More editing backgrounds

I’m a heavy Captivate user so I’ve tried everything I know
but to no avail. I’m editing out little “errors” in my backgrounds;
tooltips etc that show up when you don’t want them to. I normally
do this from the library (using Find in Library to ensure I have
the correct one) using Fireworks. This works fine normally, with
the changes being reflected in the Captivate. However, I’ve started
noticing that the changes aren’t reflected in the published (or
indeed previewed) sim/demo.

So it looks fine on the screen in edit/storyboard mode, but
in the finished article the “errors” are still there.

Oh – and I’ve tried it with selecting unused items and
deleting them too – same results.

Any ideas?|||
Hi jiminiCricket

You know your way around, so this will be easy.

Bakground glitches are my life, but the following works a
treat.

Select the correct background in the library for the problem
slide.

Select Edit With MS Paint (don’t laugh, I have Photoshop and
spend more time in Paint for the small stuff)

Edit the background and close Paint (do not save)

When prompted hit save and your slide will update
automatically AND publish properly

My theory is that Paint only works in bitmaps, therefore high
compatibility with Captivate.

PS My library has Paint set as the default editing tool which
makes life easier when edits are required.|||
Andrew,

Thanks for that. I’ll try it (although to be honest I’m
really sceptical but more than happy to eat my hat if it fixes the
problem).

The issue I have at the moment is that the editing is done
(in Fireworks – which also is great for bitmaps) and so the small
stuff is not there in the Captivate edit tab. It only shows up in
preview and published works.

I originally thought the problem was due to Captivate getting
confused about which slide to use but that may not be the
problem…

I’ll keep going |||
One more thing, and this is really going to bake your
noodle…

Sometimes it works fine, others it doesn’t… In the same
Captivate!|||
Sorry to go on, but it gets better. So I edit my background
in Fireworks (Paint made no difference ). I save the slide as a
png file and then copy it back over the top.

This sorts the issue. However, if I then merge it into the
background then the problem reappears – the tooltip comes back!

This means it must be an issue of caching in the SWF. I’ve
deleted unused items, cleared IE cache, everything!

Please tell me I’m not the only one having this
problem!|||
Hi Andy

You may wish to try inserting a blank slide. Then select all
the objects on the errant slide and copy them. Now paste them onto
the Blank slide. After that, configure the background of the Blank
slide to match the errant slide. Once you are finished, delete the
errant slide.

Give that a go and see if it helps. Hopefully it will.

Cheers… Rick
|||
Hi again from your friendly neighbourhood Painter

I know exactly what you mean in that the slide appears fine
in Captivate (edit mode), but the published version has “fuzzy”
spots or missing lines etc. AND this fault can carry through to
more than 1 slide that has the same background at that specific
spot. If this is the main proble, then read further, otherwise
ignore me .

I normally pause the playback on the published file at the
first slide of the dodgy background, make a note of the slide
number then use the edit with paint as described above.

Paint opens and the image looks fine, but here’s the trick,
select the area that looks bad in the playback with the marquee
tool, drag it off position, drop it, then drag it back into
position and close Paint as described in my first post here.|||

I sincerly hope this is not the technical solution. I’m working with Captivate files that are coming from our instructors. We have coined the term “phantom” for when tooltips stay in some sort of BitmapData cache in the Captivate file. I am getting frustrated, because I AM doing the new slide/replace solution, but it’s a real pain because I need to reset all the mouse positions to the slide I have to delete. This is beginning to account for about 30% of the work I’m doing on these captivate files – which is a pretty big percentage for a bug workaround. I have taken a background, created a large blob of red, just to see if I can clear the image cache, but the tooltip, and part of the interface the mouse has clicked on, becomes blazingly apparent. Here’s a sample:

This “phantom” effect happens when you scrub the last 0.5 second of a slide. Even when the slide is set to have no transition. So I support the fact that Adobe has done some bitmap caching to try and speed up the beautiful transitions – but “feature” is starting to really squeeze my deadlines. Is there anything else we can do, save for recreated a bunch of slides that should hopefully be usable at the get-go? Please…desperate here.

Thanks in advance…

|||

Hi there

Are you able to share this file with the issues? What version of Captivate are you using?

Cheers… Rick

|||

Hi, I would not be able to share this file, as I don’t own the contents, but the next opportunity I get (will shoot for tomorrow) I will generate one of my own. Is there anyone else who lists this issue. I work with a team of four other developers who experience these same issues. Which are presented to us from a small group of instructors who take the initial captures. I have searched for references to this issue before, but this was the first I could find on the web. Obviously the other guy was having the same item happen, and perhaps you had noticed it before as to the workaround mentioned. We’ve been employing the workaround often enough. 2-3 slides on a 18 slide file I’d say. But I have one now with substantially more, so it’s a bit frustrating. I’m working in version 4.0.0 Build 1596. I don’t think I can swing the admin for the v5 upgrade in the next few days/weeks. Thanks for looking into this, and as I said, will try to post an erroneous file too, or strip the identifying content out of this to avoid (the understandable) corporate wrath :s

|||

Hello,

Please, install the upgrade (released in May 2009), current build for CP4 is 1658. You can upgrade using the Help menu.

Lilybiri

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