Adobe Captivate 5: External PowerPoint Changes? Avoid the Guesswork

Anybody who has had to update the linked PowerPoint presentation at any point after the import process will appreciate the workflow… simply choose Edit > Edit with Microsoft PowerPoint > Edit Presentation.

The PowerPoint presentation will open in a window that can best be described as a union between Captivate and PowerPoint. If you've used PowerPoint before, you will recognize the familiar PowerPoint interface. However, there are two buttons you wouldn't normally see if you opened the presentation directly within PowerPoint: the Save and Cancel buttons at the upper left of the window.

After making your changes to the PowerPoint slides, all you need to do is click the Save button and the changes will be reflected within Captivate. Nice!

Captivate 5 has added a nifty improvement to this workflow… you will be alerted should the PowerPoint presentation be modified by someone else after you have imported it into your Captivate project. Here's how it works: import the PowerPoint presentation and select the Link option as mentioned above and then get on with your Captivate development.

At regular intervals, take a glance at your Library (Window menu). The Status column now sports a Synch button. If it's green, there have been no changes to the source presentation; red indicates changes.

All you need to do at this point is click the red button and the changes made to the PowerPoint presentation will make their way into the Captivate project. Bam!