Scaling Captivate videos in RoboHelp Multiscreen

[shawnvw]

RoboHelp HTML 11, Captivate 7

I'm including Captivate videos into my Robohelp HTML project. I need to be able to shrink the video "object" to fit in our window. 

Rick, you've answered this question several times over the years, such as here: Re: How do you scale captivate file in Robo 9 to fit the screen?  In my case, the output has to run in Internet Explorer without Shockwave Flash enabled.  (Also, the user won't have RoboHelp or Captivate installed, if that matters).  I'm told that our Captivate demos were published in "Scalable HTML" format. I was using Multiscreen as the output, but I'm open to one of the other HTML outputs.

I tried it two different ways:

1. I imported the Demos using File --> Import --> Adobe Captivate Demo --> HTML5 Output, then selected the appropriate index.htm file. The videos run, but resizing the text box or demo "object" only crops the video.  We even tried saving them in a smaller size in Captivate, but they seem to be the same size in RoboHelp.
2. I imported the project (*.cptx) using File --> Import --> Adobe Captivate Project. Doing this, I can resize the video (and watch it using that "viewer" that appears after I click "Generate"). However, when I run the index.htm file in Internet Explorer (as I assume the users will do), the video is blank unless I enable Flash. (This is despite the fact that I checked "Use Adobe Captivate HTML5 Output" in the Multiscreen layout!)

What's the best way to approach this?  (I hope you're not going to tell me that I have to put everything into Baggage, because as you've pointed out in the past, that would be a very big job.)

Thanks.

-- Shawn

[Captiv8r]

Hi Shawn

Unless you want to host the Captivate output separately from RoboHelp and just link to it where needed, you are going to find yourself a bit "stuck" with the baggage trick.

If the content needs to scale, you have a couple of ways to deal with it.

1. You can simply link from a TOC page to the html page for the Captivate output. Using this method should cause the Captivate output to scale to the topic frame.

2. You can insert an InlineFrame and point its content to the Captivate html page in Baggage. You would then need to configure the frame to be 100% wide. You would take this approach if you have other content that needs to come before and/or after the video.

I would heartily encourage you to report the pain points of being forced to add Baggage folders and files as a bug to Adobe using the link below.

Click here to view

Cheers... Rick

[shawnvw]

After some experimenting, there does seem to be another option.

In Captivate, I made a copy of the project, then Rescaled it smaller. (Rescaling can't be undone; that's why I made the copy). I published the output as HTML5 but only after unchecking "Scalable HTML content". (That must not do what I thought it does; when checked, the output was full size but noticeably lower in resolution. )

I then used Insert to bring it into RoboHelp. I still can't resize it, but it's closer to a size that's useful.

Thanks!

-- Shawn

[Willam_van_Weelden]

In RoboHelp, select the inserted video. Then switch to HTML mode. You can change the dimensions of the viewport there. You can set it to percentages to rescale. Please be aware that the browser will try to rescale, but it may not be pretty. The better solution is to use the Captivate 8 Responsive HTML5 output and use that.

Kind regards,

Willam

[Guest]

All of these comments have been really helpful and inserting a video went smoothly. I was able to resize with no problem. Thanks.

Just one issue I need to resolve. As soon as I go to the help file (htm) that I inserted the video into, the video begins playing. I was assuming it would only start playing when I/the user clicked it.

How can I get the video to not start playing until the user clicks it or tells it to play? And can the user click back on it to make it pause or stop?

Thanks very much. I really appreciate the feedback a lot.

[Captiv8r]

HI there

That's done on the Captivate side. There are a couple of different ways to achieve it.

You can try clicking Edit > Preferences > Project > Start and End and ensure Auto play is not selected for the start option.

Or

You could insert a Button, Click Box or Smart Shape configured as a Button on the first slide. That should keep the slide paused until the user clicks.

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

Thanks, Rick.

Well the person who makes the videos is not using Captivate. Her files are MP4, so I used a converter to make them swf. I need to try some other converters because I'd like the clarity to be a little better, but the main thing is the start stop itself. Since the trainer uses Camtasia, I'm wondering if the starting and stopping of the video itself regardless of medium is determined by settings in Camtasia.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Yes

[Guest]

Hello Jeff. Honestly, I know nothing about Camtasia, but the trainer says she already has the videos set to pause at start so that a user would have to select the play option to start the video. But in the compiled RH, it starts immediately upon clicking/opening that topic. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no say in anything here, so I can't get them to switch to Captivate. Sigh.

[Captiv8r]

Ahhh, silly me. I assumed Captivate based on the thread title. But failed to note that you were simply coming in on it. My bad.

You have a couple of options.

You could ask the person using Camtasia to insert a Callout at the beginning that has a pause with a click to play.

Or you could ask them to produce the video with a pause at start.

The problem with this approach is that it will require using the additional files Camtasia produces. Meaning you won't be able to just plop the video into an existing topic and have it work as you want. You will end up having to link to the Camtasia created HTML page and ensure it's played that way. Although, if you use an inline frame, you could accomplish the goal.

Another thought is to leave the MP4 as is, but tuck it inside a DHTML Drop-Down. It should then not begin playing until the user clicks the link to reveal the DHTML.

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

Rick the DHTML thing works perfectly as a means of starting the video. Great ... and when I click off the link, the video goes away. Excellent ... but the audio continues. It's like the Twilight Zone or something. Like Make it stop! Well, that is half the battle so far. Thanks I just have to now figure out how to make it stop.

[Captiv8r]

Sounds like you might need to insert the video into a topic, then create a popup to display the topic. My thought is that the video would then unload and stop playing once the popup was dismissed.

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

Rick, that was the perfect advice. It finally gets not only the video to go away but the sound also.

Thank you very much. No kidding, I really appreciate it.