How to use images and rollover images with Captivate

You can incorporate images into projects as logos, startup screens, pointers, backgrounds, buttons, and more. You can add images in the following formats: JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, ICO, EMF, POT, or WMF.

Rollover images consist of an image and a rollover area (the “hot” area). Rollover images appear when the end user moves the pointer over the rollover area at runtime. They are useful for heavily detailed slides or for slides that contain buttons or toolbars that require explanation.

You can use the same type of graphics for rollover images that you use for traditional images. You can also customize the location, outline, and size of the rollover area for rollover images.

You can change the properties of an image using the Image Edit area of the Property Inspector after selecting the image on the slide.

Image

Enter a unique name for the object. You can use this name when defining the visibility conditions for the object.

Deselect this option if you want the object to be invisible on the slide. Use the Show option to make the object visible. For more information, see Controlling the visibility of objects.

Click to add accessible text to the object. For details, see Customize accessibility text for objects

Select the color filler icon. All occurrences of one particular color in an image can be made transparent. For example, you can make all occurrences of red (#FF0000) transparent.

Restores the image to its original size.

Click the folder icon. Select this option to reuse an image in your project file. Select the image and click OK.

The Select Image from Library dialog box appears with the following options:

Import an image stored on your computer or on a network location.

Image Edit

The brightness of the image. When you increase the value for brightness, the selected image appears brighter.

Sharpening enhances the definition of edges in an image. Whether your images come from a digital camera or a scanner, most images can benefit from sharpening. The degree of sharpening needed varies according to the quality of the digital camera or scanner. Keep in mind that sharpening cannot correct a severely blurred image.

The contrast between the light and dark areas of an image. When you increase the contrast of an image, the brighter areas appear brighter, and the darker areas appear darker.

The transparency of the image. At 100% Alpha, the image is opaque. At 0%, the image is transparent and becomes invisible.

You can change the colors of an image by changing the values for its hue.

The intensity of colors in the image. When you increase the saturation value, you increase the intensity of the colors.

In a basic sense, you can convert a colored image to monochrome using this effect. Grayscale mode uses different shades of gray in an image. In 8-bit images, there can be up to 256 shades of gray. Every pixel of a grayscale image has a brightness value ranging from 0 (black) to 255 (white). In 16-bit and 32-bit images, the number of shades in an image is much greater than in 8-bit images.

Inverts the colors in an image. When you invert an image, the brightness value of each pixel in the channels is converted to the inverse value on the 256-step color-values scale. For example, a pixel in a positive image with a value of 255 is changed to 0. In the same way, a pixel with a value of 5 is changed to 250.

Flipping an image produces its mirror image. You can flip an image vertically or horizontally.

Rotate an image either clockwise or counterclockwise 90 at a time.

Click the crop icon. Crops the image handles of the rectangular box to select the area of the image that you want displayed.

Resizes the image to fit the dimensions of the slide.

Shadow and reflection

Select the check box to apply shadow to the image. Choose one of the presets. You can customize a preset by clicking Custom.

Select the direction: inner or outer. The preview of the selected direction is displayed on stage.

Click to select a color for the shadow. Specify the alpha for the color, in percentage, in the adjacent field.

Specify a value, in pixels, for the blur of the shadow.

Specify the angle for the shadow.

Specify the distance, in pixels, at which the shadow must be displayed.

Select the check box to add reflection to the image. Choose one of the presets.

Timing

Specifies how long the image is displayed on the slide.

Delay between the first appearance of the slide and the first appearance of the image.

Transition

Transition effect for the image. You can have the image fade in and fade out of the slide during its entry and exit.

Specifies the amount of time for the image to fully fade into view.

Specifies the amount of time for the image to completely disappear from view.

Add an image or rollover image

The image is added to the slide. If you added a rollover image, the rollover area is also added. Drag the image to the desired location and adjust the rollover area as needed.

Rollover Captions, Images and Slidelets

Working with Adobe Photoshop files

This release features Adobe Photoshop round-tripping with Adobe Captivate. The Photoshop (PSD) files that you import to Adobe Captivate are linked to the source. You can start Adobe Photoshop (to edit the files) from within Adobe Captivate.

Also, if you update the source file, Adobe Captivate lets you update the files in the library and the changes reflect in the slide.

Import Photoshop files

You can import a PSD file into your Adobe Captivate project, while preserving Photoshop features. You can select and import separate layers of the PSD file, or you can flatten selected layers and import them as a single image.

Each imported layer is treated as a separate image within the Adobe Captivate project. In the library, a folder with the PSD name is created and each imported layer is stored in it in PNG format.

You can resize the imported images to the size of your Adobe Captivate project. You can also apply all other available image-editing properties of Adobe Captivate.

When importing a PSD file, you can select and import layer comps. A layer comp is a Photoshop feature that allows you to create, manage, and view multiple versions of a layout in a single Photoshop file. See Photoshop Help for more information on this feature.

Reusing PSD items in the Library

You can reuse PSD items, such as layers and layer comps, using one or all the following ways:

• To reuse a PSD item in a slide, drag-and-drop the item from the Library onto the slide.

• To reuse a PSD item in a different project, open the target project. Then, drag-and-drop the item from the current project’s Library into the target project. You can also copy and paste the item into the target project.

  Alternatively, in the target project, select File > Import > External Library, and open the project from which you want to import the PSD items. When the Library panel of the selected project appears, select the item and drag-and-drop it into the current project.

  If a PSD file by the same name exists in the target project, Adobe Captivate matches the modified date of the two files. If the dates are same, the layers get copied into the corresponding PSD file folder in the Library. If not, the layers are copied as normal images.

Edit PSD files

You can also edit the file from image properties (Window > Properties).

Update PSD files

If the files in the Adobe Captivate library and the original files are not in sync, the status column in the library changes from to .

To update and bring the resource on slide in sync with the source,

• Select the PSD on stage, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS), and then select Update from Source.

• Click Update in the Property Inspector (Window > Properties).

• Click the status icon in the library.

• Select the PSD folder in the library, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS), and then select Update from Source.

If you remove or relocate the PSD, then a question mark icon appears in the status column. Click to relink. You can also do this action from the Image Properties dialog box.

The procedure for linking to a new PSD file is same as importing a new PSD file.

Working with SVG images

Captivate supports SVG graphics enabling you to develop scalable graphic content.

Import Scalable Vector Graphics into Captivate, and roundtrip them using Illustrator or any other vector editing applications.

Inserting SVG images

Insert SVG in either blank or responsive projects by clicking Media->SVG. 

Navigate to the folder where the SVG image is stored and click Open to insert the image into your project.

Editing SVG images

Edit the SVG using Adobe Illustrator or any other vector editing applications by clicking Edit SVG in the Property inspector. 

You can resize the image from within the Property Inspector using these options:

• Original: Revert the image to its original size – This button is selected by default when the SVG is imported, and remains selected if you don't modify the image size       
• Custom: This button is selected if you change the size of the SVG image
• Fit to Stage: Resize the image so that it fits the stage
• Fit to Bounding Box: Fit the SVG exactly to its bounding container. On further modification, the SVG no longer maintains its aspect ratio on resize. You can use this option to avoid possible truncation in some SVG images. 

Replacing SVG images

You can replace an existing SVG graphic with another one.

From an expert: Adobe Captivate and SVG Support

Create watermark images

You can create a watermark image by setting the transparency of an image.

Change JPEG quality

Adobe Captivate automatically sets the quality of JPEG images in projects. However, you can adjust this setting depending upon the images used in your project. Using higher percentage values allow high-quality images but also increases file size.