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R
rtbtat
Known Participant
August 27, 2007
Answered

Image Background - Full Screen?

  • August 27, 2007
  • 2 replies
  • 3788 views
Hi:

I imported a bitmap image into a Captivate 2 project that we want to use as our background. We think that looks much better than a plain old color. Even though the image looks great, it's only taking up about 70% of the screen size. I've desperately tried to find some setting to make our bitmap take up the entire screen as background, but cannot find that setting. There must be a way to do this.

Thanks,
Robert
      This topic has been closed for replies.
      Correct answer Captiv8r
      Hi Rick:

      Thanks for joining the discussion and explaining I wasn't seeing things on the Timeline.

      OK, obviously I'm thoroughly confused so I think we need to start from the beginning. I have a .bmp file that we want to make our background for the 8-10 slides we will be using for an overview of a new software application at our agency. Once it's the background for the entire slide, we plan on adding text to each slide. Please give me the steps I must follow to make the .bmp file the background [filling up the entire slide].

      Why is this so difficult? You would think this would be a common request for Captivate users.

      Thanks,
      Robert


      Hi Robert

      First, I'll try to answer your question. You asked:
      Why is this so difficult? You would think this would be a common request for Captivate users.

      Of course, I have no clue as to your background and experience level with other applications, so I can't make any assumptions. But it could be that you simply aren't comfortable yet with applications such as Captivate. You may wish to consider attending some formal Captivate training? (LOL, I should point out that I'm more than a bit biased that way, as I'm an Adobe Certified Captivate Instructor. )

      Okay, now for the steps.

      1. Insert your .BMP file on the first slide where you want it. Do this by clicking Insert > Image... and browsing to the image.
      2. Drag the image to one of the corners of your project. It doesn't matter which corner, just place it in a corner.
      3. The image should have sizing handles around it. Little squares that you may click and drag to adjust the size. Opposite the corner where you dragged the image, click the sizing handle and drag it so the image now covers the entire "stage" area of Captivate. (The stage area is where the image was placed when you inserted it. It's where you make all the edits to your Captivate project.)
      4. After you have covered the stage, right-click the image and select "Merge into Background". You'll receive a rather ominous and catastrophic warning dialog advising that it cannot be undone. But disregard it and click Yes.

      At this point, the image is in your project and you have configured it to be the background for this slide. Now let's outline how to configure the other slides to use this image.

      First, note the slide number where you merged the image into the background of the slide.

      1. In the Film Strip, select all the slides you wish to use the same background.
      2. Right click the selected slides and click Properties... on the context menu.
      3. Click the Change Background image... button on the Slide Properties dialog.
      4. In the Backgrounds section, select "Slide X Background". (X represents the slide you noted earlier, where you merged the image into the background)
      5. Click OK to dismiss the "Select Image from Library" dialog.
      6. Click OK to dismiss the "Slide Properties" dialog.

      Give that a go and see if it helps any. Hopefully it will!

      Cheers... Rick

      2 replies

      L
      LizAN-S
      Participant
      February 7, 2023

      When applyingh an image for the background, there appears to still be no way to set an image to "Fill slide" or "Fill screen" as you wold expect. Only "best fit" which leaves space at the sides/edges if the image is not the exect size and ratio of the slide. Bizarre.

      Lilybiri
      Lilybiri
      Legend
      February 7, 2023

      A thread dated 2007?

      Do you really want to distort an image to fill the background? Which type of image do you use, probably bitmap. If it hasn't the same W/H ratio as the project, filling would mean a distortion. Just make the image bigger than the slide size so that it fills width and height without a distortion.

      CatBandit
      CatBandit
      Inspiring
      August 27, 2007
      Hi Robert,

      Find the image on your timeline and double-click it to open its Properties. On the "Location and Size" tab, set the location at "0, 0" and the size to the size of your project. That should stretch the image to fill the entire background. Then just right-click the image and select "Merge" (image into background).

      As an alternative, each image has its own "handles" which can be grabbed by your mouse and stretched ... in other words, you can do everything described above by using the mouse to drag and stretch the resizing handles for the image.

      You may have issues with warpage of the image - especially if the act of making it fit the stage of your Captivate project ends up changing the aspect ratio of the image. You will have to check that as a separate issue and I'd recommend doing all this on a new project file (use File > Save As).

      Good luck Robert!
      R
      rtbtatAuthor
      Known Participant
      August 28, 2007
      Hi Larry:

      Two questions.

      1. Is there any difference between changing the settings manually you described versus using the mouse to resize the image. In other words, will the first option retain the aspect ratios?
      2. Why does Adobe make something like this so difficult? Why isn't there a simple option to use an image as the background?

      Thanks for taking the time to answer my question.
      Robert
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