Corrupted File

Here are the facts: I’m running Captivate 2 on Windows XP Version 2002 (Service Pack 2) on a 2GHz processor with 2GB RAM and plenty of unused disk space (26GB free). MS Outlook is usually running while Captivate is open but no other apps. I’m connected to a corporate network and don’t know what might be going on undetected (virus scans, other apps auto checking for updates, etc.) and my Captivate file is huge. The file size is166MB, 497 slides; I know… it is enormous. Everyday I delete unused objects in the Library trying to stay as lean as possible. Even before this file was larger than 90MB I noticed serious response issues when opening and saving the file. Often during a save Captivate would hang and go into a “not responding” status and I’d end up being forced to use Task Manager to end the job. Considering my system sizes provided above, is my file size just too large? Are there limits to what one should expect from Captivate? Do I need additional memory to work with Captivate files of this size or even larger?

Many weeks ago, as this file kept growing in size, I split it into 4 separate files using buttons to launch the subsequent files. This reduced my file sizes, of course, but presented a new issue. When launching the subsequent files (using full screen –fs.htm) additional windows remain open that confuse the user. I don’t know how to dynamically close these windows to eliminate the confusion when the subsequent files are launched. Therefore I combined the 4 files back into 1 and it was huge once again. Other than the sluggish behavior on opening and saves things were fine for a couple of weeks but yesterday during my afternoon save the file became corrupted and I lost several hours worth of work. I unistalled Captivate then reinstalled thinking it may have been a software issue but it’s the file. I can open it but several features no longer work. For example I am unable to insert buttons or captions and existing captions will not open for editing. Some things still work like I can add a highlight box. Of course, if I add something it will no longer save without hanging then “not responding” and my work is hosed.

Today I will begin the tedious task of trying to piece things back together from older saved copies but am now gun-shy. Am I correct that it is probably the file size versus hardware capacities as well as Outlook or other applications running and unknown network activity that may conflict with Captivate? Or is there something else I need to consider?

Thanks for any words of wisdom.

Ken Metcalf