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I have recently had quite a lot of issues with Adobe Captivate 4 SWFs imported into other Adobe Captivate 4 SWFs. In a lot of cases it seems like the imported animations start playing even though they could be on slide 10 of the “master project”. When you launch the “Master project” you could also hear a lot of weird clicking going on making the whole project unstable.
I have tried everything possible to fix these projects-gone-bad but it seems like there is no solution once it’s screwed up. I even used the general lifesaver of copying all slides from my project to a blank project in order to remove any weird behaviour stuck behind the scenes, but that didn’t work either.
Due to this I have now created this Loader Widget for Adobe Captivate 4. Basically you insert the Adobe Captivate Widget on a slide and you define the filename that it should load in the widget parameters. The advantage of using this Loader Widget is that loaded animations are separated from the main Captivate SWF by the Flash loader layer. Another benefit is that your animation will not be loaded until the user opens the actual slide, which means that you wont get any occurences of fully played animations when you reach slide 10 of your project. Finally if you need to change anything in the external animation there is no need to open the Master project again – just update the external file and that’s it.
39 Comments
Hello Michael,
I believe this will solve one of my problems with Captivate 4. My embedded animations are frustratingly unreliable (sometimes they play in their entirety, but most of the time NOT). Additionally, another embedded animation begins playing audio on slide 1, yet the animation is on slide 13!.
Your widget sounds like what I need but:
– Do you have a demo version so that I can test before I buy? It’s only $10.00 but I’d look foolish to my company if I buy this and it doesn’t solve my problems.
– Are you planning to make a AS3 version of this widget? I was hoping to get away from the other problems associated with AS2.
Hi Shawn,
I already answered you in the Adobe Forums but I thought I’d copy the answer here for others to see as well.
/Michael
———— Post from Adobe Captivate forum ———-
Hi Shawn,
I think that this widget would solve your problem. I don’t really have a trial version, but if you send me the name of one of your embedded animations I can create a loader for you to test it. Send me the exact name “name.swf” and I’ll send you back a loader.
FYI – I need to go out for about 3 hours but I’ll fix the loader for you when I get back.
The widget allows you to specify the name yourself of course. The size doesn’t matter – the widget will not constrain proportions or anything and it will place the embedded animation at 0,0 coordinates in the widget. If you then place the widget with the top left corner where you want the 0,0 coordinate to appear in Captivate it will load it there.
I am planning an AS3 version and also thought I had it figured out. I tested it with a number of different AS3 SWFs with success but unfortunately I recently encountered one that didn’t work. Until I figure out what is wrong I won’t release the AS3 version of the Widget.
Best regards,
Michael
Hello Michael,
Your widget works perfectly (it definitely solves the problem of embedded animations not playing completely) in a local folder on my computer but how do I make it on Adobe Connect Pro?
If I upload the separate animations (that are controlled by the widget) into the same ‘folder’ on Connect Pro, the widget doesn’t seem to see them.
Will this widget work in Captivate 3?
I have an issue which sounds like it could be solved with your solution. I posted my problem in the Advance section of the Captivate Forum, but no one has replied to it. I read through the thread between Shawn and yoursef in the Forum and my issue sounds similar. I have included it below.
“I created a scollable text field in Flash which appears when the user clicks on a button (part of the same Flash file). This .swf file has been placed in my Captivate 3 movie and works great. Unfortunately if I pause the movie using the Pause/Play button in the projects skin (or using the Pause/Play button that is available from Raising Aimee), and then click Play to resume the movie, my Flash element appears!
This also happens on another slide where I have another Flash element – a graphic which loads a window into the graphic allowing the user to scroll around an enlarged version of the graphic. When the Pause/Play button is clicked to pause the movie and clicked to resume Play, the enlarged version of the Flash graphic is loaded.
How can I stop this from happening? Has anyone else experienced this type of thing?”
Would the widget address this issue?
Thanks in advance for your feedback!
Susan
I just realized that this widget is specifically addressing .swf’s created by Captivate being inserted into a project with problematic results, not .swf’s created in Flash. I went ahead and purchased the widget, it doesn’t work with Captivate 3. Do you have any suggestions about how I can solve this issue?
Susan
Hi Susan,
The widget mainly deals with the issue that occurs when importing Captivate SWFs into Captivate, but it also works for Flash SWFs if they have problems. However, since this is a widget it will only work with Adobe Captivate 4.
As for your problem with CP3:
I need some more clarification. You say when you pause and then click play to resume your movie the Flash element appears. Can you elaborate a bit more on this? Where does it appear? What happens if you pause / resume playback on a different slide etc?
Let me know and I will see if I can help you out.
Best regards,
Michael
Hi!
I just downloaded the widget and I it works perfect. Thank you!
Is there any chance, that you will produce an AS3-Version of the widget, soon?
Greetings from Berlin, Germany…Lilly
Hi Lilly,
Glad to hear you like it ;o)
I am planning an AS3 version and I also thought that I had one finished. However I’m experiencing some weird behaviour with the AS3 loader widget so I can’t release it until I figured out where the problem is.
/Michael
I’m hoping this will solve a problem I’m having – I created a few SWF files from Camtasia, but when I insert them as an animation in Camtasia they don’t play. The “Play” button from Camtasia renders in the middle of the animation when the slide loads, and when I click play the first screen appears. The scrubber doesn’t advance though, and the animation (audio or video) does not play. I can drag the scrubber around but it doesn’t stick. Also, the duration shown in Captivate is wrong. It’s 1:38 long, but when imported into Captivate it shows at 4:17.
The SWFs work perfectly if I load them standalone in a browser or elsewhere. They just don’t work when imported into Captivate.
Happy to provide my project file as a demo .. Will definitely buy if this can get my SWFs working smoothly.
Any advice appreciated. Thanks.
BW
Hi Brian,
I don’t know if this will work with Camtasia files but I don’t see why not. If possible send me one of these Camtasia files and I will see if it works. You can mail me at admin@cpguru.com
/Michael
Just a quick note. I tested the Camtasia files for Brian and they seem to work just fine when using the Loader Widget.
/Michael
In Captivate do we need to enable the publish option for externalized resources to make this work?
Hi Pete,
No that is not nessecary. This widget will pull in external resources on it’s own so no need to have Captivate externalize resources as well.
/Michael
Michael,
Have you finished the AS3.0 version yet? I am running into the same issues stated above. But my flash files are AS3.0 due to the need for IK and 3D in my animations. Thanks for your help!
Brad
Hi Brad,
No I haven’t been able to test it properly. However, if you want to be a test pilot for the AS3 widget then send me an email through the site and I can send you the widget.
/Michael
Michael,
I downloaded your widget and it works great!
My only issue(and this may be a blonde moment!) is with the size of the external .swf (created in Captivate), it is larger. I could easily resize it when I imported it into the main project. Is there a way to resize the widget?
Marie.
Hi Marie,
First of all thanks for buying. The problem is most likely that you accidently changed the size of the widget itself when inserting it in your Captivate project. The widget needs to be the normal size (the standard size you get when you insert the widget). Don’t worry about the Widget area being smaller than the content you wish to load – it will automatically expand the area when the Captivate project plays.
Let me know if this fixes your problem.
/Michael
Michael,
Ah, what a star you are!! Knew I was just being a bit daft! Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. Keep up the good work 😀
Marie.
Hi Michael,
Sorry to bother you again but I’ve run into an issue using the loader. Once I have loaded everything in and published the files to an exe to run onto CDs I had to test on other people’s computers. Basically, the .swf files which are external don’t run. Is this because other people don’t have Flash on their computers? Or some other reason?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Hi Marie,
No worries at all ;o)
If the people can view the main Captivate file but not the external file then it is not because they don’t have the Flash player installed. If that was the case then they wouldn’t be able to view the main Captivate file either.
I think that the problem could be that the reference to the file location is more complex when published to a CD than when publishing to regular web or intranet.
I’ll take a look at it and see if this can be sorted out and get back to you.
/Michael
Awesome 🙂 Thank you!!
Marie.
Michael,
I installed your widget about an hour ago to hopefully correct a problem with embedded Captivate .swfs freezing when played within a master captivate file. It seems to be working, but plays the wrong animation at the wrong time. For example …
Slide A has a button linking to Slide G. Slide G has the widget to play animation 1. Slide B has a button linking to Slide H which has the widget to play animation 2. But, when I publish and try the master file, the button on Slide A plays animation 2.
I’ve double checked all of my button paths, etc., and can’t seem to find an error. When the .swfs were embedded the correct file played at the correct time, and I’ve not changed any button settings or moved any slides, just replaced the embedded animations with the widget. The file names are distinct enough that there are not errors in the widget settings, either.
I’ve deleted all of the published files, checked everything and re-published with the same problem.
Any suggestions?
Megan
Hi Megan,
Never encountered that problem before. Did you start the widgets at 0.1 seconds on the timeline on slides G & H? The only thing I can think of is that Captivate for some reason mixes up the widgets, but I have never heard or experienced that myself.
Any chance that you can share your CP files with me? If so I would like to take a look at the problem. You can contact me through my sites contact form and then I will reply back to you asap.
/Michael
Ok, so I went to lunch, returned, re-inserted the widgets one more time and everything works. It’s been one of those days. Thanks for the quick response and if I have another problem, I’ll be in touch. Megan
Hi Megan,
Great – happy to hear it worked out for you!
/Michael
@ Marie,
I have been messing about with the Captivate publish to EXE and the loader widget. I have found no solution to this problem so unfortunately it seems like you will not be able to use the Loader Widget with Captivate projects published as EXE. I tried to publish a project from Flash to exe (Flash Projector file) and have that load an external swf. That worked just fine, so I think that the problem is to be found in the Captivate software itself.
/Michael
I just spent wasted hours tyring to make this widget myself–after having this problem and working around it for a year!
Question: do I get the .fla file when I buy so I can see what I didn’t do right?
=)
Thanks,
Eric
Michael,
Do you know if your loader widget addresses the issue importing multiple Raptivity swf’s into a Cp4 project?
@Pete,
Actually I don’t know. I’ll be happy to send you a copy of the widget so you can test it out if you want.
/Michael
Hi. brilliant widget! saved me big time. only small issue… on some of the swf’s i did need to resize the widget, experimenting by changing the size then republishing and previewing until the size was correct (bit fiddly but cant complain).
Others did not need any resizing at all (just had to move widget to the top left corner 0,0)
thanks
Gav
Hi Michael
I have purchased this widget and am wondering if there is a way that it can be used more than once in a single captivate movie.
Thanks,
Andy
@Andy,
Yes that is possible. Simply insert a new instance of the widget in your Captivate movie and that should be it.
/Michael
@Michael
Hi Michael,
Thats what i am trying to do but its playing the first swf not the one entered in that instance?
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I have a swf file that has to be AS2 and go into Cap4 (client says we have to use CP4 and AS2) My file is set up so that the animation starts when the user clicks. Instead of having to click, the animation automatically plays – after inserted into captivate. Do you think this pre-loader will fix this issue?
thanks!!
Hi tere. I know this widget is for CP4 and we are all supposed to be on CP5 now, but please bear with me. I have externalised swf’s and fla’s in my Captivate 4 project to speed up the download. The problem is that they play while the preloader is downlaoding them (the preloader screen is displayed but the audio from the files can be heard in the background). When the project begins, the same erratic activity others describe occurs.
Am I to believe that this widget will work on such animations (ones NOT made in Captivate), and also that if I were to use the widget I SHOULDN’T externalise the files?
Thanks for bearing with me.
Hi Steve,
The widget should solve the problem you are describing. You would then place the widget on the slide where you would have your animation play and then reference the swf name in the widget properties. The widget would then load the asset once the user reaches that slide.
Let me know if this answers your question.
/Michael
Oops, just found Rod Ward’s comments about the dodgy flash 11. I guess I’ll have to downgrade now!
Don’t know what happened there, one of my messages went awol. I bought the widget but it didn’t load, because of the flash 11 problem mentioned on the Adobe Captivate forum. As mentioned above, I downgrade my flash to 10.3 to use the widget, but I’d prefer not to as this will mean I cannot test the elearnings in the same environment as my users will have (flash 11). If you know of a patch for the flash 11 problem I’d love to receive information on it.