Screens get distorted

[Geetartha_Kashyap]

I am working with Captivate 3.0. When I record a demonstration, the screens appear fine in the Edit mode. However, when I preview/publish the same, the screens get distorted. For example- the frame outside different buttons and text boxes gets distorted. Also, at some instances the edges of a text box disappears. Any solutions?

[slessard]

I too am having similar problems to Geetartha. I'm new to Captivate. I've tried capturing a web-based program several times now. In preview mode, it looks fantastic. Once you publish, it's horribly blurry and unwatchable. I've tried recording at both 800 x 600 and 640 x 480 and playing back at a higher resolution but it still looks terrible. Any thoughts?

[Captiv8r]

Welcome to our community, all

From what you are describing, it would seem that you are simply opening the .SWF created by Captivate to view it.

Note that Captivate will create a few different files that are intended to be used for viewing output.

* MovieName.SWF (Main part of the recording)
* MovieName_skin.SWF (Often contains the playback controls and adds the additional area to the movie)
* standard.js (a JavaScript file)
* MovieName.HTM

The MovieName.HTM is what one should be linking to. Not the MovieName.SWF. The MovieName.HTM contains settings that instruct the browser as to the exact playback size. If you open the MovieName.SWF, it scales to fit the available browser space. And as you have seen, it can dramatically affect the fidelity of what you see.

Cheers... Rick

[slessard]

Thank you, Rick! That appears to be it. . . One small question, the original version I took at 1024 x 768. When I publish, the skin is outside of that range, so you have to scroll to see the play bar. Is there a quick and dirty method of getting it to fit within the standard 1024 x 769 window? Thanks for your help!

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Sorry, no quick and dirty will quite do it. One thing you may wish to try would be to turn off borders. (Project > Skin... > Borders tab and DE-select the "Show Borders" check box)

That action will do a couple of things. It will cause the ProjectName_skin.SWF from being created and it will force the playback controls to move up and cover the bottom area of your project. You may find this acceptable or not. That's highly subjective and up to you to decide.

Other than that, you have the option of clicking Project > Resize project and configuring different dimensions for your project. You have the choice then to re-scale things (possibly making them a bit fuzzy) or you could elect to crop out part of each slide.

Cheers... Rick

[Geetartha_Kashyap]

Hi

I got a solution from a friend "Abhijeet" and its working. Try the following steps:

Click File > Publish and then select Preferences in the Project Information area.
On the left pane, under Project select Settings.

On the right you will see various options for the project.

Under the Output Options, do the following:

Clear Advanced project compression and Compressed compiled SWF file check boxes.

Under Visual & Sound Effect, do the following:

Increase the Jpeg quality to 100%.

Hope the preceding steps would resolve our problem.