Projects and project preferences

You can set project preferences that are applied to all the slides in the project. Some of these settings can overrule specific settings that you have set at the slide level. Use the Project menu in the Preferences dialog box to make the changes.

Edit project information

Project properties are visible to users from the Information button that is included with all playback controls. It is important to set project properties if you are creating 508-compliant accessible projects.

Select Edit > Preferences > Project > Information (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences > Project > Information (Mac OS) and specify the following properties:

• Author: Name of the author or authors of the project.
• Company: Name of the company or organization responsible for the content in the document.
• E-mail: E-mail address for the company or, if appropriate, of your customer service department.
• Website: Website address of the company.
• Copyright: Copyright information for your project.
• Project Name: A distinct and descriptive name for your project.
• Description: Short description of the contents of the project.

Change project size and quality

Select Edit > Preferences > Project > Size And Quality (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences > Project > Size And Quality (Mac OS) and specify the following properties:

This option compresses the full motion recording SWF file to a smaller size. Choosing this option can increase the time taken to preview or publish the project.

The most common issue caused by compression options is that you may suddenly find that a project stalls after completing about 80% of a publishing process.  This is usually the point in the publishing cycle when Captivate tries to compress the SWF.

If a project refuses to complete publishing, disable all compression preferences in this section under Size and Quality then publish the project again.  If the project publishes successfully, re-enable each compression option one at a time, and try publishing the project on the basis of elimination.

Also, there may be an object in your project that is already compressed and may become corrupted if compressed again. Locating and removing this object usually solves the publishing problem.

• Settings: Indicates the quality of the published SWF file. You can select the quality of the SWF file by moving the slider bar to the corresponding option: High, Medium, Low, or Custom. When you choose High, Medium, or Low, Adobe Captivate uses its internal settings to set the quality of the file. Files of a higher quality are compressed to a lesser extent, and therefore might be of a greater file size. You can customize the options for quality when you move the slider to the Custom level.
• Retain Slide Quality Settings: Retains the slide quality settings defined in the Property inspector of the slide.
• BMP: Determines the image quality of bitmaps (screenshots) generated during recording. Reducing the image quality reduces the file size but can affect the quality of the color in the images. Any bitmap files that you have inserted in the project are also affected.
• JPEG: Determines the quality of JPEG files that you have inserted in the project. Reducing the image quality reduces the file size but can affect the quality of the color in the images. JPEG images are detailed and contain many colors, so greatly lowering their quality is not advised.
• Audio: Determines the quality of audio files used in the project. Audio files are converted to mp3 format before they are published. A file with higher quality does not affect the file size drastically but significantly improves the audio quality.
• Advanced Project Compression: Enables Adobe Captivate to take into account only the difference between two slides instead of publishing both the slides. The compression reduces the size of the published project. Choosing this option can increase the time taken to preview or publish the project.
• Compress SWF File: Compresses the published SWF file. Compressed SWF files can be played only with Flash Player 9 or later. Choosing this option can increase the time taken to preview or publish the project.

Change project publish settings

Select Edit > Preferences > Project > Publishe Settings (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences > Project > Publish Settings (Mac OS) and specify the following preferences:

For a responsive project:

If you do not want your users to view your course in the mobile landscape view, you can disallow the ability for them to turn their phones to landscape by enabling the option Disallow phone landscape orientation.

You can even write a custom message as to why that view is not available.

For a blank project:

For more information, see Set publishing preferences in Adobe Captivate.

Define how a project starts and ends

Select Edit > Preferences > Project > Start And End (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences > Project > Start And End (Mac OS) and specify the following preferences:

• Auto Play: The movie starts playing as soon as it is downloaded. If you want the movie to play only after the user clicks the Play button, deselect this option. You can display an image until the user starts playing the movie. Click Browse (...) to select the image. If you do not select an image, the first slide of the movie is displayed.
• Preloader: You can add a loading screen to the beginning of your project. A loading screen is useful if the first slide of the project is large or contains audio and takes a few moments to appear. Adobe Captivate includes predefined loading screen images that you can use. Also, you can create a custom image to use as a loading screen. You can also create  a SWF  file to use as a loading screen. In the Adobe Captivate Preloaders folder, there is a sample SWF file and FLA file named DefaultPreloader. You can use these files as templates to create your own SWF file. If you add a custom loading screen, Adobe Captivate calls the following functions if they exist on the main Timeline of the SWF file - OS.function initialize( projectWidth :Number, projectHeight:Number) function  onProgress ( loadedBytes :Number, totalBytes :Number, preloadPercent :Number) function  isDone ():Boolean
• Preload%: The percentage of the SWF file that must be downloaded before the file starts playing. After the required portion of SWF file has been downloaded, the preloader disappears, and the SWF file starts playing.
• Password Protect Project: Password that users must enter before they can view the project. In the adjacent box, type the correct password to be used by users to successfully view the project. Click Options to specify the following:
  • Message: The message that is displayed to users to explains what they must do when prompted to type a password.
  • Retry Message: The message to be displayed when users enter an incorrect password.
  • Button Text: The text that is displayed on the button that the users click in order to continue viewing the project.

• Project Expiry Date Expiry date for the project. Click Calendar to choose a date. In the adjacent text box, specify the message to be displayed to users when the project expires.When a project expires, it can no longer be viewed.
• Fade In On The First Slide Provides a fade-in effect to the first slide of the project.
• Action Click the menu and select an action to take place at the end of the project.
  • Stop Project Stops the project after it plays once.
  • Loop Project Continuously plays the project.
  • Close Project Closes the movie after it stops playing.
  • Open URL Or File Opens the specified website in a web browser after the movie stops playing.To load a URL, type the full path to a website (for example, http://www.website.com). Click the inverted arrow icon next to the URL box to select the window in which to display the URL, then choose Current, New, Parent, or Top. To load a file, click the browse icon, browse to the file, select the file, and click Open.
  • Execute JavaScript Runs the specified JavaScript after the movie stops playing. Click Script_Window and type the javascript to execute. To reuse a script from a file, copy the script  onto  the clipboard and paste it into the JavaScript window. Click the inverted arrow icon next to the Script_Window button to select the window in which to display the URL, then choose Current, New, Parent, or Top.
  • Open Another Project Opens another project after the movie stops playing. Click the browse icon, browse to the project file (with the extension  .swf , .rd, or  .cptx ), select the file, and click Open. Click the inverted arrow icon to select the window in which to display the file, then choose Current, New, Parent, or Top.
  • Send E-mail To Sends an e-mail to the specified e-mail address after the movie stops playing. The default mail editor is used to send the message. Type the e-mail address in the adjacent box. Click the inverted arrow icon to select the window in which to display the file, then choose Current, New, Parent, or Top.
  • Fade Out On The Last Slide Select this option to have the last slide in the project fade out of view.

Edit default preferences for slides and objects

The changes that you make in the Preferences dialog box are applied to all the slides in the project.

Export and import project preferences

By exporting project preferences you can reuse your set of preferences across projects. Preferences can be saved and exported as CPR files. When the CPR file is imported into a project, the preferences mentioned in the CPR file are set in the Preferences dialog box.

1. Select File > Export > Preferences.

2. In the Save As dialog box, save your preferences as a CPR file.

3. Click Save.

When you want to import preferences into another project, select File > Import > Import Preferences. Open the file from the location where you saved the CPR file.

Author in right-to-left languages

Adobe Captivate lets you author in right-to-left languages such as Arabic or Hebrew.

Set project background color

You can set the background color for the project. Whether the background color appears on all slides depends on the type of slide and how a screenshot is captured.

Recover damaged projects

Use one or all of the following options to recover damaged or corrupted projects:

• Using the project backup file

• Clearing the project cache

Clear the project cache

Project cache in Adobe Captivate helps you save and open projects faster. When you create a project in Adobe Captivate, a corresponding project cache folder is automatically created. This folder is saved in the project cache root folder specified in the project Preferences.

Over time, these cache folders may use up your system resources and you may want to delete the folders to optimize the resources. You can delete the folders using the ‘Clear Cache’ option in the project Preferences (Edit (Win)/Adobe Captivate (Mac) > Preferences > General Settings > Project Cache).

To delete multiple project cache folders, use the Clear Cache application. This application lists all the Adobe Captivate project cache folders on the system along with the corresponding project name, size, status of the project (opened or closed), date modified, and cache size. Using this information, you can decide which cache folders you want to delete and quickly delete multiple cache folders with a single click.

To install and use this utility, perform the following steps: