Publishing in Captivate 3.0 creates multiple SWF files....want only 1

Report · Mar 28, 2008

I upgrade to Captivate 3.0. When I publish to SWF, it's forcing me to create a directory and creates multiple SWF files. How do I change that? I can's insert the sWF into Presenter. Anyone run into this? How did you fix it?

Report · Mar 28, 2008

Hi funtrainer and welcome to our community

Assuming there are no slides in your project containing full motion clips, the easy way out is to click Project > Skin... > Borders tab and DE-select the "Show borders" check box.

Cheers... Rick

Report · Mar 28, 2008

I do have some full motion video in it....I used to be able to do that....is there anyway around that?

Report · Mar 28, 2008

Hi again funtrainer

For the full motion clips, there is a workaround that was pioneered by fellow Adobe Community Expert and Adobe Certified Instructor John Daigle.

Here are the basic steps:

* Publish the project to a temporary folder noting both the location as well as ensuring you publish targeting Flash 7
* Back in the project, insert a blank slide either just before or just after each full motion clip. These will be slides showing the camcorder icon.
* Configure the blank slides for the same play time as the full motion slides.
* On the blank slides, click Insert > Animation... and pull in the corresponding full motion .SWF from that temporary folder.
* Delete the original full motion slides
* Publish again and once again, ensure Flash 7 is your target output

Once you do this, you should have what you need.

Cheers... Rick

Report · Mar 31, 2008

If you do that workaround where you would you place the new swf animation that contains the skin with the borders removed? I'd like to get the video merged into a single swf with the playbar at the bottom.

Report · Apr 03, 2008

Hi Rick,

I tried your suggestion regarding adding in the blank screen but for some reason when I export I loose my audio track. I have a full motion screen capture and have laid in an audio narration. When I go to export it to a single swf I was getting three like everyone else. I tried your suggestion and I now get one swf but the audio narration is gone.

Any Suggestions?

Steve

Report · Apr 03, 2008

welcome to our community, Steve

Umm, the audio exists separate from the full motion clip and is attached to the slide itself. This means that in order to keep the audio, you need to also make sure you attach the audio clip to the new slide. If you have already deleted the slide with the original full-motion clip an audio, the audio should still be in your Library. So you just need to find it and re-associate it with your slide.

Cheers... Rick

Report · Apr 04, 2008

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the tip. That worked great!

Steve

Report · Apr 07, 2008

I am trying your workaround in an attempt to save a highly visible institutional project from crashing and burning.

While picking through the list of FMR assets can be tricky - some seem to be reversed in sequence - my biggest challenge right now is not having the transition between slides seem horrendously jerky.

Dont' think that putting in slide transitions is the answer . . . all suggestions very welcome.

Report · May 28, 2009

I am very thankful for these posts and workaround information from Captivat8r! Although old, I found them quite useful as my workplace currently still works with Captivate 3.0. I recently had the application installed to assist in creating training materials, and ran into this problem quite quickly. Thank you for the very valuable tips!

Report · Mar 28, 2008

I'm having a hard time with the same issue!! Why is it so hard to produce single swf file after the upgrade???? There are lot of features that drives me nuts in version 3!

Report · Mar 28, 2008

It's driving me crazy too.....I ended up removing all of the full motion from my file and the skin from it when I published it....It's alot of munking around that I shouldn't have to do.....

I had been using version 1.0 and that was working well. I encountered a problem last week that I couldn't resolve so I thought I should upgrade.....

Report · Apr 07, 2008

Hi Rick,

Firstly that feature should be set for version 4 dev of Captivate.
To either publish as a single file or multiple files/folders etc....

This forum here was the kicker towards our decision to buy Captivate 3 - was running a trial version.

Thanks mate...keep up the great work

Clinton Garbutt

DATA#3
Technical Author / Editor
clinton_garbutt@data3.com.au

Report · Apr 08, 2008

Hi Clinton

Trust me, the development team has been made aware of the critical need for a single .SWF output. If for no other reason, it needs to be there for more seamless integration with the Technical Communication Suite (TCS). The TCS contains FrameMaker 8, RoboHelp 7, Captivate 3 and Acrobat with a 3D add in. We are able to insert Captivate content inside Acrobat and create a PDF containing a Captivate output. But here's the kicker. The Captivate output needs to be a single .SWF. As you should be able to clearly see, this poses a huge issue when it comes time to insert Captivate content!

Cheers... Rick

Report · Apr 08, 2008

Hi Rick.

FYI.....another reason it should be changed.....I put my output into Adobe Presenter and run it using Adobe Connect. You can only load a single SWF file in Powerpoint slides using Adobe Presenter.

Thanks for your help!

Deb

Report · May 23, 2008

Captiv8r,

I was able to successfully use the workaround you suggested, demo + training and assessment sims, so we're all breathing easier while we wait for CP4 release.

Thanks much.

Patricia LeClaire

Instructional Designer
University of Central Florida, USA

Report · Aug 19, 2009

Hi funtrainer. I'm having the same issue, only we publish our flash files as portal crawlers. Have you tried using the "standalone" option, which creates an executable (*.exe) file? This option will give you one file but the downside is that portability is limited...i.e. most email productivity systems will strip it as a potentially unsafe attachment.