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Chesterfield55
Known Participant
June 17, 2008
Question

Help: Slow Performance in Captivate 2

  • June 17, 2008
  • 6 replies
  • 1269 views
I have a new computer running XP Pro SP3 with a fast processor and 4GB memory.

I am editing a CP movie with 70 slides.

When moving from slide to slide, it takes 3-5 seconds for the selected slide to appear. During this time, Task Manager says CP is sucking up 50-70% of CPU.

While ediiting a slide, selecting and editing any object has similar results: CP goes away for several seconds during which time no editing is possible.

As an experiment, I created a new movie then imported the old movie into it. Same result: sluggish operation.

Any suggestions?


TIA!
    This topic has been closed for replies.

    6 replies

    N
    Newsgroup_User
    Inspiring
    June 18, 2008
    > Breaking news: What seems to be unique about this movie is that many of
    > the
    > slides include a fairly large (600x400px) transparent caption on the top
    > level.
    >
    > I can move between slides WITHOUT these captions almost instantly. Moving
    > to a
    > slide WITH one of these captions (in the Edit tab) incurs a 5-8 second
    > delay
    > while CP is busy doing something(?).
    >

    Transparency like this can tax some systems. I ran into a similar problem
    years ago authoring in an application that has transparent Flash movies and
    transparent png files on the same screen. Only slowed down one machine.
    Updating the graphic card drivers fixed it. You can test for this by dialing
    down graphic hardware acceleration.

    Steve


    --
    http://twitter.com/Stevehoward999

    Adobe Community Expert: eLearning, Mobile and Devices
    European eLearning Summit - EeLS
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    Captiv8r
    Captiv8r
    Legend
    June 18, 2008
    Hi again Dave

    A thought occurs here. If you hide the object in the Timeline so it isn't visible in the editor, does that improve performance?

    Cheers... Rick
    C
    Chesterfield55Author
    Known Participant
    June 19, 2008
    EUREKA!

    The issue is that captions with transparent backround brings the CP2 IDE to its knees.

    Give the captions a solid background and -- SHAZAMM! -- it takes off.

    Lesson learned: do ALL your editing with solid captions. As one of the LAST editing steps, set ALL the captions to transparent.
    C
    Chesterfield55Author
    Known Participant
    June 18, 2008
    Breaking news: What seems to be unique about this movie is that many of the slides include a fairly large (600x400px) transparent caption on the top level.

    I can move between slides WITHOUT these captions almost instantly. Moving to a slide WITH one of these captions (in the Edit tab) incurs a 5-8 second delay while CP is busy doing something(?).

    In all my other movies (the ones that work OK) the caption is about 50x100px.
    J
    jojolina
    Inspiring
    June 18, 2008
    Hi again Dave

    My last suggestion would be to get a power transformer and double the voltage to your machine. that way it should work twice as fast (ROTFL, my name is not Dizzy, but the advice fits). In all seriousness, try the following even though you have already done the import to blank project:
    1 Open your "heavy" file
    2 Open a new instance of Captivate and create a blank project same screen size as your other file
    3 Select ALL the slides in your "heavy" file and copy
    4 Select the blank file and paste
    5 Save the blank file and compare sizes

    Another thing that has bugged me in the past is trying to work with a program like Outlook open. The thing is a memory hog, so I try to stick to as clean a desktop as possible nowadays and seems to be fine.

    Good luck and please let us know if this worked or even if you found another solution.
    J
    jojolina
    Inspiring
    June 17, 2008
    Hi guys (Rick, long time since I butt in, so please accept my apologies)

    Dave, have you tried a reboot?? I am assuming that your cp file size is OK as you imported into a blank project already, thus file bloat is out of the question.
    C
    Chesterfield55Author
    Known Participant
    June 17, 2008
    Yes, reboot has no effect. Something inside the CP file (89MB) seems to be the culprit. Other files with more slides behave normally.
    C
    Chesterfield55Author
    Known Participant
    June 17, 2008
    And I almost forgot: a <20 sec audio track for many slides.
    A
    Anonymous
    June 17, 2008
    Please try and reload your operating system
    C
    Chesterfield55Author
    Known Participant
    June 17, 2008
    With all due respect, I am looking for a more considered suggestion. Thanks anyway!
    Captiv8r
    Captiv8r
    Legend
    June 17, 2008
    Hi there Dave

    Yeah, I thought that suggestion was a bit on the extreme side myself.

    Questions here. You said 70 slides. That seems respectable, but what's going on with the slides? Heavy on Animations, Zoom areas, Quizzing anything like that? What are the dimensions from a pixel perspective?

    Cheers... Rick
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