converting captivate to single flv file?

[rudgr]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to Captivate, so forgive for my ignorance:

I've created my first tutorial and published it. When I look in the publish folder I get a number of swf files, a html file and activecontent js file.

This works fine, but the problem is that I want to publish my tutorial to a streaming video server. In order to do this I need to convert the captivate tutorial to a single .flv file (my tutorial has no interactivity).

How can I achieve this?

Thanks in advance!

[Captiv8r]

HI rudgr

To do this you will need another piece of software. Give SoThink a try. You may visit their page by clicking here.

Cheers... Rick

[rudgr]

Thanks Rick!

PS: Isn't it strange that this isn't supported directly from Captivate?

[Captiv8r]

Hi rudgr

My gut tells me that we might see this output option emerge with the next version.

It really isn't all that surprising to me if you know the history of Captivate. See, It wasn't created by Adobe. Heck, Adobe didn't even really create the Flash output. That was what Macromedia created.

I'm not sure if MM truly created Flash technology or if they acquired it elsewhere, but even Macromedia didn't create Captivate. Yeah, they made it much sexier and more useful when they gave it the Timeline. Before that, it was an ugly and nonsensical application. It did cool stuff, but it made no sense (at least to me at the time) as far as how you controlled timings and such.

Macromedia bought the eHelp corporation. eHelp owned the product. And LOL, even THEY didn't create it THEY simply acquired it and rebranded it under their own name. I was at a conference working the booth for Adobe when I heard from one of the great Adobe guys tell us that eHelp actually acquired the technology that we now know as Captivate so they could get Macromedia interested in buying them. So even eHelp didn't create Captivate (It was known as RoboDemo back in those days)

eHelp acquired the technology from another company called Nexus Concepts. The original product was known as FlashCam. So as you should be able to clearly see from its pedigree, it should come as no surprise to anyone that .FLV output isn't there yet.

Happy Tuesday... Rick

[rudgr]

Hi Rick,

Thanks again for your interesting piece of product history! We'll just have to wait untill the next version then ;-)

Rut

[CatBandit]

Actually, Rut, and Rick, you can create FLVs from SWFs with Flash, if you have it (minimum version Flash 8). It might seem a convoluted process, but it can be done.

The process involves creating the original Captivate movie as a single SWF (make appropriate changes to eliminate the need for playbars), then bring the project into Flash, where it must be output as a video MOV format. Then use Flash Video Encoder to convert that MOV to a FLV.

I really don't think it is as difficult as it might sound, but it does require a minimal working knowledge of Flash, and of course, possession of Flash 8 (Pro). The Video Encoder itself is the ultimate in simplicity, so don't worry about that part. Just fire it up and bring in the MOV, then point to the output folder and you're done. Sounds like I know what I'm doing in Flash, and that's not the case - just a little practice for my classes led me to the discovery of this workaround.

HTH!

[Captiv8r]

Hi all

While exporting to Flash is a perfectly valid solution, there is a reason I might shy away from the process of using Flash for this purpose.

There seem to be many recent reports of Captivate 3 exporting to Flash where background images aren't transferred at the expected size. Given that fact, one may choose to use a different tool.

While some feel it's totally wrong to remotely acknowledge Captivate may have a flaw here and there, I'm the type of person that knows it is what it is. And guess what folks? It's software, plain and simple! Software that has been created by humans. And we are all gonna make mistakes.

Cheers... Rick