Why does some video recording of websites not follow a link to a new page?

[Achtem]

I use Captivate 3 on XP to prepare tutorials on a web based set of applications.  In a  number of cases,  as I am narrating a series of steps and click on links to other pages in the application the audio keps recording fine but the video is still on a previous page.  Means I have to go back and redo the slides.

I have taken to do some mouse clicks anywhere on the new page I link to as this seesm to force the recording of the page, but this creates weird mouse clicks on the video and is not very efficient.

Can any one diagnose this for me and let me know what this may be, and what the solution may be?

Larry

[RoboWizard]

Hi there

Your description seems to imply you are narrating at the same time as you are recording. This isn't best practice. Your best results will be obtained by adding the audio as a separate activity after you have recorded the screen action.

Often in a web recording we notice what is perceived as a  mismatch. Often you end up with blank slides. This is because Captivate is running on your local PC (and running very quickly). But when you click a link to a web page, what really happens is that you send a command from your PC across the internet to a Web Server. The Web Server has to process that command, look up the desired page, send the page across the internet to your PC and it finally displays. While it may seem that it happens swiftly, compared to Captivate running on the PC it takes eons.

Cheers... Rick

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[Achtem]

I don't think this is the correct explanation. Let me more explicit.

I have web page #1 and am explaining the functions on that page and what

they mean. Captivate 3 records this. I click on a button on web page 1 (ie

a link) and go to web page 2, which displays in the captivate window just

fine, and where I continue with the tutorial narration.

The recorded session gives me only web page #1 and the narration for web

pages 1 and 2. Only when I click on web page 2 somewhere (like another

link to webpage 3) does the ecorded image change from web page 1 to webpage

2.

This seems like a bug to me.

I really disagree that one would have to record the pages and then add the

narration. This is not feasible in a tutorial of a dynamic application vs a

set of slides like in Powerpoint. very different application but one that

Captivate is supposed to do.

It seems more like a bug or glitch to me, franklu.

Thanks for your time and assistance. Any other ideas?

larry

[Guest]

Hi Achetm,

Let me understand your issue:

web page 1: you are speaking and the you click a button

web page 2 come up - YOU DID NOTHING HERE APART FROM SPEAKING

so when you clicked on web page 1, Captivate sees an event and takes a snapshot(mind that when captivate takes the screenshot webpage 2 has not comeup). So when the webpage 2 finally comes up Captivate does not sees any event happening hence it does not generate any screenshot.

SOLUTION:

Click on the webpage 1 => Captivate generates a screenshot due to the explicit click.

When the webpage 2 comes up => TAKE A MANUAL SCREENSHOT by pressing the shortcut key 'printscreen'. Basically you are forcing Captivate to take a screenshot here.

You could customisze this shotcut key at:

Preferences dialog: Recording -> Keys -> To capture a screen shot

Hope this resolves your issue....

Manish

http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate

[Achtem]

That is very helpful, if a bit disappointing. What you are saying is that

Captivate does not "see" that a new page has been displayed in the browser

and does not use this as a trigger to do a screenshot. Correct?

I guess I understand but would have the opinion that this is not very

intuitive and a clumsy way of recording a demo of a web based application,

which is a pretty vanilla sort of thing to do these days.

I can only hope that you can forward this to your development buddies and

that they could consider a solution to make recording demos using browsers

to those ends by using the refresh of a browser window as a trigger for a

new screenshot.

BTW, In the case of recording a Powerpoint sort of presentation, does one

have to manually force a new screenshot with Print Screen or does the act of

moving to the next page create a new screenshot directly? I was wondering

it this issue is confined to browser use or had other applicable situations?

Thanks, Larry

[Guest]

Hi Larry,

Yes, you are right. This issue might pose up in ppts as well IF THE NEXT SLIDE DOES NOT COME INSTANTLY.

I can understand your pain. We would definitely mind this and will try to improve upon this in our future releases.

Manish

blogs.adobe.com/captivate