Captivate/Flash Movie Starts Automatically

Report · Apr 20, 2006

I'm learning to use RoboHelp X5 and tried placing an .swf (Flash movie) that I created with Captivate within my WebHelp. In Captivate I added a playback control bar (forward, pause, play, etc.), which works great standalone. However, after generating the WebHelp, when I view the page that the movie is on, the movie starts automatically---actually it waits about 8 seconds, but then just starts. I would expect the person viewing the movie to have to use the playback control to manually start the movie. Is there an option somewhere that I need to turn on/off?
Thanks,
John

Report · Apr 20, 2006

Hi John and welcome to the community

There are two ways I'm aware of that can be used to accomplish this.

The first and possibly simplest way is to simply insert a click box at the very beginning of the movie. By default, click boxes are configured to pause the movie until the user interacts by clicking the click box area. Actually, if you are presenting your movie in .EXE format, I believe this is the only way you can accomplish it.

The second way is to configure the HTML code used in the HTML Companion page. Obviously this only works if you are presenting your movie in .SWF format and using the companion HTML page to display the movie.

Captivate creates the following code when you create Flash (SWF) output and select the Export HTML option.


<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
" http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>Movie Title</title>
</head>
<body>
<center>
<object classid="clsid

27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase=" http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0" width="640" height="480" ID="Captivate1">
<param name="movie" value="MovieName.swf">
<param name="quality" value="high">
<param name="menu" value="false">
<param name="loop" value="0">
<embed src="MovieName.swf" width="640" height="480" loop="0" quality="high" pluginspage=" http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" menu="false"></embed>
</object>
</center>
</body>
</html>

If you amend this code by inserting <param name="play" value="false" /> and play="false", you achieve the goal of displaying the movie in a "paused to begin with" state.

Amended code is below


<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
" http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>Movie Title</title>
</head>
<body>
<center>
<object classid="clsid

27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase=" http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0" width="640" height="480" ID="Captivate1">
<param name="movie" value="MovieName.swf">
<param name="play" value="false" />
<param name="quality" value="high">
<param name="menu" value="false">
<param name="loop" value="0">
<embed src="MovieName.swf" play="false" width="640" height="480" loop="0" quality="high" pluginspage=" http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" menu="false"></embed>
</object>
</center>
</body>
</html>

Hope this helps... Rick

Report · Apr 24, 2006

Rick,
Thanks for the answers. I've got a follow up question. When you say the HTML Companion page do you mean a separate window that opens up separate from the WinHelp file inwhich the .swf movie will play? If the answer is yes, how can I learn more about these 'companion pages?' What might they be called RoboHelp's Help? I tried searching on Companion page.
Thanks again,
John

Report · Apr 24, 2006

Hi John

RoboHelp will be blissfully unaware of these. This is a Captivate specific feature. And even the Captivate help probably won't know them as "companion pages". Essentially, when you create a Captivate movie, the Publish dialog for .SWF output includes the ability (a check box) labeled "Export HTML. This causes Captivate to create an HTML page used to display the movie. Without it, the .SWF would simply open inside the browser and scale to whatever size the browser was set to. This can have an adverse effect on the display of your movie, as it gets stretched and compressed. The image quality suffers.

Typically, when you insert .SWF output in RoboHelp HTML, it will pull the movie in and configure things pretty much like Captivate does.

Cheers... Rick

Report · Apr 24, 2006

Rick,
I think we're almost there. Sorry for being such a 'slow-learner.'

After publishing the Captivate movie with "Export HTML" checked, and then putting the resulting .swf into RoboHelp I have the following code:

<object x-maintain-ratio=TRUE
classid="CLSID

27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000"
codebase=" http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=4,0,12,0"
type="application/x-oleobject"
standby="Loading multimedia control..."
style="border: none;
width: 640px;
height: 480px;
float: none;"
width=640
height=480>
<param name="movie" value="GT1.swf">
<param name="play" value="false" />
<param name="quality" value="high" >
<embed x-maintain-ratio=TRUE
src="GT1.swf"
alt="Loading multimedia control..."
pluginspage=" http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
controller=false
ShowControls=0
style="border: none;
width: 640px;
height: 480px;
float: none;"
width=640
height=480>
</embed></object>

Noticed that I typed the <param name="play" value="false" /> in as your code shows, but don't know where to type play="false" My code seems a bit different than yours.

I really appreciate your help.
John

Report · Apr 24, 2006

Hi again John

No need for apologies. Sometimes it just takes a try or two, no?

The play="false" bit should be inserted as part of the embed tag. This tag is used (I think) for browsers that don't understand the object tag.

Where you listed:
<embed x-maintain-ratio=TRUE
src="GT1.swf"
alt="Loading multimedia control..."
pluginspage=" http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
controller=false
ShowControls=0
style="border: none;
width: 640px;
height: 480px;
float: none;"
width=640
height=480>
</embed></object>

Just amend it to add the play="false" bit. So I'd probably press Enter after controller="false" and insert it there.

Hopefully this helps. Sorry for the delay in responding. I am in the middle of conducting a RoboHelp HTML class this week.

Sincerely... Rick

Report · Apr 25, 2006

Rick,
As a trainer I understand what little time you have doing a course week, so thanks again.

OK, so I entered the <param name="play" value="false" /> line as you told me. Then I tried entering play="false" after Controller=false. BUT...once I go from True Code back to WYSIWYG, and then back to True code, the play=false disappears. I've typed it about 5 times and each time it disappears. I'm not a big scripting person...am I doing something wrong? I've included the code below with a note where I tried including play="false."

John

<object x-maintain-ratio=TRUE
classid="CLSID

27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000"
codebase=" http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=4,0,12,0"
type="application/x-oleobject"
standby="Loading multimedia control..."
style="border: none;
width: 640px;
height: 480px;
float: none;"
width=640
height=480>
<param name="movie" value="GT1.swf">
<param name="play" value="false" /> [[[[I added this and it remains]]]]
<param name="quality" value="high" >
<embed x-maintain-ratio=TRUE
src="GT1.swf"
alt="Loading multimedia control..."
pluginspage=" http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
controller=false
[[[[This is where I added play="false" but it disappears]]]
ShowControls=0
style="border: none;
width: 640px;
height: 480px;
float: none;"
width=640
height=480>
</embed></object>
Text Text2 Text

Report · Apr 25, 2006

Hi again John

I'm so sorry. I forgot to add something that is a "warty area" of TrueCode. Often, flipping back to the WYSIWYG editor will ever so helpfully "rewrite" your code! My personal way around this is to do the following after I make an edit in TrueCode.

1. Click the Save All button
2. *Without returning to the WYSIWYG editor* , mmediately double click a different topic to call it into the editor.

Hopefully this helps... Rick

Report · Apr 25, 2006

I added the play="false" where you said and then saved all. I then clicked another topic and generated the help.

As is normal, when the page opens up Internet Explorer gives me a message about restricting active content. Usually when I click to allow blocked content the HTML help opens. However, since I added your code when the page first opens I can see the outline of the .swf movie, but after clicking to allow blocked content the page appears with the text but no .swf movie visible.

This is getting too weird.

Another thing. After doing all this (going to another topic etc.) when I then go back to the page I entered your script, it's gone again.

Thanks again,
John

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Captivate/Flash Movie Starts Automatically