One welcome new feature in Captivate 4 is the ability to create a link between the slides imported from the PowerPoint 2007 presentation and the original PowerPoint 2007 presentation. Using this workflow, any changes made to the original PowerPoint 2007 presentation can be shown in the Captivate project. In older versions of Captivate, there was no link between the two programs and changes made in the original PowerPoint presentation required a fresh import into Captivate.
To import and then edit PowerPoint presentations:
- From the Create Project area of the Welcome Screen, click From MS PowerPoint
The Open dialog box appears.
- Find and open a PowerPoint 2007 presentation
The PowerPoint presentation is loaded and the Convert PowerPoint Presentations dialog box appears, offering a few controls over how the presentation is imported.
- At the lower right of the dialog box, ensure Linked is selected
- Click OK
The PowerPoint presentation will be imported into a new Captivate project.
- Choose Window > Library (to open the library)
- From the Presentation folder on the Library, right-click PowerPoint Presentation and choose Edit with PowerPoint
The Presentation will open in a window that can best be described as a union between Captivate and PowerPoint.
If you've used PowerPoint 2007 before, you probably recognize the familiar Ribbon and tabs across the top of the window.
However, there are two buttons you wouldn't normally see if you opened the presentation directly in PowerPoint 2007: the Save PPT and Cancel Edit options at the left of the window.
At this point, it's a simple matter of making the necessary updates in the PowerPoint presentation and clicking Save PPT. The changes will instantly be reflected on the slides back in Captivate.
If the PowerPoint presentation has been supplied by somebody else in your organization, and the presentation has been imported into Captivate via a server you can, at any time, right-click the presentation in the library and choose Update to get the changes.