Flash inserted into presenter:

[tuppers57]

I have inserted a flash file into my powerpoint presentation under Adobe Presenter>Insert Flash. It all works fine in slide show mode, but when I publish the presentation to adobe connect server the flash movie plays once through the timeline then stops back at frame one. Frame one has a stop action. It is supposed to be sitting on frame one, waiting for the user to click on one of the buttons to take them to a different frame.

I have tried the disable preload of flash checkbox, but it didn't seem to help. Any ideas?

[Gatorgal-eQqcNn]

Having exact same problem. Using Captivate 3/PowerPoint 2003. Will bug be fixed in newer version of powerpoint? If I play the Captivate file, works. If I play the flash file, works. After inserting into PowerPoint, it doesn't work. After publishing to Connect Pro, it doesn't.

[Jorma_at_CoSo]

Tuppers57,

So I understand you say that the flash file plays when you slide show the PPT? If you insert the flash file through the Insert Flash tool it shouldn't play in the slideshow mode, but will play in a published presentation. Rules for inserting flash:
1. You must insert through Presenter > Insert Flash (you did this)
2. You can only insert SWF files.
3. You need to add enough silence for the non-interactive SWF to play on the slide (length of the SWF movie)
4. For non-interactive SWF files you should make them controlled by the presentation playbar in Presentation Settings > Flash Files Tab and then check the box for that SWF.
5. You can make the slide advance by user in the Slide Properties for interactive SWF files.

Follow those rules and you should be fine.

The preload flash check box I would leave that unchecked, it is a setting for low-bandwidth users and will cause more frustration that good.

Gatorgal,

When Cp3 outputs SWF files, two or more come out. To insert a Cp3 movie into Presenter, you need to:
1. Take the SWF file that is just the name of your build, not the _skin, or _full motion.
2. Build films without full motion captures as they will not translate when you bring the previously mentioned file.
3. If they are interactive, then be sure that there is no text entry fields (except for quiz slides, don't know why they work and the normal text entry boxes don't, but what can you do?), they can be click along interactions though.

All of these rules apply to both PPT 03 and PPT 07. The only thing that I know of that you gain from PPT 07 is the ability to have animated GIF's in your published presentation.

Jorma@RealEyes

[Guest]

Hey guys,

Just adding another 2cents here...

When you publish your Captivate movie, also be sure to turn "borders" off, because that's what causes the "_skin.swf" to be created in the first place. As for the Full Motion Recording situation, there's a couple of things you can do to overcome that problem:

1. set up your environment as best you can to reduce the amount of Full Motion Recordings (FMRs) that would result from the recording process. Pre-sizing windows as they are needed will go a long way to controlling how much movement needs to happen.

2. Remember that Captivate records captures based on screen changes. When it comes to things like scrollbars, an easy method to reduce FMR's is to NOT scroll with the mouse, but rather click inside the scrollbar's trackbar to force your window to scroll up or down. Also in that same vein is to use keyboard strokes when possible.

Example: rather than click/drag to select a word (let's say you need to change or edit text), try using Shift with your Arrow keys, or hold down the Shift key and left click with the mouse to select a word or words.

3. If you have a situation where scrolling is absolutely necessary, I'd strongly recommend the following http://www.adobe.com/go/135575aa that describes how to create smooth scrolling for Captivate recording.

And for what it's worth, I had an opportunity to personally meet, and work with, Silke Fleischer on a problem related to this and documented that process on my forum: http://robrode.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1206540918

Rob

[Guest]

I'm having a different playback problem. I followed your directions, but the movie continues to loop over and over and I'm unable to control it with the playbar even though I did select the check box in the Flash tab.

Any suggestions?
Bethany

[Guest]

Hi Bethany,

Okay, so it sounds to me that it might be due to a setting in Captivate...have you checked the export settings when you publish? Double check the Project End Options and make sure that the option is set to Stop and not Loop.

Not really sure if that will help, but it's the first thing I'd check based on what you reported here.

Rob

[Guest]

Thanks for such a quick response!

Here's the rest of the details in case it helps: I created a screencast using uTIPu. It exports to an FLV file. 😞 So, I opened that file in Adobe Flash and exported it as a SWF file to insert into the PPT using the Presenter > Insert Flash command. I checked my export settings in Adobe Flash to make sure I didn't inadvertently have something selected that said Loop, etc. Same with the Presenter settings. Yet, the darn thing continues to loop and I have no playback controls - I can't pause the playback even though the pause/play buttons are there (when viewing in the Adobe Connect environment). Since I was simply testing out how to add a SWF, it's only a 1-slide presentation and only has the SWF file on that slide.

<grin> Most likely it's operator error. I normally would probably just create something right in Adobe Flash to export, but the crowd I work with needs an easier (and cheaper) way to create nifty little videos and put them in their presentations so I was trying various free screencapture tools - hence the crazy uTIPu to Flash to SWF workaround. <sigh>

I'll keep chugging along. Thanks for the previous advice and, if you have any other advice to address my craziness, I'd love to hear it.

Bethany

[Guest]

Hi Bethany,

2 things immediately:

1. That was a *VERY* cool find! I'm going to give uTIPu a shot, b/c I can see some usefulness of that tool.

2. Now we're getting down to brass tacks! The moment you took the flv file and dropped it into Flash, what you effectively did is remove the functionality of the demo you created. Why? Because the flv was "converted" when you published the Flash document as a .swf file. And as far as the looping problem, here's the gist: When you have a duration of frames that extend along the timeline, Flash won't automatically stop just because the playhead reaches the last frame in the timeline.

Quick example: let's say that your flv file has a total duration of :30 seconds and it extends to frame 900 in the timeline (using 30 fps as the baseline playback speed since that's what Presenter likes). Once the file reaches frame 900, it won't stop there; rather, the timeline starts all over again UNLESS you add some code in Flash to tell your movie to do something else, like stop!

Having said that, let's talk about the implications of adding an flv to Flash in the manner described above:

1. Synchronization: In almost every case, an embedded flv will lose synch (the matching between video and audio components). What this means is that if you have a "talking head" video, it's very likely that what is said won't match what is seen as the movie plays back.

2. Control: unless you place a stop(); action in the timeline of the embedded flv video, IT WILL LOOP no matter what you attempt to do in Breeze/Presenter.

3. File Size: Generally speaking, an embedded flv which is then converted to a .swf file will almost always increase your file size by the time you insert it in Presenter. Granted, a :30 second piece ain't all that much...but once you start playing with 2, 5, or 7 minute videos (and lots of 'em), you will invariably experience playback problems. Couple that with Adobe's recommendation for project file sizes (10 Meg limit) and you could be on the fast track to playback performance issues

So is there a better solution? Actually, there is, but it's a hack at best.

If you have the ability to link to an external source, like an HTML doc for example, then what you could do is:

1. Back in Flash, use a Flash Media Component, and link that to the flv you want to view.
2. Create a swf file of your Flash document (that contains the Media Component)
3. Take the published .swf and place it into an html document (using Dreamweaver for example!)
4. Make sure to save all of these files in a relative location to your Presenter project
5. Then back in PPT, create a link to the html doc OR use the Attachments feature to link to it as well. If you choose the manual linking method directly in PPT, you will have to deal with the "relative addressing" of the html page you want to launch. There have been mixed feelings about this, and just as many comments about the success/failure of folks to accomplish that task, and rather than go through it here, I'll direct you to former posts which describe the process:

Relative Links in Breeze/Presenter

Hope that helps! And again, thanks for clarifying the screen capture tool you were using!

Rob
Visit my Breeze/Presenter forums!
http://www.robrode.com/yabb/
http://robrode.blogspot.com/

[Guest]

Thanks. I'll give that a shot. 🙂 I think that at the very least it could be a good temp solution while I'm putting together a more professional SWF.

I'm glad you liked the uTIPu. I can't tell you how often I use that and similar tools to quickly put together a little "how to" on something.

Anyway, thanks again for your time. I'll let you know about my experience with the 'hack' you suggested. LOL
Bethany

[crescendo97]

Hi all! New to this thread and somewhat new to these forums. I am having some difficulties with my flash files. I have 4 swf files (i have the original FLA and FLV files as well). They are all videos that were taken for a company I'm doing work for, simulating conversations. They sent me the FLA, FLV and SWF files. I imported the first swf into my Adobe presentation, published it and it works fine. I tried the second, third, and fourth and they don't play at all. I'm completely stumped!
Please understand that tips on if I have to convert the flash file using flash would have to be very dumbed down for me. Although I understand some of flash, I'm still, very much, a beginner.
Please help! I don't know what to look for to compare or figure out why one will play and the others won't. I'm up against a deadline here so I hope someone can help!

[MojoRH]

i originated this thread, but my nickname/account has changed. Thanks for all the input. Re Jorma - My swf file is an interactive file. very basic, 8 frames. no audio or running timeline. nav buttons along the left side that go to certain frames 1-8 that have a little individual content on them. one or two lines of text and a picture. Real simple stuff.
As far as I know, swf files do play in presentation mode in powerpoint. I have done live poweprpoint presentations that contain flash and the flash movies play on screen for everyone to see.

THe particular slide is set to advance by user and disable of preload is also checked.

THanks in advance for any help.

[Gatorgal-eQqcNn]

Outstanding.

[Guest]

crescendo,

Sorry to be thick-headed here, but I'm a bit confused/concerned about the actual nature of the problem.

For example, do you mean that when ALL 4 videos are inserted, only video 1 plays? Or are you inserting only a single video piece...and 1 plays but 2, 3, and 4 don't?

So let's start with this: what happens if you use one of the other videos first? Meaning, that if video 1 played but the others didn't...then what happens if you use video 2 or 3 or 4 first? Will they play?

If you've been given swfs and flvs to use with your presenter content, what have you been doing (from the standpoint of process), to add the videos? Put another way...just because one can add a swf to a deck, doesn't necessarily mean that a video (using the swf as a connection to the flv) will be called for and play correctly. You need to be aware of how the swf looks for, and loads, the flv.

You have the fla's...and that's a great starting point. What you may have to do is take a closer look at how the source flash files are set up...and although I know its strange that one video plays but the others don't...without having your content on hand, it's going to be challenging (at best) to figure out what's happening in your particular situation.

Rob

[crescendo97]

thanks for the post! turns out it's a problem with the actual conversion of the video. the people who recorded the files simply have to convert them properly and that should solve the issue.

[LJSommer]

I'm having the same problem as tuppers57. I have an SWF with a stop and button on the first frame, so it waits until the user clicks the button to play the movie. When I insert the SWF in Presenter (Presenter > Insert Flash), the SWF plays as soon as the slide is displayed, without waiting for the user to click the button. Is there any fix to this, or do SWFs always autoplay in Presenter?

[Fitzmaster]

Hello - I have a different problem. I've created SWF files in captivate and in camtasia. I use presenter to insert the SWF file but nothing happens. If I click the preview button I can see it, but when I click "open", nothing gets inserted into the powerpoint slide. There's nothing wrong with my swf file because I had someone else try importing it using their set-up, and they had no problem. I'm using PowerPoint 2007. I'm ready to tear my hair out so any assistance woud be greatly appreciated.

[Guest]

LJSommer,

This is a well known artifact of dropping swfs into the Presenter environment, but fortunately I have been able to work around that "bug" in the following way:

Rather than having all of you animations occuring on the main timeline in Flash, the thing to do is convert *everything* into movie clips; this way, you can totally control what happens (and when) based on user interaction.

Case in point: I have a sample demo you can view on my site here: http://robrode.com/Breeze_demos/myIdentity/index.htm

If you advance to slide 17 of that presentation, what you'll see is the slide set up and the flash anim located on the lower section of the slide will just park on frame one. It's only when you click the thumbnails that the additional animated objects become visible.

The point in all of this is that more you keep things OFF the main timeline, the better.

Hope that helps!

Rob
Visit my Breeze/Presenter forums!
http://www.robrode.com/yabb/
http://robrode.blogspot.com/

[snasha777]

I have a different version of this problem.
I make a .swf
I Insert Flash (.swf) in PPT
I go to Slide Show in PPT and it plays great the 1st time.
After that it wouldn't reset, so I found some code to rewind the .swf file.
Now, it plays right after the first time but upon the second time through the PPT the preloader just hangs up. The circling circle goes round and round and no .swf or anything shows. Also, the second time through, there is only the preloader swirling circle and not the words "Adobe Presenter".

I tested the .swf in a browser and it always works just fine. Here is the rewind code I added. What is missing?

Sub onSlideShowPageChange()
Dim swf As ShockwaveFlash
Dim FrameNum As Long

Set swf = Slide5.ShockwaveFlash1
swf.Playing = False
swf.GotoFrame (1)
swf.Play

End Sub

[snasha777]

P.S. I have tried this with Flash 9 and 10. I have the lastest Adobe Presenter 7.
thank you.

[newika01]

Thank for this helpful information.

Merrill

[bargainsrepublic]

thanks for info. solve my problem
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