Huge captivate file sizes

Forum|Forum|18 years ago
September 19, 2007
12 replies
1863 views

I have been using Captivate to imbed an audio recording of a presentation into the slides for said presentation. The audio is in the form of one large mp3 file. When adding the audio, I select the option to distribute over many files, and line up all the slides to the correct part of the audio. If i need to edit the slide times or audio (this happens frequently because captivate seems to be rather buggy when splitting up the single audio track into one for each slide) the resulting Captivate Project file rockets in file size. I believe this is because it is keeping a copy of all audio used in Captivate, ie an old and new copy of the whole mp3 stream, before and after editting.

If this happens a few times the file size grows accordingly, and for a 50min presentation i'm looking at project files of 1.3GB. These are clearly pushing my (powerfull dual core, 2GB RAM) desktop to the limit. I have tried removing all unsed items from the library but this makes no difference to the size of the projects.

To illustrate the problem to a friend I deleted EVERYTHING from the library, added 1 new blank slide and deleted all the other slides. The resulting project looked akin to a brand new blank one. Upon saving (as a new cp file) the project was infact 1.16GB in size. Eh?

Is there some way of deleting files from captivate projects other than the library?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer luke7

Yes, I am using captivate 3.0 which is where I encountered the problem. I tried the "save as, save as" technique which increased the file size marginally. The "new presentation, copy paste" technique has worked for me - 1.3GB -> 0.3GB.

Just open up 2 instances of captivate, with one open up the offending large project and with the other open up a new blank project. Then copy and paste all the slides from one inot the other. you may have to delete the first blank slide that was already in the blank project. Then save the new project and smile as the file size plummets!

S

Sean_in_ATL

Participant

What an absolutely heinous problem this file size issue bug has become for so many people! I'm now in the club - new Captivate user with version 3.0, and could not understand why my .cp file with 2 freakin slides was 35MB - with all unused library files deleted, and each slide background only 320K. Based on the advice in the thread, I created a new blank project and copy/pasted the 2 slides and like magic, my .cp is now 695K.

You read that right - from 35MB to 695KB - over 500% smaller. WTF? Shame on Adobe - bug report filed!

A

Anonymous

I eliminated all of the unused objects in the library, then did "save as" and no change in file size.

I then tried the copy and paste method...while it did significantly reduce my file size, it also changed every single click box action to "continue" instead of what it had been. How do you keep this from happening??? There are too many click boxes to go back and change them all back!

A

Anonymous

Wow, I just reduced my .CP file from 257 to 82KB using the copy and paste method. Suggests to me the software is not policing itself too well.
Also not sure why audio I record at 22KHz is changed to 44.1 by Captivate. for web narration, seems lie overkill.

Looks to me like there are also multiple versions of backgrounds in the library. I have imported several diff v ersions of Powerpoint slides and it looks like maybe the old ones are not discarded. Have to check that out. Maybe can skinny down the file a bit more.

Thanks for the tip.

R

Rothrock

Inspiring

docedoc - maybe that is it, I don't know. But I really like dchilder's explanation best! :)

Yeah I don't know and for the most part I don't care. I just leave them alone and they seem to take care of themselves eventually. I'll try and make sure I don't move or rename until I've confirmed that new size.

Thanks everybody!

D

docedoc

Known Participant

Rothrock,

I've noticed that when I exit Captivate 2, saving on exit, on my older laptop there is a significant delay prior to the file being updated. One to three minutes later the directory containing the .cp file updates. The original file disappears and then reappears at a new size. During the lag my disk drive is churning, suggesting that Captivate is running behind the scenes, compacting the .cp file or the like.

I've wondered if some of the comments about a disappearing .cp file and the like have to do with renaming or moving the original during this lag. At the least, slimming the .cp file may not show resuts immediately.

Perhaps this is the behind the scenes explanation of Save As twice? Reopening the original during the lag may prevent Captivate from finishing. If you save as repeatedly then you'll eventually get distracted and wait long enough?

Doc

D

dchilder

Inspiring

Must be the observer effect... is it a particle, or is it a wave? Just pretend not to look at the project file size and maybe that'll fix the problem. :)

R

Rothrock

Inspiring

Hi totally new to Captivate and I'm working with 2 on Windows XP. I'm editing some files created by another team far, far away. I sort of ran into this problem yesterday, but didn't have time to sort it all out.

I was breaking up files – deleting some slides and then their assets – removing the occasional "incidental" music, etc. I save the file and then went out to look at the cp size. They started at around 40 to 50 megs and when I went out to check them they were still the same size. I tried refreshing the window, no change.

So I thought of all the other Adobe products I know and tried the Save as tricks (both over the top and new name). Again, nothing. So I thought I would deal with it later because I was in a hurry – I saw the export/import option in the menu, but I'm new enough to Captivate that I wanted to research it before I tried it.

So I went about my work kept editing the files. When I went back to open a different one several minutes later – TADA – they all had new sizes. It really was the strangest thing. It seems that as long as I was looking at it I wasn't going to get the updated size, but then…well it must be the watched pot syndrome.

In the end most of these files where cut down to 10 to 20 Megs. Crazy.

S

SamlRaney

Participant

Shoot ... I just upgraded from 2.0 to 3.0 hoping to eliminate the cp file size issue. I can't believe that Adobe didn't fix this issue when they released 3.0. Unreal.

S

snoman_stl

Known Participant

I create a standalone exe from the "Bloated" 140MB cp project file and the resulting exe file size was 7.4MB. After cutting an pasting the captivate slides my captivate file was 40MB and the resulting published exe was 7.2. The files open quicker in editing them but just a small improvement in published file size.

L

luke7AuthorCorrect answer

Participant

Yes, I am using captivate 3.0 which is where I encountered the problem. I tried the "save as, save as" technique which increased the file size marginally. The "new presentation, copy paste" technique has worked for me - 1.3GB -> 0.3GB.

Just open up 2 instances of captivate, with one open up the offending large project and with the other open up a new blank project. Then copy and paste all the slides from one inot the other. you may have to delete the first blank slide that was already in the blank project. Then save the new project and smile as the file size plummets!

S

snoman_stl

Known Participant

Does anyone know if the published file is any larger of the captivate file is bloated? ie does the "extra" baggage in the captivate file cause the output to be any larger?

Captiv8r

Legend

Hi snoman_stl

Everything I've read here in the forums suggests it is an issue only with the source .CP file. The resulting .SWF is not affected as far as I know.

Cheers... Rick