Screen Resolution

[laliquo]

I have been using Captivate for 6 months and I love it. I was able to create movies very quickly and love the sound editing tools. The one thing I cannot figure out is the screen resolution. I am recording a powerpoint demonstration and even putting the recording settings on the greatest resolution (I selected Custom Size - preset 1024 x 768), I still have to scroll down to view the whole screen in the resulting movie. I have also tried recording using the Application setting and my monitor screen resolution is set standard at 1024 x 768. This seems to be the biggest size I am allowed to make my screen. It just seems odd if present a powerpoint presentation directly, it fits on one screen. Once I record it in Captivate, I have to scroll down.

I am part of a training department here and believe it or not, this has been one major point of contention why another team member won't use Captivate. I would love to hear any suggestions you may have. Thank you.

[Captiv8r]

Hi laliquo and welcome to our community

Seems simple, doesn't it? What you have to keep in mind is that PowerPoint normally assumes it is the ONLY thing on the screen. Not only that, but it will adjust for pretty much any screen resolution being used. So lets say you are recording at full screen at 1024x768. When you play the movie back, it has to play back inside another container. The container is normally either the Web browser or the Flash Player. And that simple fact alone means that you don't really have the full screen available. This is because elements of the container are consuming part of your screen real estate. For example, if it's the browser, you have the title bar, toolbars, frame outline and status bar.

Hopefully this all made sense... Rick

[laliquo]

Rick-

Thanks for your quick response. I understand the concept of what you are saying, yet am still looking for a way to make the Captivate movie small enough to not have to scroll down when viewing the Flash file. Is there not any way to do this? I have tried everything I can think of and cannot make it work. Thanks again.

[Captiv8r]

Hi again

Okay, as I see it you have two possibilities.

1. Reduce the screen resolution to perhaps 800x600. Then create a Captivate movie at that size and import the PowerPoint.

2. Leave the resolution as is at 1024x768, then configure PowerPoint to display in a window (click Slide Show > Set Up Show... and select the Browse by an individual (window) option) then view the slide show and use Captivate to record the slide show as you would an application. Actually, this approach will probably result in the clearest transfer of images.

The key here is to end up with a Captivate movie that is smaller than the screen size. It's simply the only way to avoid having to scroll!

Hope this helps... Rick

[laliquo]

Rick-

I still seem to be getting the same result no matter how I change the resolution and Powerpoint settings, but I appreciate your going back to come up with a new soultion to try out. Thanks again for your help.

Lisa

[laliquo]

Good News! I just went back and did one more comparison and found that your option 1 - worked the best. It did shrink the resulting movie so you have to scroll less on the screen. Thanks!