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rafaelm28
rafaelm28
Participant
September 10, 2018
Answered

Importing PowerPoint Templates and saving as Master Slides in Captivate 2019

  • September 10, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 2495 views

Hi! I'm very new to Captivate and would like to know if I can import my pptx template into Captivate 2019 as Master Slides and then save for future projects?

Raf

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Lilybiri

    Welcome to the Captivate world, Raf.

    I'll try to explain why the answer is negative and offer you a link to a blog post as well. Templates in PPT (which is a presentation, not an eLearning tool) have a lot less functionality than the THEMES in Captivate. Master slides in Captivate are indeed included in a theme, but that is only one component. Master slides in Captivate can contain interactive objects with attached actions. Some master slides are needed in any Captivate theme: that is the case for the Blank master slide (which is used for software simulations and PPT import - a workflow you better never use), and 5 master slides with InBuilt functionality for the quizzes. Look at the Blank theme (if you are on CP2017 or earlier) which has only that set of master slides.

    Moreover if you ever want to create a responsive project in Captivate you need a responsive theme. PPT is NOT responsive at alll.

    Create your themes from scratch in Captivate, at least you'll have a lot more functionality. Have a look at this blog post:

    What's in a Theme - a Template? - Captivate blog

    Challenges for Starters - Captivate blog

    1 reply

    Lilybiri
    LilybiriCorrect answer
    Legend
    September 10, 2018

    Welcome to the Captivate world, Raf.

    I'll try to explain why the answer is negative and offer you a link to a blog post as well. Templates in PPT (which is a presentation, not an eLearning tool) have a lot less functionality than the THEMES in Captivate. Master slides in Captivate are indeed included in a theme, but that is only one component. Master slides in Captivate can contain interactive objects with attached actions. Some master slides are needed in any Captivate theme: that is the case for the Blank master slide (which is used for software simulations and PPT import - a workflow you better never use), and 5 master slides with InBuilt functionality for the quizzes. Look at the Blank theme (if you are on CP2017 or earlier) which has only that set of master slides.

    Moreover if you ever want to create a responsive project in Captivate you need a responsive theme. PPT is NOT responsive at alll.

    Create your themes from scratch in Captivate, at least you'll have a lot more functionality. Have a look at this blog post:

    What's in a Theme - a Template? - Captivate blog

    Challenges for Starters - Captivate blog

    rafaelm28
    rafaelm28Author
    Participant
    September 10, 2018

    outstanding and detail answer!!! Thank you.

    can you elaborate on why not to follow import PowerPoint workflow?

    cheers!!!

    Lilybiri
    Lilybiri
    Legend
    September 10, 2018

    Basically the PPT slides would be converted to 'movie' slides which mimick the animation behavior of the PPT as closely as possible. However, since you will not have timelines for the individual objects, you will not be able to do a lot with those slides.

    As I wrote: to me a presentation tool like Powerpoint is very different from an eLearning tool like Captivate. A presentation is meant to be 'presented' by a presentator, and helps to emphasize his presentation, at least if it is a good presentation (which is rarely the case).

    An eLearning authoring tool is meant to create an eLearning course, which will be 'consumed' by learners in an individual and personalized way. To me that is such a different goal.

    Because I am a big Captivate fan, I will use Captivate for presentations, because it has everything I need for a presentation and it will be much easier for me to convert it later on to self-controlled presentation to offer to the attendees. That is much more than 'handouts', because it will have some of the interactivity and control that you'll find in a good eLearning course.  You could have a look at some of my published presentations. Just fear that this would take time to be approved (links), so will post them in  another answer.

    Sorry, forgot that you posted directly in the forums, not in the portal. Here I am whitelisted. Some examples of presentations I gave with a Captivate file, but then converted to a self-controlled published movie:

    Captivate's Timeline

    Shared Actions

    If you want to create good eLearning and need to start from a PPT, please unzip the PPT (it is ireally a zipped folder). Take out all the assets and import them in the Library of a new Captivate project (responsive or not). Create the course from scratch, eventually by customizing first a theme, and using the assets in the Library. It may look to be more work, but it will prevent a lot of frustrations later on.

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