PowerPoint into Captivate - color issues

[Guest]

Currently, I'm working with Captivate 3 and PowerPoint 2007. I figured out that we can't import pptx files but have to convert back to ppt or pps - no problem there. However, I'm still having serious issues with color conversion. When I import a ppt (or pps, I've tried both) file into Captivate, a certain theme color in my show turns into this seafoam green/light blue color. Now, the color I was initially using was a standard dark blue, but I've since changed it to various other standard colors to try and work around the issue, with no luck. They all turn seafoam. I've also tried adjusting the color settings within captivate (under preferences) to no avail. Is anyone else having this issue or aware of a fix?

[CatBandit]

Hi Michele,
What color quality is your PC set at?
Control Panel > Display > Settings (tab) > Color Quality

That probably isn't the problem, but it is the logical place to begin trouble-shooting. Let us know.

best wishes~
Larry
P.S. Welcome, as a "poster", to the Captivate User Community!!

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by: Michele in the Library
Currently, I'm working with Captivate 3 and PowerPoint 2007. I figured out that we can't import pptx files but have to convert back to ppt or pps - no problem there. However, I'm still having serious issues with color conversion. When I import a ppt (or pps, I've tried both) file into Captivate, a certain theme color in my show turns into this seafoam green/light blue color. Now, the color I was initially using was a standard dark blue, but I've since changed it to various other standard colors to try and work around the issue, with no luck. They all turn seafoam. I've also tried adjusting the color settings within captivate (under preferences) to no avail. Is anyone else having this issue or aware of a fix?

---

I am having the EXACT same problem. The font color is really messing up a lot on the slides. I can only get a perfect import if all fonts are black. That is not acceptable for my courses.

I looked up my color quality as suggested - it is at "highest (32 bit)".

Please help!!!

[Suz]

Just to chime in, I am having the identical problem between Captivate 3 and PPT 2007. I came out here to the forums to see if this was a known issue. Sounds like it's still in the 'discovery' stage. :)

Thanks for any input anyone can provide!

[Captiv8r]

Hi all

Question for those of you experiencing the color issues. Have any of you tried simply playing the PowerPoint in a window and recording with Captivate as it plays? If so, are you still seeing the color issues?

Perhaps that is a workaround?

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestion, but for my needs I do not think that will work. My presentation is an hour long, and my hour-long files are generally too big as it is to add a humongous recording. These classes already take 10 to 15 minutes to buffer, way too long for what we need.

I just wish it would work. It is so dumb that a standard color - or any color - would cause such a problem. Not only do the colors come in all wrong, but random slides show up as completely black. The work around for that is just to make those slides in Captivate, which I am willing to do, but the font discoloration is a problem I cannot work around.

I even tried exporting each slide as a jpg file and one-by-one adding them as the background for the slides - all 93 of them. The swf view quality is horrible, very grainy and completely unacceptable. At first I thought this problem was because there were 93 slides, but Captivate does the same thing if there are only 10 slides. Plus, when I changed the fonts all to simple black, it did take all 93 slides perfectly. So it is the font color that is causing the issue. I don't want to use black fonts. They are boring and interfere with our brand image.

If Captivate is supposed to do so well at importing PowerPoint slides - it should actually do it right. I shouldn't have to figure this out, that's what software engineers are for. I am a marketer. I understand Microsoft code-writing "standards" are kooky and I have empathy for Captivate 3 programmers. Even still, one of Captivate 3's main selling-features should work properly.

[Guest]

I too am having this same problem. It takes a specific color from a PPT 2007 file and converts it to a dark blue after importing these slides into Captivate 3. I can import the PPT slide as a graphic and there is no color shift, but who wants to capture and import 44 slides from a PPT? That is why I bought Captivate 3--to do this work for me.

I've saved the original PPT 2007 file as a PPT 2003 file, but get the same color shift results upon import.The only other thing I can think of is there is a master slide conflict with the way color information is handled between PPT 2007 and Captivate 3, or a hidden field on the slide is causing problems. Please provide the answers we need here Adobe!

[Captiv8r]

Hi all

Seems that at least some (who knows, maybe all) of you are reporting the color shift is occurring when bringing in animations?

I'm wondering if the following will help:

Click Edit > Preferences... > Recording node > Full Motion Recording node. Change the SWF conversion from 16 bit to 32 bit and import again.

My thought here is that even though this is listing "Recording", possibly the same setting is being used for creating full motion .SWF when importing the animation from PowerPoint.

Please let us know if this helps anything.

Sincerely... Rick

[Guest]

Thanks Rick--but nothing but a standard import from PPT 2007 (after saving as a PPT 2003 file) going on here. Import slides from PPT as background images. I'll try changing the color scheme for the PPT template and see what happens.

[Captiv8r]

Hi webtrainerRK

I'm a tad confused here. Your first post seemed to indicate that you only saw the color shift when importing as static slides. So I concluded that you must be using the import as animation feature. Are you saying that isn't the case?

I'm guessing I must have misunderstood you.

Cheers... Rick

Oh, and welcome to our community!

[Guest]

Thanks, Rick. No--not using animation feature. But found the issue within Powerpoint 2003. It seems to have to do with having too many slide design templates and color schemes being used in the presentation. As mentioned, the slides were created in 2007 and saved in a PPT 2003 file. So, it logically follows that you need to have both PPT 2007 and PPT 2003 installed on your machine for the below to work.

In PPT 2003, I went into slide design templates and color scheme and noted that there were many slide templates being used in this presentation. I "deleted" the unused slide templates under "Used in this Presentation". Actually, "delete" was not an option--had to select the template I really wanted in the presentation and then select the slide in storyboard view.

After deleting extraneous slide designs--or templates--make sure that there is only one color scheme associated with each slide design. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO DO is to not have more than one color scheme associated with each template or slide design within the presentation. Delete any additional color schemes.

Then I changed EACH color scheme associated with each of the two slide designs being used in the presentation, making sure that only web-safe colors were used.

Once I re-started Captivate, the import worked perfectly in terms of no color shift.

[Guest]

Hi All:

I agree. I have the same problem with Captivate 3 but I'm using Powerpoint 2003. I'm new to the line but I'm also a certified techincal professional. I cannot figure out why the import feature allows the "color bleeding" to take place. I am working for a client to convert their historical content over. Recreating all this software is not an option and seems to be counter productive. I've already lost hours trying to figure this out.

Adobe, you guys have a great product, but this is a HUGE miss and disappointment.

[mhelotie]

Argh!

Same here.... Office 2007 into Cap2 OR Cap 3.
No matter what I have as my background color, or what color fonts I want, they all come into Captivate as puke green and BLACK fonts. This will NOT work!

I even tried a SUPER simple PPT... black fill, with WHITE Arial font. Nope. Same puke green.

Amazing. PLEASE FIX THIS!

[Captiv8r]

Welcome to our community, mhelotie

While it may make you feel better to voice your complaint here, it will have far greater impact as well as actually reach the eyes that need to see it if you report it to Adobe using the Bug Reporting form.

Click here to view the WishForm/Bug Reporting Form

Cheers... Rick

[mhelotie]

Thanks Rick... I did report it as you suggested.

Of course, Adobe's tepid response made me feel even worse that this would ever get fixed:

"Thanks for your feedback! Requests and suggestions from our customers
are what help us to continue creating cutting-edge, world-class software.

Due to the volume of submissions we receive, responses to inquiries are
generally not possible. However, we may contact you if we need clarification
on your submission."

Hoo boy. :/

[mhelotie]

But wait! I *DID* get a response:

>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Sorry to note that you are having issues with Captivate.
>>> This is a known issue and you can expect it to be resolved
>>> in the coming release of Captivate.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Jayashree
>>> Captivate Team


LOL...
We'll just continue to let the product sell... even tho it doesn't function as advertised.
(So when did Microsoft buy Adobe ??) ;)

[mhelotie]

Another response to my bug report:

>> Hi, 2007 PPT is not supported in captivate 2 and 3.
>> Please switch to 2003 and check if u face similar issues
>>
>> -Suresh

Wowza... so you need me to downgrade my entire office suite?
Yeah... I think I might take my business elsewhere... i.e. a "competent" company.

[Captiv8r]

Hi again mhelotie

Most Microsoft applications allow you to save in an earlier format. Have you tried this? Maybe that will allow you to get the PowerPoint in?

Might be worth trying.

As a side note, I'd be willing to be we see several improvements with Captivate next. Especially since version 3 was the first one under the Adobe banner.

Cheers... Rick

[mhelotie]

quote:

---

Originally posted by: Captiv8r
Hi again mhelotie

Most Microsoft applications allow you to save in an earlier format. Have you tried this? Maybe that will allow you to get the PowerPoint in?

Might be worth trying.

As a side note, I'd be willing to be we see several improvements with Captivate next. Especially since version 3 was the first one under the Adobe banner.

Cheers... Rick

---

Hey Rick... thanks for your efforts.

Compatability is a strange issue within the entire Office suite. All of the 2007 apps, if you save it in the native 2007 format, it adds an X to the end.... Word saves as .DOCX , Excel saves as .XLSX , and Powerpoint saves as .PPTX

So by it's very nature, Captivate can ONLY import an "older" version... it doesn't even recognize the PPTX format. It only sees PPT. And, yes, in PowerPoint 2007, you CAN save as a PPT... it's called "97-2003 Compatible Version". And it's *supposed* to be the same as a 2003 version. But I guess not. At least as far as Captivate is concerned.

The sad part is a huge company like Adobe telling me that if I want to import a Powerpoint, I need to DOWNGRADE to a version that is over 5 years old now. Pathetic.


Thanks again....
Mark :)

[mhelotie]

I *think* I found a solution.
At least it works for me.... and I'm not questioning it.

Instead of trying to import a PPT, I save my PowerPoint as a PPS.
This is a PowerPoint SHOW format...

So far, I haven't had ANY re-colorings, etc.

Wahoo!

Mark

[gunnermcparson]

Saving as pps didn't work for me. But I was able to fix the text color problem by opening a new "blank" ppt and pasting all of my slides from my original presentation into it and then selecting "keep original source formatting"
I have no idea why this worked, but it did. Hope this helps

[Suz]

FWIW - here's my workaround:

If you're using PPT 2007, make sure you're in 'compatibility mode'
Right-click the object that is having color problems (shape, text, etc)
Click the appropriate menu to recolor the object ("font" or "format shape")
Do NOT use a "theme color" - click "more colors" and select your color from there.

When I do this, my colors import correctly.

The problem definitely seems to be related to themes, as people here have discovered. Since I have the same problem when opening a PPT 2007 '2003-compatible' presentation in Open Office, and opening a Word 2007 '2003-compatible' document in Open Office, I suspect the error is on Microsoft's end, not Adobe's.

[Guest]

I'm not sure how mhelotie feels about your initial response but I personally find it a bit rude. I thought this blog was to exchange issues with like minds looking to assist each other as well as bring things to Adobe's attention. Telling the poster that "it may make them feel better to complain here" is not very professional or considerate.

Additionally, the poster was only supplementing what I and others had already said. No one should be chastised in that manner. There's a nicer way to inform people of the alternative options. Or why not be proactive an let your company know about this thread so that they can take appropriate action? There's a thought, huh?

[Guest]

Hi Folks
I guess I am also facing the same issue. Its ridiculous to say to downgrade when people involved in training industry are always looking for new outputs like word 2007 and so forth.
I understand every software launched has bugs and tweaks but here wait for the new version rather then fixing the current one is absolutely unacceptable.

Just my two cents on it :)

Thanks

Sam

[Captiv8r]

Hi etu444

Sorry you felt my stating the facts was rude of me. Your response seems to indicate you feel I'm an Adobe employee. I'm not. I'm simply a Captivate user same as you. I volunteer lots of help here and I have my own company.

I wasn't chastising anyone. Simply advising how they may put the complaint before the eyes that need to see it. Sure, we can complain all we want here, but until Adobe sees all the complaints funneled through the channel they have set up, it does as much good as shouting at the wind.

You are 100% correct in your view of what these forums are. They are here so that we users can share ideas and workarounds.

Cheers... Rick