Recorded mouse movement slower than real time

[ReactionAtWork]

I am recording a 1280 x 1024 demonstration. Everything works fine apart from mouse movements. At one point I click on an OK button in a dialog at the center of the screen, then immediately move the mouse to the top left corner (a File menu). Although I did this fast during recording, playing back the slides using Preview (or viewing the exported SWF video) shows the mouse crawling up to my File menu!  I have the "Actions in real time" option selected, but it doesn't seem to help.  My viewers are going to get very bored watching some imbecile moving his mouse this slowly 😉

Why is the mouse movement being slowed down so much, and how can I get Captivate 4 to record my mouse movements accurately (i.e. in real time)?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

One possibility is to enable the option "Record actions in real time". You find this option by clicking Edit > Preferences > Recording > Settings.

Cheers... Rick

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[webbo1968]

open the mouse properties by double clicking the mouse from the timeline and un-tick the 'Reduce speed before click' option.

You can also speed the mouse up by shortening its appearance on the time line.

Webbo

[Captiv8r]

Hi Webbo

Why are you replying to this a month later?

I generally disagree with advising to clear the reduce speed option. If this option isn't enabled, the mouse movements won't look natural. The option to reduce speed adds the "Human Touch" by slowing down the pointer as it approaches the click area. It would be highly unusual to zip straight to a destination and click.

Cheers... Rick

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[webbo1968]

Rick,

Why does it matter that's it's a month later? It's still 'open' so assume still looking for a solution?

Isn't that what these forums are for? It's ok to reply isn't it, or is that just your job and everyone else should be observers only?

With regards to speeding up the mouse and removing the slow before click option that's a matter of personal opinion. Depend on what overall finished product your looking for.

I use Camtasia Studio 6 a lot and much prefer that for recording screen than captivate as it does away with slowing the mouse etc much more 'realistic real time'.

Webbo

[Captiv8r]

Hi again

Well, it just seems odd to me and here's why.

If a post is made asking for help, a reply is then offered and no response from the original poster is made in return, it's somewhat assumed that it's been resolved. Happens a lot in forums. Otherwise the Original Poster normally comes back rather quickly to say "Nope, sorry, it didn't work". So it just seemed odd that you would pop into a post that is older that way and offer a different viewpoint. That's all. If you are a regular participant, it begs the question as to why you didn't reply sooner if you felt the answer offered wasn't valid.

Certainly you are free to reply to any post you like. Absolutely this is what the forums are for. I wasn't trying to dissuade you from replying and participating.

Normally when we see really old posts being replied to it's a red flag to those of us that assist as moderators to pay close attention. We see constant use of that technique by spammers. They hope we aren't noticing the activity for an older post.

I agree with you that many things are personal taste. (I still disagree with the slow before click though. But then again, I also disagree with the straight movments too. LOL)

Cheers... Rick

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[ReactionAtWork]

[webbo1968: Many thanks for replying. I think it's great to reply to an 'old' question if you feel you can help someone. The reason I had not responded to Captiv8r's orginal reply was because it just reiterated what I said I'd already tried in my initial question! ]

It seems Captivate takes your initial mouse movement then adds a sluggish "reduce speed" which slows down the overall movement. It would be better if it used your initial overall timing, and fitted the speed curve within that, so the movement had nice smooth start and end points but didn't take any longer overall than your inital movement. I'll definitely be turning OFF the "Reduce speed before click" option, as movement looks much more natural without it.

Note: A shame it's not possible to set turn off "Reduce speed before click" in the general Edit > Preferences dialog...

[clydeh84749755]

This reply is years later and I'm in Captivate 9. I found that my mouse movement was slow when it was over the "desktop" in Captivate. I had configured my mouse to have a large arrow so it's easily visible. When I changed the cursor to the standard size, the slow movement problem was solved.