File size increasing after deletions

Forum|Forum|17 years ago
November 6, 2008
3 replies
709 views

I have been working on a file to reduce its size in and effort to increase the playback quality for the end user. The original .cp file size was 95 MB (.htm 4.97 KB, .swf 10.3 MB.) After removing all of the slides with hidden typing and replacing them without, converting all bitmaps to gifs, merging about half of the new gifs into the background, and clearing out all unused objects out of the library, the .cp file increased to 95.9 MB (.htm 4.97 KB, .swf 10.9 MB.) This was the first increase.

With the file size increasing rather than decreasing, the next logical step was to split the Captivate file into two. As there was branching in the CBT, this wasn't difficult. However, after splitting the .cp in two, the file sizes became:
First- 83.3 MB (.htm 5.05 KB, .swf 13.9 MB) Notice the .swf size on the split file is larger than the original file!
Second-30.7 MB (.htm 5.07 KB, .swf 4.45 MB)

The files have been Saved, Saved As, Closed, and Reopened. Nothing seems to be decreasing this file and quite frankly, I am at a loss. Any help would be fantastic!
Thanks.

Editing

This topic has been closed for replies.

J

jbradley88

Participating Frequently

Wow, that really is strange. I've never seen file sizes get substantially bigger after splitting, purging unused items AND doing a clean import.

Aside from the overhead of adding the Captivate runtime code to each file, the only reason separate files should be larger than the original is if you're sharing Library items that need to be duplicated in both projects.

Perhaps something in the first half of your project has gotten corrupted somehow and it's reporting an increasingly incorrect size each time it's published?

The only way I can think of to test that is to use the rule of halves to locate the bad object/slide.

Import half the suspect slides into a blank project and publish. If the file size is ok, the problem is in the other half of the slides. Import half of *those* into a blank project, and so on until you get the "bad" section down to a number you're willing to recreate from scratch.

Sorry I can't offer a better answer, but your problem seems fairly unique. Maybe someone else has a suggestion?

Best of luck,
John

Captiv8r

Legend

Hi all

In addition to what John said, there actually is a subtle difference between creating a new project and importing slides as opposed to creating a new project, then copying and pasting slides. Normally if you import slides you are also bringing along God knows what into the new project, whereas if you copy and paste, you end up with a cleaner result.

Cheers... Rick

C

cjgoldenAuthor

Participant

Hi Rick.

Actually, I don't care for the import feature when dealing with a large amount of slides (and all the objects contained within them.) In this case, I did a fresh project and cut and pasted only the slides that I needed. I did this to specifically avoid bringing over any library objects that weren't needed. Unfortunately, as you can see, it didn't help in this case. I've never encountered a problem like this with Captivate especially after so many measures have been taken to reduce the file size. Since posting this thread, I have even reduced the audio quality, jpg quality, and unchecked the 508 compliance in the preferences. All had no impact on the file size.

I'll keep working on it and definitely post a solution should I be fortunate enough to find one!

Thanks,
Jeannie

C

cjgoldenAuthor

Participant

John,

Thank you so much for the reply. I did Save As multiple times (renaming each version) and each time going in and verifying the library remained as streamlined as possible. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to help. Also, I tried splitting the original into two separate files by creating two blank projects and importing only the slides I needed into each. This too, didn't help. The larger of the two, after the split, actually created a larger swf file than the original that had everything! I have had my fair share of experience with Captivate's quirks and the work-arounds for them but this one certainly has me stumped!

Again, thank you for sharing your ideas.

Sincerely,
Jeannie

J

jbradley88

Participating Frequently

Hello and welcome to the Captivate forums!

When you say the files have been Saved As, did you do a Save As twice in a row?

For whatever reason, items deleted from library do not seem to actually get purged from the file until you do two consecutive Save As actions.

I increment a number or letter at the end of the file name with each Save As to make sure it's a unique file and it never fails to reduce the file size.

if that doesn't work for you, perhaps try creating a new blank project at the same dimensions as your original and importing all the slides from the old project. That seems to be the other way to force Captivate to let go of old baggage.

Regards,
John

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