Where's the Timeline?

[BarharborBoy]

I've been using Captivate 2 for about 3 weeks, and just discovered in the Users Manual that there is supposed to be a Timeline function. When I click on the small arrow that should open the TimeLine, nothing happens, except the arrow head changes direction.

Is the TimeLine blocked from functioning in the trial version I am evaluating?

[Captiv8r]

Hi BaharborBoy

Nope, the Timeline is not blocked. The only thing limited in the trial is the fact you only have 30 days to use it. Well, that and the fact that it also places an automatic 30 day expiration on any movie you create.

I just tossed something together that may help. See if it does. Click here

Cheers... Rick

[Timbre4]

About that 30 day limit on the output movie....

If I put that up on a test site for somebody to approve the purchase, will it become "permanent" by opening it or re-rendering it in Captivate 2.0?

IE How does that 30 day flag get removed? Thanks

[CatBandit]

The "Expired" gets changed when you open the Properties panel and change the Expired information - with a registered copy of Captivate 2.

[Timbre4]

Now that I'm actually working in the live product, I'm stumped that there's no running time display. All I see is the ruler marks and 260 seconds. There has to be a way to see running time for the project in Min/Sec, right? Thanks

[Captiv8r]

Hi Timbre4

If you click the Storyboard tab and look at the lower left corner area, you should see a guesstimate of running time.

I say this is a "guesstimate", as there are many factors that will likely affect the running time. For example, let's say that you have a 10 slide movie that is set for 3 seconds timing each slide. One would conclude the movie is 30 seconds long, no? (10 x 3 = 30).

Assuming the movie simply played, this would be accurate. But let's further assume that on slides 1-9 a button is inserted that is programmed to jump to the next slide. The button pauses at 1.5 seconds, so if your user clicked really quickly, they might make the movie progress at a rate of 2 seconds per slide. This would result in a movie that played for roughly 20 seconds.

Hopefully that made sense... Rick

[Timbre4]

Thanks, I believe it does make sense, given the interactive possibilities. But it would be nice for users creating straigght forward projects with none of the clever stuff to see a running time.

This seems like a trip to Vulcan at times; my previous platform was so rooted in linear time that it's hard to look at it differently... 🙂