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Brett_Conlon
Inspiring
March 21, 2017
Question

Long delay loading end-slides of 500+MB exe published project

  • March 21, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 710 views

Hi,

Is it a common thing that the further towards the end of a large exe published project the longer it takes for a slide to load?

My project so far is over 500MB (380+ slides). At the beginning of the project I have a HOME screen with buttons to various places in the project. If I click on the button to slide 12 it loads instantly but when I click on the Glossary button (slide 370) it takes around 40 seconds before it loads (which is waaaay annoying). If I then go back to HOME and then back to the Glossary slide again it loads pretty instantaneously. Other HOME buttons that take me to slides at the end of the project then also load quickly. It's just that initial loading of the back slides that takes its time.

I'm assuming that when the project is first opened (which takes maybe 20+ seconds to load) only a portion of the project is expanded, ready for access, then the remainder of the project is being uncompressed when I head to the back slides. Does this sound about right?

Are there any settings for this type of thing?

Strangely, about 3 builds ago, the back-slides-loading-slowly delay didn't happen at all. I thought I had miraculously changed something and fixed it, without knowing it, but may last few builds have gone back to doing the long delay.

I also tried publishing as HTML/SWF and there was no delay accessing the end-slides. I assume that's because this format accesses the resources completely differently?

Your feedback would be most appreciated!

Regards,

Brett

ps. I'm using Captivate 9

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    P
    petern33480613
    Inspiring
    March 23, 2017

    Brett,

    This is not a solution, but it is a workaround that I have used in the past.

    Instead of ordering your slides in sequence, change the order so that the slides that will probably be used first are at the beginning.

    In the example below the Topic C Slide 1 was originally one of the last slides in the project, and could take a long to time to load.

    By moving the slide to the front of the project it will take less time to load, and while the user is reading it the rest of the project will be loading in the background.

    Original sequence

    New sequence

    You will have to use something like the Jump To Slide commands to ensure your navigation works.

    I gave up using huge amounts of slides, and now just use small connected projects.

    Good luck

    Peter.

    B
    Brett_ConlonAuthor
    Inspiring
    March 23, 2017

    Hi Peter,

    Great suggestion! I'll need to look for the sweet spot in my project where some of my main navigation slides could sit that would help to load or semi-load parts of the back of the project.

    I could even perhaps have the fist slide of the project say "Welcome, please wait while loading" then that takes them to the HOME slide (which is repositioned in the middle or towards the end of the project and would be delayed in loading) which loads the rest of the project. The down-side of that is they would have the delay every time the project is loaded, instead of only if they were to go to end-slides.

    Anyway, I have a number of options to work with. Hopefully in a future Captivate update this gets resolved and all of this will be moot.

    Cheers,

    Brett

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 21, 2017

    Yes this is a known issue if your project extends too far (as yours does).

    Ideally you should break your project up into smaller modules if you want better performance.

    B
    Brett_ConlonAuthor
    Inspiring
    March 21, 2017

    Sad, but thanks Rod!

    I'll have to rethink it through. I was hoping to deliver a single file to my students, rather than a folder of multiple files.

    BTW, I meant to add that when first accessing the delaying end-slides, the animations and transitions on the destination slide typically don't work properly, making the loaded slide look all mongy. If I go out and come back in, the animations then work correctly.

    This is certainly a motivator to break it up!

    If I was to break it up, would I build a "Start Here" type exe file, then have the HOME page (inside the Start Here file) reference separate exe files for the different modules? Do they have to be in the same root level or can you store them inside a folder (eg. "Modules"). Can the links between the modules get easily broken when moving the project to other devices?

    Cheers,

    Brett

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 21, 2017

    How are you planning to deliver this content?

    If you are ever intending to deliver this via an LMS you should be thinking of either HTM/SWF or HTML5 as the output and set each module to report via the SCORM standard.  Then you need to either set all the modules up in the LMS as separate learning objects that belong to some type of grouping, or else bundle them all together using the Adobe SCORM Packager tool that comes with Captivate.

    If you're NOT going to use an LMS, but WILL be delivering from a website, don't use EXE.

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