Why so many swf versions and which to use?

[Guest]

First, thank you all for sharing your wisdom and experience. I have learned so much from perusing your qustions and answers.

I finished reviewing all of the various threads related to multiple full motion.swfs created by publishing a .cp file to swf. I am utterly stunned that the process is so difficult. Honestly, the help doc makes it sound like "just insert the swf and go!" No mention of this mess.

If I would have known I would not have recommended the purchase. But, here it is, so what do you do?

My desperate questions, aside from what am I doing wrong, are 1) aside from copying all the FM swfs to the data\resources folder (not an option) is there any way to consolidate all the swfs to a single swf?

Desperately yours,

Rob

[Guest]

Captivate 4 publishes all the FMR swfs as one SWF. Infact Captivate 4 stitches in any animation imported into your Captivate proejct in that single SWF file. This a the default publish option.

Manish

http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

It would seem you have Captivate 3 and what Manish from Adobe has suggested is that if you were to upgrade from version 3 to version 4 the issue would be resolved.

But I understand that perhaps you may not be able to upgrade. If this is the case, you do have an option that will result in a single output file.

Before advising what you would do to achieve that, I'm going to make an observation. When you talk about having many different SWF files, I'm guessing that you may have recorded using the Full Motion option. That option is seldom a good choice. So you may wish to consider using the screen by screen method of capturing instead. When you use that option, you end up with very few full motion clips to contend with.

In order to coax them into a single file, you need to publish first to a temporary location. Use Flash 7 in the output options.

Now insert a blank slide just before or just after each full motion slide. Insert the corresponding full motion SWF from your temporary location.

Delete the original full motion clips.

Publish again using Flash 7 as the output and you should now have a single SWF with all the full motion inside.

Fellow Adobe Certified Instructor John Daigle discovered that workaround.

Cheers... Rick

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[Guest]

Rick,

Thank you for your concise solution. I am hoping that it will do the

trick. I have requested that my manager purchase the upgrade to Cap 4 for

me, and was otherwise looking at pleading with the IT guys to drop all of

the other FMR swfs to the data\resource folder of the published

presentation on the Adobe Connect Pro server.

there are not a huge number of full motion slides in each project. perhaps

2 or 3 (I have deleted some while editing.)

I published to a temp location. Here is where I need some clarification:

let's say I have 4 swf files:

example.swf,

example_fullmotion5.swf,

example_fullmotion6.swf

and example_skin.swf

if I understand you correctly, you suggest I insert a blank slide in front

of and after each full motion slide. After doing so, in the edit screen I

would see the screenshot below.

Do slides correspond to full motion swf files? because when I am in the

edit or storyboard I don't see anything actually labeled the same as the

swf files in the published folder. So when you say to insert the

corresponding full motion swf I don't know if there is another screen I

should be looking at to do this.

After getting to the step seen below should I be returning to the

published folder and deleting the example_fullmotion#.swf files, then

re-publishing?

Thank you for your help!

Rob

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

No, I said In front of OR immediately after.

You only need one blank slide added for each of the full motion clips.

The goal is to ultimately replace the existing clips with the published ones. By having the blank slide (before or after) you are able to easily see how long to time it and whatnot.

Cheers... Rick

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[Guest]

Rick,

Thanks for your response (and your patience.)

I think I am still missing something. I went back and inserted one blank

slide before each of the two slides I see in the project edit/storyboard

screen.

I am not understanding why the publishing process would replace the

existing fullmotion#swf files when I re-publish.

I deleted the full-motion files from the destination folder after

inserting the blank slides. The result is that the same full-motion files

are re-created.

Thanks again,

Rob

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

See if this diagram helps

Click the image below to view at larger size

Cheers... Rick

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[Guest]

Nice graphics.  Thank you so much.

A picture is indeed worth a thousand words. I understand that I should be

deleting the FM slides (denoted by the movie camera icon)

I am unable to either drag the full motion swfs to the blank slides, nor

insert them as the only Flash supported is .flv files.

I feel very close and yet I am missing an essential piece.

Don't give up on me Rick! Almost there!

[Captiv8r · Accepted solution]

LOL, I think you are just overthinking it.

When you publish to the temporary folder it created SWF, right?

So on the blank slides, you just need to click them so they open in the Captivate Editor.

Then click Insert > Animation and point at them.

Cheers... Rick

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[Guest]

Thank you!

Thank You!

Thank You!

It worked. I am elated. I figured out how to bring over the audio from the

library on my own. (The highest compliment one can pay a teacher is to

display the confidence to take what you have been taught and leverage to

greater heights.)

I published and sure enough, only one swf (not counting the skin.swf,

which I do not need.)

There is a little audio 'blip" when I view the final product swf. It is at

the point where the video jumps from one slide/animation to the next. Any

way to eliminate that?

Thank you again. You are a genius!

Rob