the entire screen manually using Captivate (simply press [Print Screen] while recording) and then use Paint to grab the area that changed and paste it onto the slide that needs updating (then merge into Background). You can find information on editing your Captivate backgrounds here:
***
Adobe Captivate Question: Soft Skills?
I do appreciate the information I get from your weekly Skills and Drills and the other support you provide.
I need to develop a course to instruct employees on the different invoices that a customer might encounter, and different payment options, essentially soft skills. There is not an application interface with this information. The employees will need to be conversant with the information meeting the customers. I understand that Captivate can be used for teaching soft skills. Can you direct me to any examples or best practices that might be helpful?
Answer:
The process of creating soft skills in Captivate is the same, development-wise, as any Captivate project. The main difference is that you wouldn't be using Captivate to record screen captures. Instead, you would create a new project using Captivate's Scenario Simulation option or import a PowerPoint presentation (or a combination of the two). After creating/importing, you would load the project up with click boxes, text entry boxes, buttons, animation and audio as appropriate.
A good example of soft skills can be found in your Captivate application folder on your computer, typically at C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 3\Samples\Soft Skills Sample.cp
***
Adobe Captivate Question: Why Aren't All SWFs Embedded?
When we insert small animations into our Captivate 3 project, such as the Animated Red Circle.SWF file from the Captivate 3 Gallery, and then publish the project as a SWF, Flash 8, the published folder sometimes includes Animated Red Circle.SWF file as well as the project SWF file. We don't want multiple SWF files. We want the Animated Red Circle.SWF and other animations to be imbedded in the project SWF file. How can we accomplish this?
For example, in one project, the media area of the library shows 4 SWF files, type: Animation. The sizes vary: 2, 5, 19, 1 kb. When we publish, a SWF file is generated for the animation that is 2 kb. The other animated SWFs are embedded into the published SWF. This doesn't make sense to me. Why does it embed some and not others?
Note: We don't use Full Motion Recording, skins, or borders.
Answer:
It looks like a problem with Captivate 3 and Flash Player version 7 and above (it may be Adobe's attempt to lower the size of published SWFs). There is no setting that you're missing within Captivate that will control this. This article may shed some light on the issue.
***
Adobe Captivate 3 Question: Can I Prevent SWF Duplication?
I am aware that I can Password Protect my project and burn/distribute the finished project on to a CD-ROM. What I don't know is how to prevent my customers simply "Dragging" the SWF file from the CD to their Hard Drive, or other device where they can copy it and give it to other people with the password?
Looking forward to your reply – thanks for taking the time.
Answer:
There is no way in Captivate to prevent someone from copying published files and sharing passwords. Instead, you'll need to set up digital rights management for those files you don't want shared. Adobe does offer software that supports digital rights. Fair warning… digital rights management can get expensive!
Got a question you'd like answered? Email me.
Hi
I’m having some issues with Captivate 4. I’ve create anumber of projects. Now when I go back to change them, Captivate crashes when I try to copy or duplicate a slide. This has happened to 2 very important projects. Now I can;t even insert new slides. I’m using a VMware client to connect to a virtual machine. i’m saving my projects to a newtrok drive.
Could any of these factors be causing the crash? Should I try to get captivate reinstalled?
Hi
I’m having some issues with Captivate 4. I’ve create anumber of projects. Now when I go back to change them, Captivate crashes when I try to copy or duplicate a slide. This has happened to 2 very important projects. Now I can;t even insert new slides. I’m using a VMware client to connect to a virtual machine. i’m saving my projects to a newtrok drive.
Could any of these factors be causing the crash? Should I try to get captivate reinstalled?
Hi
I’m having some issues with Captivate 4. I’ve create anumber of projects. Now when I go back to change them, Captivate crashes when I try to copy or duplicate a slide. This has happened to 2 very important projects. Now I can;t even insert new slides. I’m using a VMware client to connect to a virtual machine. i’m saving my projects to a newtrok drive.
Could any of these factors be causing the crash? Should I try to get captivate reinstalled?